1. Deborah H. Griffin, U.S. Census Bureau
Improving Operational Efficiencies and Survey Management of the American Community Survey in the United States
Presented at the conference of the European Survey Research Association in Ljubljana, Slovenia
July 2013
Deborah H. Griffin, U.S. Census Bureau

2. Outline Motivation for Change Census Bureau Initiatives
Background on the American Community Survey
Improving ACS Operational Efficiencies
Improving Survey Management in the ACS

3. Motivation for Change
Increasing costs and challenges of surveying the population
Availability of paradata and other auxiliary data sources
Need to reduce respondent burden

4. Motivation for Change
Is there a solution that could leverage frame data, paradata, and auxiliary data to reduce costs and burden while maintaining quality?

5. Census Bureau Initiatives
Contact History Instrument (CHI)
Unified Tracking System
Multimode Operational Control System
Adaptive Design
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6. The American Community Survey
Primary source of detailed demographic, social, economic, and housing data for large and small communities across the United States and Puerto Rico
Continuous data collection broken into monthly samples that use four modes of data collection
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7. The American Community Survey Data Collection
Sample Panel
Calendar Month
Mar 2013
April 2013
May 2013
Jan 2013
Feb 2013
Internet/Mail
In-person
Telephone
In-person
Telephone
In-person
Telephone 7 7

8. Improving ACS Operational Efficiencies Building a New Control System
ACS Control System tracks and controls each monthly sample through all modes of data collection
ACS will provide an important foundation for the creation of an enterprise system
Critical transition

9. Incorporating Adaptive Design Methods Messaging
Tailored messaging in initial contact letters and other mail materials
2010 Census targeted advertising campaign demonstrated the potential of tailored messaging in the ACS (Baumgardner, 2012)

10. Incorporating Adaptive Design Methods Messaging
Source: Baumgardner, 2012

11. Incorporating Adaptive Design Methods Initial mode assignment
Assigning each sample address to the initial mode that is most likely to result in a response
Improving operational efficiencies by using auxiliary information to improve assignments and provide assistance

12. Incorporating Adaptive Design Methods Switching and Stopping Rules
Use of full contact history paradata and other auxiliary information to predict response propensity
Cost, quality, and burden trade-offs
Reducing burden and costs in telephone follow up (Griffin and Hughes, 2013)

13. Incorporating Adaptive Design Methods Switching and Stopping Rules
Source: Griffin and Hughes, 2013

14. Incorporating Adaptive Design Methods Switching and Stopping Rules
Source: Griffin, forthcoming

15. Improving Survey Management Unified Tracking System
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Unified Tracking System reports, 2013

16. Improving Survey Management Baselines
Documenting quality, burden and cost baselines
Reviewing results to identify geographic and management areas with examples of operational inefficiencies or quality concerns
Quality metrics must go beyond response rates

17. Conclusions
ACS is changing the way it collects data to reduce survey costs
ACS is prioritizing research to reduce respondent burden
Research is on-going to develop best tools to balance costs, quality and burden
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18. Contact Information
Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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