A Census that Mirrors America Interim Report (1993) / Chapter Skim
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3 RESPONSE AND COVERAGE
3 RESPONSE AND COVERAGE
Pages 41-67
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From page 41... ...
The 1990 census attempted to universally apply a standard, and standardized, approach, but the outcome was a differential undercount. Furthermore, standardization necessarily broke down in many areas, particularly those in which response to the mail questionnaire was low, as enumerators with only brief training were sent out and ultimately empowered to make last-ditch enumerations, using procedures known as last resort and closeout that permitted contacting persons who were not residents of the household.
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From page 42... ...
In many cases, however, what has been formulated is more a topic than a research project; what is needed is development with the goal of evaluation -- experimental evaluation where possible -- and cost estimation. Our review of the research projects addressing response and related coverage issues suggests that the response rate improvement research program has yielded strategies that promise to help control costs in 2000, but that research should now focus on techniques that have potential to reduce the differential undercount.
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From page 43... ...
We recommend planning and limited experimentation now so that the most promising methods for reducing the differential undercount can, where feasible, be given operational trials and experimental and cost evaluation in the 1995 census test. Narrowing the research program to methods that may reduce the differential undercount is important given the limitations of resources and time, and it can be justified by the more advanced state of research on improving mail response rates.
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From page 44... ...
Also, the magnitude of these treatment effects in the environment of an actual census year is unknown. Nevertheless, the strength of the experimental findings suggests that these features are likely to have a significant positive effect on response rates in the next decennial census.
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From page 45... ...
A second concern about experiments using the telephone is that because residence rules are complex, answers to the self-administered mall questionnaire (which displays the residence rules) may differ from answers to the version of the questionnaire used in computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)
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From page 46... ...
Such interactions could compromise projections of response rates for the 2000 census. The feature of most concern in this respect is the operational form of the residence rules, which can affect the entire design of the questionnaire (see discussion below)
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From page 47... ...
Both the targeting model and the tool kit represent large development efforts, and Me tool kit encompasses many potential research and evaluation projects. Presumably, the model and tool kit will be developed together, because one need only target barriers for which one has a potential solution in the tool kit.
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From page 48... ...
The Census Bureau is currently engaged in research that attempts to identify which demographic and housing characteristics -- such as racial composition, size of household, and tenure-m~ght be valuable In predicting which areas are particularly at risk for low mall response rates, high undercount rates, or high coverage error rates. The targeting model and tool kit will require flexible implementation because the targeting model will not be based on current data, and the tool kit should be responsive to actual field conditions.
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From page 49... ...
concluded that the Census Bureau's 1990 outreach and promotion program achieved many of its goals. The Advertising Council's mass media campaign received wide exposure, and it achieved the third highest media presence around census day in the six media markets where the coverage was monitored.
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From page 50... ...
It appears that the primary function of this office is to coordinate He media campaign with the Advertising Council and to oversee venous national outreach programs conducted to promote the upcoming census. The Census Bureau has a permanent Public Information Office, but it is not directly involved in decennial census promotion.)
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From page 51... ...
Because the Census Bureau already has a permanent Public Information Office, we suggest that We Census Bureau consider expanding the mission of this office to include responsibility for the decennial census outreach and promotion program. Although the establishment of a permanent decennial census outreach and promotion office WOUlf]
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From page 52... ...
Overall responsibility for this program should be vested in a central office responsible for all decennial census outreach and promotion (see Recommendation 3.3 above3; however, the program should continue to be implemented through the regional field offices. The CAPP staff assigned to the regional offices would be responsible for implementing customized local outreach programs.
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From page 53... ...
The local outreach component of the research and development program would focus on developing and evaluating the customized local outreach programs described above. The 1995 census test offers an excellent opportunity to evaluate alternative outreach and promotion strategies.
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From page 54... ...
Because the Advertising Council depends on volunteer labor, we are concerned that its pro bono campaign may not include the same level of media research that large commercial advertisers have found beneficial. For example, the leading advertising agencies evaluate commercials by using sophisticated technology that continuously measures a focus group's response to a proposed commercial message.
