[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 75 (Thursday, April 20, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18607-18608]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-07951]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; American Community
Survey Methods Panel Tests, 2017 Mail Design Test
The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. chapter 35).
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: American Community Survey Methods Panel Tests, 2017 Mail
Design Test.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0936.
Form Number(s): ACS-1, ACS CATI, ACS CAPI, ACS Internet.
Type of Request: Non-substantive Change Request.
Number of Respondents: 288,000.
Average Hours per Response: 40 minutes.
Burden Hours: No additional burden hours are requested under this
non-substantive change request.
Needs and Uses: The American Community Survey (ACS) collects
detailed socioeconomic data from about 3.5 million housing units in the
United States and 36,000 in Puerto Rico each year. The ACS also
collects detailed socioeconomic data from about 195,000 residents
living in Group Quarter (GQ) facilities. An ongoing data collection
effort with an annual sample of this magnitude requires that the ACS
continue research, testing, and evaluations aimed at reducing
respondent burden, improving data quality, achieving survey cost
efficiencies, and improving ACS questionnaire content and related data
collection materials. The ACS Methods Panel is a research program that
is designed to address and respond to issues and survey needs.
In the Census Bureau's continuing effort to reduce respondent
burden and address concerns about the perceived intrusiveness of the
ACS, the Census Bureau seeks to test three candidate changes to the
current ACS mail materials. The three experimental treatments are
designed to increase public awareness of the ACS through new messaging
and an updated look and feel that increases respondent engagement and
self-response, while softening the tone of the mandatory requirement of
the survey.
The Census Bureau previously tested the impact of removing or
modifying the mandatory messages from the mail materials (see Oliver,
B., Risley, M., & Roberts, A. (2016). 2015 Summer Mandatory Messaging
Test. Washington DC, U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on February 10, 2017
from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2016/acs/2016_Oliver_01.pdf). This proposed test is aimed at building
on that research and improving the results based on additional feedback
the Census Bureau obtained from the National Academies' Committee on
National Statistics (see Plewes, T.J. (2016). ``Reducing Response
Burden in the American Community Survey.'' Proceedings of a Workshop
conducted by the Committee on National Statistics Division of
Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education).
The three experimental treatments are:
The Softened Revised Design treatment from the 2015 Summer
Mandatory Messaging Test.
A Partial Redesign treatment that maintains the same
wording as used in the Softened Revised Design treatment but includes
some methodological changes: A ``Why We Ask'' brochure in the initial
mailing, changes to the cover of the paper questionnaire, and the use
of a letter instead of a postcard for the fifth mailing.
A Full Redesign treatment that includes the same
methodological changes as the Partial Redesign treatment but also
modifies the wording in most of the mailings to a more personal
approach with plain language.
The purpose of this test is to study the impact of these three
candidate mail designs on self-response, cost, and the precision of the
estimates. To field this test, the Census Bureau plans to use the ACS
production sample (clearance number: 0607-0810, expires 06/30/2018).
Thus, there is no increase in burden from this test since each
treatment will result in the same burden estimate per interview (40
minutes). The ACS sample design consists of randomly assigning each
monthly sample panel into 24 groups of approximately 12,000 addresses
each. Each group, called a methods panel group, within a monthly sample
is representative of the full monthly sample. Each monthly sample is a
representative subsample of the entire annual sample and is
representative of the sampling frame.
The Census Bureau proposes to test these mail designs as part of
the ACS August 2017 panel, adhering to the same data collection
protocols as production ACS. The Census Bureau proposes to use two
randomly selected methods panel groups for each treatment. Hence, each
treatment will have a sample size of approximately 24,000 addresses. In
total, approximately 96,000 addresses will be used for the three
experimental treatments and the control treatment (current production).
The current production treatment will have the same mail materials as
the rest of production, but will be sorted and mailed at the same time
as the other treatment materials. The remaining sample will receive
production materials.
The Census Bureau proposes to evaluate treatment comparisons by
comparing self-response rates at various points in the mailing schedule
and by comparing the final response rates. The Census Bureau proposes
comparing treatments at points in the mailing schedule where the
material differs by design. For each comparison, [alpha] = 0.1 and a
two-tailed test will be used so that the Census Bureau can measure the
impact on the evaluation measure in either direction with 80 percent
power. The effective samples were calculated based on the previous
year's data for the August panel. The sample size will be able to
detect differences of approximately 1.25 percentage points between the
self-response return rates of the control and experimental treatments.
Additional metrics of interest include overall costs and response rates
by subgroups.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Frequency: One-time test as part of the monthly American Community
Survey.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141, 193,
and 221.
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce
collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this
[[Page 18608]]
notice to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.
Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Department Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-07951 Filed 4-19-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P