Updated December 2020

   
Description: Description: Urban Institute

TIMOTHY TRIPLETT
Urban Institute
500 L'Enfant Plaza SW

Washington, DC 20024

Phone: (202) 261-5579

Mobile: (240) 487-8588
Email: ttriplett@urban.org

Education:

B.A., University of Maryland, Economics and Statistics, 1982

M.A., University of Maryland, Economics, 1984

   Focus: Econometrics, Public Choice, Development Economics

M.P.P., University of Maryland, Master of Public Policy, 1988

   Focus: Regulatory Analysis

Present Position:

Senior Survey Methodologist
Statistical Methods Group
Urban Institute
Washington D.C.
January 2007 to Present

 

Previous Positions:

Survey Associate and Survey Manager for the National Survey of America’s Families

Assessing the New Federalism

Urban Institute
Washington D.C.
January 2002 to December 2006

 

Senior Project Manager and Computer Resources Manager
Survey Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park
September 1987 to January 2002

 

Research Analyst
Survey Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park
May 1983 to August 1987

 

Telephone Bank Supervisor and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing Programmer
Survey Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park
August 1981 to May 1983

 

Current Responsibilities:

 

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

·         Participate in research studies at UI as a statistical/methodological team member or task leader

·         Provide mentorship to junior and other research staff across all UI centers by way of seminars, classes and one-on-one meetings

·         Manage the survey component of various Urban Institute projects.  

 

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

Other Positions Held:

 

Serving on the American Association of Public Opinion Research’s (AAPOR) executive council as the Associate Standard’s Chair.   The AAPOR Standards Committee is charged with the responsibility to maintain, monitor and improve professional standards in the field of public opinion and survey research. This committee promotes the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics and Practices, helps oversee the Transparency Initiative, guides AAPOR Task Forces, and provides members with resources on professional ethics and best practices. The Standard Definitions Committee and the Transparency Initiative Coordinating Committee report to the Standards Chair.

 

Served four years as Co-chair of the AAPOR Transparency Initiative Coordinating Committee (TICC).  AAPOR has for decades worked to encourage objective survey standards for practice and disclosure. The Transparency Initiative is AAPOR’s approach to the goal of an open science of survey research. The TICC seeks to recognize those organizations that pledge to practice transparency in their reporting of survey-based findings. 

 

The organizer and meeting planner for the Urban Institute’s American Community Survey (ACS) User’s group.  This involves maintaining and keeping the ACS intranet web site up to date as well finding topics and presenters for future user group the meetings.

 

Serving or previously served on three AAPOR committees; the membership committee (2012 through 2015); the transparency initiative (2013 to present; and the standards committee (2014 to present).  

 

Served as a subcommittee chair on the AAPOR survey refusal task force that produced a report that defines; What is a refusal; How to avoid refusals; How to convert refusals; and how do we better protect the rights of respondents who choose not to participate?

 

Mange and update the Berwyn District Civic Association web site and providing backup support for the DC-AAPOR  web site.   Duties of this volunteer work includes ensuring that the web servers, hardware and software are operating accurately, designing the website, generating and revising web pages, replying to user comments, and looking at  traffic through the site.

 

AAPOR program committee volunteer (2008-2014):  Reviewed abstract submissions and helped select and organize sessions for the AAPOR Conferences.  Served as a Docent for new AAPOR members at the conferences and helped setup and guide people who attended the poster sessions.

 

Webmaster for the DC-AAPOR website (2007-2012).  Awarded in 2012, the “DC-AAPOR 2012 Outstanding Service Award” in recognition of my redesigning, improving, and maintaining the DC-AAPOR website.

 

Secretary and Membership Chair for DC-AAPOR (2007-2008): DC-AAPOR is the largest local chapter of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).  As a member of the executive council the secretary’s primary role was to help plan seminars and events, answer members’ questions, and recruit new members. 

