[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 74 (Friday, April 18, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16496-16498]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06680]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; American Community Survey (ACS) Methods Panel Tests
The Department of Commerce will submit the following information
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the
Federal Register on October 23, 2024, during a 60-day comment period.
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
Title: American Community Survey Methods Panel Testing.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0936.
Form Number(s): ACS-1, ACS-1(GQ), ACS-1(PR)SP, ACS CAPI(HU), and
ACS RI(HU).
Type of Request: Regular Submission, Request for a Revision of a
Currently Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated number of
Test respondents
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questionnaire Timing Test.................. 288,000.
Response Option and Error Message Design 288,000.
Test.
Additional Internet Instrument Testing..... Test A--60,000.
Test B--60,000.
Self-Response Mail Messaging and Contact Test A--60,000.
Strategies Testing. Test B--60,000.
Test C--60,000.
Content Testing............................ Test A--40,000.
Content Testing Follow-up Interview........ Test A--40,000.
Nonresponse Follow-up Data Collection 60,000.
Testing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Hours per Response:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated time
Test per response (in
minutes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questionnaire Timing Test........................... 40
Response Option and Error Message Design Test....... 40
Additional Internet Instrument Testing.............. 40
Self-Response Mail Messaging and Contact Strategies 40
Testing............................................
Content Testing..................................... 40
Content Testing Follow-up Interview................. 20
[[Page 16497]]
Nonresponse Follow-up Data Collection Testing....... 40
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Burden Hours:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated time
Test Estimated number of per response Total burden
respondents (in minutes) hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questionnaire Timing Test..................... 288,000....................... 40 192,000
Response Option and Error Message Design Test. 288,000....................... 40 192,000
Additional Internet Instrument Testing........ Test A--60,000................ 40 40,000
Test B--60,000................ 40,000
Self-Response Mail Messaging and Contact Test A--60,000................ 40 40,000
Strategies Testing. Test B--60,000................ 40,000
Test C--60,000................ 40,000
Content Testing............................... 40,000........................ 40 26,667
Content Testing Follow-up Interview........... 40,000........................ 20 13,333
Nonresponse Follow-up Data Collection Testing. 60,000........................ 40 40,000
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Total (over 3 years) *.................... 1,016,000..................... ................ 664,000
Annual Burden Hours....................... 338,667....................... ................ 221,333
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* Note: This is the maximum burden requested for these tests. Every effort is taken to use existing production
sample for testing when the tests do not involve content changes.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from
OMB for the American Community Survey (ACS) Methods Panel Tests. The
ACS is an ongoing monthly survey that collects detailed social,
economic, housing and demographic data from about 3.5 million housing
unit addresses in the United States and about 36,000 housing unit
addresses in Puerto Rico each year (where it is called the Puerto Rico
Community Survey [PRCS]). The ACS also collects detailed data from
about 150,600 residents living in group quarters facilities in the
United States and about 900 in Puerto Rico. Resulting tabulations from
this data collection are provided on a yearly basis. The ACS allows the
Census Bureau to provide timely and relevant social, economic, housing,
and demographic statistics, even for low levels of geography.
An ongoing data collection effort with an annual sample of this
magnitude requires that the Census Bureau continue research, tests, and
evaluations aimed at improving data quality, reducing data collection
costs, and improving the ACS questionnaire content and related data
collection materials. The ACS Methods Panel is a research program at
the Census Bureau designed to address and respond to survey issues and
needs of the ACS. As part of the Decennial Census Program, the ACS also
provides an opportunity to research and test elements of survey data
collection that relate to the decennial census. As such, the ACS
Methods Panel can serve as a testbed for the decennial census. From
2025 to 2028, the ACS Methods Panel may test ACS and decennial census
methods for reducing survey cost, addressing respondent burden, and
improving survey response, data quality, and survey efficiencies for
housing units and group quarters. Testing may also include revising
content or testing new questions. The ACS Methods Panel may also
address other emerging needs of the program.
