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

国家研究理事会国家统计委员会建议为国家科学基金会科学资源统计部门进行一项分两个阶段的研究。这项研究将解决使用美国社区调查(ACS)收集必要信息以提高对科学和工程劳动力的教育和就业状况的了解所涉及的问题。在第一阶段，委员会将任命一个由大约8名专家组成的小组来设计和举办一个研讨会。讲习班的具体目标是确定问题，以便收集关于目标、内容、方法、数据质量和数据产品的ACS度领域信息。研讨会还将审查国家科学基金会对添加这些信息作为后续查询的筛选要素的潜力的评估，如全国大学毕业生调查，该调查现在使用十年一次的人口普查长表中的学位水平信息。此外，研讨会将审议ACS产品在满足NSF/SRS当前和新出现的数据需求方面的相关性和充分性。研讨会结束后，专家小组将考虑编写一份临时报告，其中包括研讨会提出的建议和信息。该小组将继续进行第二阶段的活动，以遵循一项计划测试，即使用人口普查局的方法测试小组收集学位领域的推荐数据。当该活动完成后，专家小组将再次召开会议，审查方法测试小组的结果，并就收集关于ACS的信息提出最终建议。

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.