 

President of the College Park Berwyn District Civic Association (BDCA) (2004-2007):   Founded in 1885, the Berwyn District Civic Association (BDCA) is the oldest active civic association in the State of Maryland.   The BDCA meets twice a month, with public meeting held on the third Thursday of each month.   The civic association publishes a monthly newsletter, plans community wide events, and advocates for or opposes any legislation that affects the welfare of the community.  While I choose to not run for a third term as President of the Association in 2007, I continue to play an active role as the Corresponding Secretary as well as maintain the BDCA web site (www.myberwyn.org).

 

Program Chair for the 1998 International Field Technology Conference: This position involved putting together technology sessions for the 1998 International Field Directors and Technology Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri, May 1998.

 

Assistant Program Chair for the 1997 International Field Technology Conference: This Position involved helping plan technology sessions for the 1997 International Field Directors and Technology Conference held in Norfolk, Virginia, May 1997.

 

1978-1982: Research Internship - United States Department of Labor - the Employment and Training Administration - Research Division: Helped evaluate grant proposals, worked on in-house research projects and wrote SAS programs to analyze data.

 

Selected Survey Research Projects Coordinated:

 

MASSACHUSETT AND WASHINGTON D.C HEALTH INSURANCE SURVEY – These health insurance surveys are innovative in their use of an address based sampling frames and multi-mode data collection as a replacement for studies that previously were conducted only by phone using RDD samples.   This approach has now been used successfully for seven separate Massachusetts general population studies with interviews done with over 19,000 people.  This methodology was also implemented for a 2009 general population study in Washington D.C. for which more than 4500 interviews were completed.  The District study was particularly challenging given the difficulties of achieving decent response rates in highly urban areas.  Timothy has been the survey manager for these projects, which entails managing the sample releases including some oversampling low-income neighborhoods in the city.  There will likely be many more rounds of these studies conducted in the future.

 

SURVEY OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE ARTS (SPPA) – The SPPA is   sponsored by the United Stated National Endowment for the Arts.  Timothy Triplett has worked on the design of the SPPA starting with original SPPA study in 1982.  Timothy is also the principal investigator for both the 2008 and 2012 SPPA planning studies. These planning studies collect information relevant to increasing the value and accuracy of the future SPPA surveys.  This work includes conversations with both users and subject area experts about content and methods.  It also includes tests of prospective or potentially problematic questions.  The final deliverables are a report with recommendations on survey methods and possible changes to the SPPA questionnaire.

 

ANNUAL ARTS BASIC SURVEYS (AABS); – Like the SPPA the AABS is   sponsored by the United Stated National Endowment for the Arts.  Timothy Triplett was the Principal Investigator that developed the design of the AABS.  This survey design work included cognitively testing the survey questions and conducting a pilot study in 2012. 

 

AMERICAN DRIVING SURVEY - On behalf of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the Urban Institute conducts a continuous survey to measure the driving behavior of the American public. The American Driving Survey is a national survey of persons 16 and over who drive of light vehicles (autos, SUVs, trucks) and live in households with landline telephone or cellular telephone service. The survey began in May 2013 ending on December 31, 2017. 

 

CONGREGATION GIVING SURVEY – This mixed-mode survey contacted a national sample of church congregations to gather information about their support of international giving and relief.  This survey was conducted three times (2009, 2010, and 2016) by the Urban Institute. The primary purposes of this survey are 1) to get information on the size of contributions supporting international development and relief efforts and 2) to gather information about the types of programs that congregations support to improve the coordination of these projects.  Timothy’s role as the survey manager entails overseeing the sampling, data collection, data processing, and producing estimate of international giving.

