Joint WSS and DC-AAPOR Seminar
Title: Diving into the U.S. Census Bureau Planning Database and ROAM Application: Tools for Survey and Census Planning
Date/Time: Wednesday, June 5, 2019, 12:30 – 2:00 PM (ET)
Speakers: Suzanne McArdle, Luke Larsen, and Kathleen Kephart, U.S. Census Bureau
Chair: Tom Mule, U.S. Census Bureau
Sponsors: Washington Statistical Society Chapter of the American Statistical Association and the Washington-Baltimore Chapter of the American Association of Public Opinion Research
Abstract:
The presenters will demonstrate how to use the Planning Database (PDB) and Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM), giving several examples of their capabilities.
The PDB is an easy-to-access dataset that is updated annually. It contains the greatest hits of American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. These include popular U.S. housing, demographic, socioeconomic, and operational statistics from the 2010 Decennial Census and the most recent ACS dataset. The PDB also contains the Low Response Score (LRS), which is a predicted mail return rate by block group and by census tract. New to the 2019 PDB are ACS 5-year internet access statistics and 5-year ACS self-response rates.
ROAM is an interactive mapping application, developed to make it easier to identify hard-to-survey areas and the socioeconomic and demographic profiles of those areas. It is based on a subset of PDB data at the census tract-level, including the LRS, poverty status, education level, race, Hispanic origin, and language spoken at home. A new version of ROAM will be released in Summer 2019.
Both of these products have many potential uses. Some examples include:
• Identifying geographic areas for special outreach and promotional efforts
• Examining expected completion rates at low levels of geography
• Linking with spatial map data to create thematic maps
• Generating reports, cross tabulations, and simple analyses
Website:
PDB: https://www.census.gov/research/data/planning_database/
ROAM: https://www.census.gov/roam
Location: Bureau of Labor Statistics Janet Norwood Conference Center, Room 3 To be placed on the seminar attendance list at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you need to e-mail your name, affiliation, and seminar name to wss_seminar@bls.gov (underscore after ‘wss’) by noon at least two days in advance of the seminar. Please bring a photo ID to the seminar. BLS is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE. Use the Red Line to Union Station. Parking in the area of BLS is available at Union Station. For parking information, see http://www.unionstationdc.com/parking. No validation is available from BLS for reduced parking rates.
WebEx: WebEx event address:
https://dol.webex.com/dol/j.php?MTID=m7d2372d3d006e0830737edf8bad78223
For audio:
Call-in toll-free number
(Verizon): 1-866-865-9536 (US)
Call-in number (Verizon): 1-517-966-0857
(US)
Attendee access code: 744 124 3
Note: Particular computer configurations might not be compatible with WebEx.
DC-AAPOR/WSS 2019 Summer Review-Preview Conference Call for Abstracts
The DC-AAPOR/WSS 2019 Summer Review-Preview Conference will take place on Friday, July 12th at the Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center in Washington, D.C. This conference aims to exhibit a sample of exemplary presentations (both talks and posters) taking place at this year’s national and international conferences (e.g., AAPOR, WAPOR, JSM, ESRA, FedCASIC, ITSEW). At this conference, attendees would have the opportunity to share their work locally, hear what others are doing, and connect with colleagues. We encourage colleagues and students from across a range of disciplines to submit an abstract from the aforementioned conferences. We especially encourage submissions from: survey research, statistics, political polling and data science as well as from other authors on their work presented elsewhere.
Please submit an abstract by June 7th using this link below:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9H7MBWY
Notifications of acceptance will be sent to authors by June 21st, 2019. Registration for the conference will open in mid- to late-June.
Introduction to Using Online Testing to Support Pre-Testing and Survey Methods Research in the Federal Government
Date/Time: Tuesday, June 25, 2019, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, Rooms 1 & 2
Free Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/using-online-testing-to-support-pre-testing-in-the-federal-government-tickets-62204163327
A recent innovation in federal agencies is the use of online testing methods to conduct questionnaire pretesting and evaluation, cognitive interviews, usability testing, and primary methodological research. Results from small-scale research conducted online can provide evidence to support changes to survey questionnaires and data collection procedures before they are implemented in the field while reducing the costs and staff time needed to conduct the research and improving data quality compared to other data collection methods.
This seminar offers an introduction to conducting online testing within the federal system. The presenters, researchers from federal agencies including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and US Census Bureau, will provide a foundation for thinking about whether online testing methods are appropriate for your project, guidance on how to use online testing methods to supplement and complement in-lab research, and case studies from our experiences using several platforms. The seminar will also provide practical considerations for using these platforms at your own agency, including the use of contracting tools and services.
While this event is free, registration is required to be placed on the seminar attendance list at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Please bring a photo ID to the seminar.