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From page 55... ...
We encourage the Census Bureau to undertake a literature review, develop a system for use in the 1995 census test or later dress rehearsals, and conduct an evaluation that includes the use of focus groups to assess people's reactions. Recommendation 3.7: The Census Bureau should investigate developing a menu-dnven touchtone call routing system for the 2000 census that gives callers to He Census Bureau's toll-free help line quicker access to the specific assistance they want.
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From page 56... ...
One important consideration in assessing costs and benefits is the expense of following up nonrespondents, particularly in areas with low primary response rates. Some special methods, though intensive and costly, may have the potential to reduce the differential undercount and may do so partly by improving primary response rates in historically low response areas, thus reducing the workload and costs associated with nomesponse follow-up operations.
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From page 57... ...
Irregular and Complex Household Arrangements 57 The first source of enumeration difficulties involves the irregular and complex household arrangements that typify poor minority and immigrant communities. Households defined as irregular or complex contain unrelated individuals, people who are mobile or present for no other reason than to share the burden of the rent, and multiple nuclear families.
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From page 58... ...
Again, the residence rules on the census forms confuse even the willing participant -- resulting in undercounts (the Haitian examples and overcounts (the Chinese examples. Irregular and complex household structures are generally to be found wherever Here are high housing prices and a concentrated poor population (native or immigrant)
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From page 59... ...
These circumstances not only make it difficult to count individuals, it exacerbates Me difficulties that many of the native-born and immigrant poor face in applying Me residence rules. Are temporary household residents "members"?
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From page 60... ...
60 A Census That Mirrors America Distrust of Government Distrust of, or ambivalence toward, the government is another cause of undercounts. In the 29 communities surveyed, many members of the target populations believe they have little to gain in cooperating with the census and fear the possible consequences of yielding information -- particularly if they are among the large number of undocumented immigrants or participants in the underground economy.
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From page 61... ...
There is reason to believe that a continuous outreach, promotion, and enumeration operation in targeted areas will end up being cost-effec~ve in comparison with the start-and-stop approach that has been used. Developing local ties that work -- that is, that help to reduce the differential undercount by creating a participatory spins or simply by using the surveyor knowledge of local "ethno~raphers" -- is not an overnight operation.
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From page 62... ...
The Census Bureau should develop and implement pilot programs in conjunction with the 1995 census test in order to gather information about the potential costs and benefits of a large-scale local outreach program. Thor in ~ tentl~n~v to n.~silme that irregular households are the product of case studies suggests a ~ , _ _ _ ~ _ culturally specific notions of family, but the evidence from the surprising degree of uniformity in the residence practices of the nation's poor, whether immigrant or native-born.
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From page 63... ...
It would be foolhardy to hire people and provide them with insufficient training. But the investment would be well worth it if the program contributed to reducing the differential undercount -- particularly if it was tied to an ongoing organizational structure (which would not have to be reborn with every decennial census)
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From page 64... ...
pressure to solve this problem as long as resource flows to ethnic community organizations depend on Me accurate classification and counting of their members. We recognize that these are extremely difficult problems to solve, and we recommend, among other things, Hat the Census Bureau experiment with multiple check-off classification schemes in the 1995 census test.
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From page 65... ...
We emphasize that improving coverage of persons within households -- and reducing the contribution of within-household coverage to the differential undercount -- requires reducing response error, because it is household respondents who implement the residence rules as they fill out the census form or talk wig a Census Bureau enumerator. Areas with large minority and renter populations, homeless persons, and children in shared custody arrangements are examples of cases that present special problems in accurately applying the Census Bureau's residence rules.
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From page 66... ...
Information on the presence and size of mode effects on within-household coverage could also be important in correctly specifying the models used in mixed-mode coverage measurement methods, such as SuperCensus and CensusPlus. The experiments to improve within-household coverage with new forms of residence rules discussed above offer an opportunity to test a form for the 1995 census test, and the Census Bureau should take full advantage of this opportunity.
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From page 67... ...
Response and Coverage 67 the 1995 census test. The comparability of these forms should subsequently be evaluated on the basis of 1995 census test results.
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