 

NATIONAL SURVEY OF AMERICA’S FAMILIES (NSAF) - The National Survey of America's Families provides a comprehensive look at the well-being of children and non-elderly adults and shows sometimes striking differences among the 13 states studied in depth. The survey provides quantitative measures of child, adult and family well-being in America, with an emphasis on persons in low-income families.   Timothy Triplett is the Survey Manager for the NSAF.  His role included evaluating and monitoring sampling procedures, survey data collection, developing NSAF Public Use files and preserving internal survey data files.  Other associated work includes conducting methodological research addressing such issues as estimating the non-response bias, weighting and imputation procedures.   Triplett was a contributing author and the lead editor for the 2002 NSAF methodology series of reports. Although most of the methodology reports are written for a technical audience the series does include several of the non-technical reports (Questionnaire, public use user’s guide) aimed a more general audience.

 

TIME USE STUDY - sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. A two-year study of how Americans use their time. Besides coordinating the project was responsible for the design of the computer assisted telephone interviewing 24-hour time diary. Also, responsible for designing and managing a two-year nationwide random digit dialing sample that yielded roughly 10,000 completed surveys. Many design features from this study were adopted and are now incorporated into the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s American Time Use Survey. 

 

GUMS (Gay Urban Male Study) - A health and sexual behavioral survey conducted in households that have at least one openly gay male member. The study involved conducting a telephone interview with a randomly selected gay member of the household with data collection occurring in four sites; San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Mainly responsible for the design and implementation of the two-stage RDD sample design.

 

MARYLAND SUBSTANCE ABUSE DEPENDENCE ASSESSMENT SURVEY - A statewide telephone survey of 5,095 randomly selected Maryland residents, age 18 or over. The interviews were conducted over a two-year period, with interviewing ending in November 1994. The study's primary objectives were to estimate alcohol, drug use, and substance dependency in Maryland. As the project manager, mainly responsible for design of the questionnaire, sample design and preparing the results of the study for the University's Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR).

 

MORTECH (Mortgage Technology Study) - A telephone-interviewing project conducted for Real Estate Solutions. A total of 650 telephone interviews are conducted with a nationwide random sample of commercial banks, Mortgage banks, and Savings and Loans. The questionnaire asked the senior executive in charge of the mortgage loan operation, technology, and computer usage. This study was conducted every two years starting in 1988 and ending in 1998. Served as the project manager, and was responsible for the sample and questionnaire design.

 

VIGNETTE – An international project conducted in Moscow, Tokyo and Washington D.C. This project required reading respondents a short scenario then asking a series of attitude questions based about that scenario. As project director, mainly responsible for the questionnaire design, complex programming issues and sampling.

 

Publications:

"The Flotilla Entrants" Cuban Studies, Volume 1, January, 1982 (with Robert Bach)

 

"Survey Sponsorship, Response Rates, and Response Effects" Social Science Quarterly September 1992 (with Stanley Presser and Johnny Blair)

 

"Using a parallel "CASES" instrument to edit call record information and remove incorrect data (A description of the SRC fixit program)." Statistical Policy Working Paper 25, Data Editing Workshop and Exposition, Chapter 7, Statistical Policy Office, Office of Management and Budget (with Beth Webb)

 

"Initial Cooperators versus Converted Refusals are there Differences in Data Quality?" American Statistical Association 1996 Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods Volume II (with Johnny Blair, Teresa Hamilton and Yun Chiao Kang)

 

"A Comparison of Mail and E-Mail for a Survey of Employees in U.S. Statistical Agencies" Journal of Official Statistics 15, no. 1 (March 1999): 39-56 (with Mick P. Couper and Johnny Blair)

 

"How Long Should You Wait Before Attempting to Convert a Refusal?" American Statistical Association 2001 Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods (with Julie Scheib and Johnny Blair)

 

"A Review of SDA: Survey Documentation and Analysis" Journal of Official Statistics 18, no. 1 (March 2002): 120-121.

