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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council proposes toconduct a two-phase study for the National Science Foundation's Division of ScienceResources Statistics. The study will address the issues involved in using the AmericanCommunity Survey (ACS) to collect information necessary to improve understanding ofthe education and employment status of the science and engineering workforce. In thefirst phase, the committee will appoint a panel of approximately 8 experts to design andhold a workshop. The workshop will have the specific objective of identifying issues forthe 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'sassessment of the potential of the addition of this information as a screening element forsubsequent inquiries such as the National Survey of College Graduates, which now useslevel of degree information from the decennial census long form. In addition, theworkshop will consider the relevance and adequacy of ACS products for meeting currentand emerging data needs for NSF/SRS. Following the workshop, the panel willdeliberate to prepare an interim report with its recommendations and information fromthe workshop. The panel will remain in being through a second phase of activity, tofollow a planned test of collecting the recommended data on field of degree using aCensus Bureau methods test panel. When that activity is completed, the panel willreconvene to review the findings of the methods test panel and make finalrecommendations regarding the collection of this information on the ACS.