Assessing the Benefits of the American Community Survey for the NSF Division of the Science Resources Statistics

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council proposes to conduct a two-phase study for the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Statistics. The study will address the issues involved in using the American Community Survey (ACS) to collect information necessary to improve understanding of the education and employment status of the science and engineering workforce. In the first phase, the committee will appoint a panel of approximately 8 experts to design and hold a workshop. The workshop will have the specific objective of identifying issues for the collection of field of degree information on the ACS with regard to goals, content, methodology, data quality, and data products. The workshop will also review NSF's assessment of the potential of the addition of this information as a screening element for subsequent inquiries such as the National Survey of College Graduates, which now uses level of degree information from the decennial census long form. In addition, the workshop will consider the relevance and adequacy of ACS products for meeting current and emerging data needs for NSF/SRS. Following the workshop, the panel will deliberate to prepare an interim report with its recommendations and information from the workshop. The panel will remain in being through a second phase of activity, to follow a planned test of collecting the recommended data on field of degree using a Census Bureau methods test panel. When that activity is completed, the panel will reconvene to review the findings of the methods test panel and make final recommendations regarding the collection of this information on the ACS.