 

"Using Surveys" Chapter 9 in the second edition of the 2004 Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation (with Kathryn Newcomer)

 

“Lessons Learned from the National Survey of America’s Families” Urban Institute Press, Discussion Paper: 06-04, (December 2006) (with Laura Wherry)

 

“Five Questions with Tim Triplett” Urban Institute Press, Interview done December 2006

 

“What can Survey Organizations do to improve their Client Relationships?” Survey Research Newsletter: 1-4, (September 2007)

 

“Florida’s Medicaid Reform: Informed Consumer Choice?” Health Affairs 27 no. 6 (2008): 513-522 (with Teresa A. Coughlin, Sharon K. Long)

 

“Comparing Random Digit Dial (RDD) and United States Postal Service (USPS) Address-Based Sample Designs for a General Population Survey: The 2008 Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey” Survey Practice, (June 2009) (with Susan Shear, David Dutwin, Doug Wissoker, and Sharon Long)

 

“Can Your Spouse Accurately Report Your Activities? An Examination of Proxy Reporting” Survey Practice, (February 2010)

 

"Using Surveys" Chapter 12 in the third edition of the 2010 Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation (with Kathryn Newcomer)

 

“Leisure, Free Time and Cultural Consumption” International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences (2014) (with John P. Robinson)

 

“Current Knowledge and Considerations Regarding Survey Refusals” Prepared for AAPOR Council by the Task Force on Survey Refusals operating under the auspices of the AAPOR Standards Committee, (September 2014) (with David Dutwin, John D. Loft, Jill Darling, Allyson Holbrook, Timothy Johnson, Ronald E. Langley, Paul J. Lavrakas, Kristen Olson, Emilia Peytcheva, Jeffery Stec, and Andrew Zuckerberg)

 

“A Decade of Arts Engagement: Findings from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2002-2012” National Endowment of the Arts Research Report No. 58. Washington D.C.: National Endowment for the Arts, January 2015 (with Bohne Silber)

 

"Using Surveys" Chapter 14 in the 2015 fourth edition of the Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation (with Kathryn Newcomer)

 

“Current Knowledge and Considerations Regarding Survey Refusals: Executive Summary of the AAPOR Task Force Report on Survey Refusals” Public Opinion Quarterly (Summer 2015) (with David Dutwin, John D. Loft, Jill Darling, Allyson Holbrook, Timothy Johnson, Ronald E. Langley, Paul J. Lavrakas, Kristen Olson, Emilia Peytcheva, Jeffery Stec, and Andrew Zuckerberg)

 

 “Who Has Trouble Reporting Prior Day Events?”  Survey Practice, January 2017 (with Brian Tefft, and Rob Santos)

 

“Methodology for the VoicesDMV Survey” Urban Institute Press, December 2017

 

 

Technical Reports:

A methods report is written for all data collection projects conducted by the University of Maryland’s Survey Research Center. These method’s reports describe the sample design, data collection procedures, response rate, data weights, and sampling error. A main responsibility while at the university was reviewing and final editing of most of these reports.

 

"Public Participation in the Arts: Project Report for SPA'82" The main report prepared for the research division of the National Endowment for the Arts on the 1982 data. (With John P. Robinson, Carol A. Keegan, Terry Hanford)

 

"Public Participation in the Arts: Project Report for SPA'85" The main report prepared for the research division of the National Endowment for the Arts on the 1985 data. (With John P. Robinson, Carol A. Keegan, Marci Karth)

 

"Public Participation in the Arts: User's Manual" Prepared for researchers planning to do further analysis on the SPA'82 and SPA'85 data. (With Jeff Holland)

 

"Graduate students, faculty and staff interest in a Campus Child Care Facility" Main writer of May 1988 report prepared for the University of Maryland’s Chancellor's Office. Report evaluated University's need of a Campus Child Care Facility. (With Dana Wagner, Teresa Hamilton) (May 1988)

 

"Responses of Maryland Public to Certain Advertising Practices" Report prepared for the State of Maryland Consumer Protection Agency (with John P. Robinson, Sue Dowden) (January 1989).