At this time, proposals are in place for several tests related to
self-response. Tests may also be conducted for nonresponse follow-up
data collection and other ACS operations. Because the ACS Methods Panel
is designed to address emerging issues, we may propose additional
testing as needed. The proposed tests are outlined below.
The ``Questionnaire Timing Test'' will test whether changing the
timing of when the ACS paper questionnaire is sent to sampled addresses
can increase self-response (overall and by data collection mode) and
reduce data collection costs. The test will also evaluate the impact of
including a Quick Response (QR) code on mail materials to direct
respondents to the internet data collection instrument. If successful,
adopting these changes could decrease data collection costs associated
with the paper questionnaire and the Computer-Assisted Personal
Interviewing (CAPI) nonresponse follow-up data collection operation.
The ``Internet Instrument Response Option and Error Message Design
Test'' will provide information to aid the development of web design
standards for household and group quarters data collection instruments
used throughout the Census Bureau. This test will focus on design
standards related to response options and error messages to increase
data quality and the respondent experience. The response options
testing will compare the use of standard radio buttons (the current
design) to the use of modified response buttons. These modified
response buttons have a border around the radio button and response
option wording allowing for a larger area for a respondent to click or
tap to select a response. The response button will highlight when
hovered over and change to green once selected. This test will
determine if these changes decrease response time, change response
distributions, or affect item nonresponse. The error message design
test will explore how respondents react to a different display. Current
error messages display at the top of the page within a box and use an
exclamation mark and color to draw attention. For missing write-in
fields, an arrow shows where the error occurred. This experiment will
test a change in colors used to draw attention to the error. Instead of
an arrow showing where there is a missing write-in, a change to the
write-in border will be used.
``Additional Internet Instrument Testing'' will test ACS design
elements based on input from experts in survey methodology and web
survey design. With a growing population using the internet to respond
to the ACS, as well
[[Page 16498]]
as the increased usage of smartphones and other electronic devices with
smaller screens, evaluation of the internet instrument is needed.
Testing may include revisions focused on improving login procedures and
screen navigation, improving the user interface design, as well as
methods to decrease respondent burden. Multiple tests may be conducted.
``Self-Response Mail Messaging and Contact Strategies Testing''
will evaluate changes to ACS mailings, including the use of additional
plain language to improve communication, redesigning the visual
appearance of the mail materials, improving messaging to motivate
response, and adding or removing materials included in the mailings.
Changes to the contact method, the number of contacts, and the timing
of the contacts may also be tested. Multiple tests may be conducted.
``Content Testing'' will test the impact of changing ACS question
wording and response categories, as well as redefining underlying
constructs, on the quality of the data collected. New questions may
also be tested. Working through the Office of Management and Budget
Interagency Committee for the ACS, the Census Bureau will solicit
proposals from other federal agencies to change existing questions or
add new questions to the ACS. The Census Bureau evaluates changes to
current questions by comparing the revised questions to the current ACS
questions. For new questions, the Census Bureau proposes comparing the
performance of two versions of any new questions and benchmark results
with other well-known sources of such information. Response bias or
variance may also be measured to evaluate the questions by conducting a
follow-up interview with respondents. Multiple tests may be conducted.
Since the 60-day Federal Register Notice was published, the scope of
the testing was reduced from a Test A and Test B, each with 40,000
respondents, to only a Test A. Additional reviews determined that the
objectives of the testing can be accomplished with the single test.
``Nonresponse Follow-up Data Collection Testing'' will test
modifications to nonresponse follow-up data collection operations to
increase response to the ACS. The proposed tests would evaluate changes
to the materials used by ACS field representatives (FRs), including
changes to the messaging to motivate response or changes to the types
of materials used. Testing may also include evaluation of modifications
to operational approaches and data collection procedures, such as
contact methods and timing. Multiple tests may be conducted. Since the
60-day Federal Register Notice was published, the scope of the testing
was reduced from 100,000 to 60,000 respondents. Additional reviews
determined that the objectives of the testing can be accomplished with
a smaller number of respondents.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Frequency: Multiple one-time tests over a 3-year period.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C. 141, 193, and 221.
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB
Control Number 0607-0936.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Compliance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2025-06680 Filed 4-17-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P