 

"Marylander's Participation in the Arts" This was the main report prepared for the Maryland State Arts Council. Report describing the methodology and results of a Maryland Statewide Survey conducted to measure the Economic impact of the Arts in Maryland. (June 1989)

 

"Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Student Athletes: Focus Groups of Current and Former Athletes" The report prepared for the campus committee investigating ways of improving academic performance of student athletes. The report summarized the findings of two focus groups that consisted of former and current student athletes. (With David Rohall) (August 1994)

 

"A Study of Residents and Employer Attitudes and Awareness Concerning Air Quality in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD Metropolitan Areas” Report prepared for the Baltimore and Washington Metropolitan Council of governments. Report summarized the findings of an ozone awareness survey conducted by the Survey Research Center (with Clifford Fox) (March 1997)

 

"A Study of Residents and Employer Attitudes and Awareness Concerning Air Quality in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD Metropolitan Areas” Report prepared for the Baltimore and Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments. Report summarized the findings of a 1997-98 ozone awareness survey conducted by the Survey Research Center. (With Clifford Fox) (April 1998)

 

"What is gained from Additional Call Attempts & Refusal Conversion and what are the Cost Implications?"  A report made available on my web site that updates the research done on total call attempts and refusal conversion at the University of Maryland's Survey Research Center. This report is updated with current data on an annual basis. (Last update November 2002)

 

“2002 NSAF Questionnaire (Methodology Report)” This report in the Round Three Methodology Series focuses on the 2002 NSAF questionnaire. The introductory chapter describes the household screener and extended interview. In addition, the chapter covers respondent selection, types of NSAF interviews, and the NSAF family definition so that the reader may gain a better understanding of the NSAF questionnaire. The second chapter describes differences in the survey instruments between the 1999 and 2002 NSAF surveys. The remainder of the report provides the full text of the 2002 questionnaire. (With Natalie Abi Habib and Adam Safir) (April 2004)

 

“NSAF Survey Methods and Data Reliability (Methodology Report)” This report in the Round Three Methodology Series provides readers with an introduction to the National Survey of America's Families, its sample design, data collection techniques, and estimation methods. An overview is also provided describing the survey's dual-frame design, the format of interviews, and the types of questions asked. In addition, the methods used to minimize errors and compensate for those that are unavoidable in data collection are described. Finally, the report presents information on the survey's resulting reliability--both in terms of sampling and non-sampling errors. (With Natalie Abi Habib and Adam Safir) (September 2004)

 

“NSAF Public Use File User’s Guide (Methodology Report)” This report provides documentation for the 1997-2002 NSAF Public Use Files, each set of which includes data on approximately 42,000 households, yielding information on over 100,000 people. This report gives an overview of the survey, describes the sample design and methodology used, and discusses the limitations on use of the survey data. After providing an overview of the NSAF data, it also describes how to use the data files, and offers instructions and examples on how to use the NSAF survey weights. (With Natalie Abi Habib and Adam Safir) (November 2004)

 

“Background Report on the Use and Impact of Food Assistance Programs on Indian Reservations (Research Report)” This report, prepared for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, reviews existing data sources and prior research on six programs operated by the Department that provide food assistance to American Indians living on or near reservations. The purpose of the review is to help identify future research needs and opportunities to exploit administrative data systems and recurring national surveys. The programs covered are the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), the Food Stamp Program (FSP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). Research topics of continuing importance include the impacts of reservation food assistance on health and nutrition, the characteristics that make nutrition education effective on reservations, the dynamics of program participation, and the contribution of tribal administration to program coordination. (With Ken Finegold, Nancy Pindus, Laura Wherry, Sandi Nelson, and Randolph Capps) (January 2005)

 

“2002 NSAF Collection of Papers (Methodology Report)” This report is a collection of occasional papers on technical issues in the design, implementation, and operation of the 2002 round of the NSAF. It is a companion report to the 1999 methodology series Report No. 7 NSAF Collection of Papers and the 1997 methodology series Report No. 16 NSAF Technical Papers. All the papers in this collection were presented at either the annual May American Association for Public Opinion Research conference or the annual August Joint Statistical Meetings. (With Natalie Abi-Habib, Tamara Black, Simon Pratt, Adam Safir, Rebecca Steinbach, John Wivagg and Westat) (February 2005)

 

“2002 NSAF Data Editing and Imputation (Methodology Report)” This report focuses on the data editing techniques and imputations that were unique to the 2002 NSAF data processing steps. It is a supplement to the 1997 and 1999 NSAF data editing reports (No. 10 in both series), and does not reiterate the data editing techniques, data processing, and coding guidelines documented in these prior reports. (July 2005)

 

“Weighting Procedures and Variance Estimation for the 2005 U.S. Level of Fair Housing Literacy Survey” This report was added to project report as an appendix that describes the weighting procedures used to produce the survey weights needed to generate representative estimates of the various populations analyzed in the report. Also, this appendix describes how to estimate sampling errors that can be incorporated into tests of statistical significance when using the survey weights. (October 2005)

 

“SPPA Advisory Committee Meeting Summary Report” This report summarized the Advisory committee meeting discussion that was held to get feedback to the National Endowment for the Arts on how best to conduct their next Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. (November 2005)

 

“Sampling, Weighting, and Variance Estimation for the 2005 National Survey of Nonprofit Governance” This report described the sampling and weighting procedures used to produce survey weights that can be used to generate representative estimates of the various populations analyzed.  In addition, this paper describes how to estimate sampling errors that can be incorporated into tests of statistical significance when using the survey weights. (February 2006)

 

“2002 NSAF Nonresponse Analysis (Methodology Report)” This report focuses on the characteristics of nonrespondents to the 2002 NSAF and assesses the impact of nonresponse on the NSAF statistics. It includes analysis of the effectiveness of the call attempt and refusal conversion strategies across all three rounds of NSAF data collection, providing some insights on how the level of effort affects the quality of the data by reducing nonresponse. This report also includes a sociodemographic comparison of nonrespondents using census block information obtained for 2002 nonrespondents and respondents. (June, 2006)

 

“Summary Report for the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts Planning Study” This report summarized the recommendations from the 2008 SPPA planning study.  The SPPA provides primary knowledge on the extent and nature of participation in the arts in the United States. Continuous improvement of the SPPA so that its estimates are as accurate as possible is a worthy goal.  The planning study for the 2008 SPPA focused on three major concerns, data collection methodology, sampling, and the questionnaire.  (August 2007)

 

“Estimates of the Uninsurance Rate in Massachusetts from Survey Data: Why Are They So Different?” This methodological research brief described how estimates may vary because of differences in the wording of the insurance questions asked in the surveys, differences in question placement and context within the survey, differences in survey design and fielding strategies, differences in accounting for missing data and other data preparation, and differences in survey fielding time frames. The analysis concludes that there has been no single survey in Massachusetts that is clearly superior across all of these important dimensions. (With Sharon Long, Stephen Zukerman, Alison Cook, Kate Norhal, Tracy Siegrist, Cindy Wacks) (August 2008)

 

“2008 Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey Methodology Report” The report is divided into seven sections. The first section (Section I) describes the design of the sample used for the 2008 survey. Section II discusses the design of the survey instrument. The next two sections describe our data collection strategy (Section III) and data processing and preparation (Section IV), respectively. Section V addresses the response rate to the survey. Section VI describes the survey weights and variance estimation. The final section (Section VII) presents estimates of the uninsurance rate in Massachusetts in 2008. (With Sharon Long, David Dutwin, and Susan Sherr) (December 2008)

 

“The Role of Faith-Based and Community Organizations in Post-Hurricane Human Services Relief Efforts” The events surrounding hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 produced one of the largest disaster responses by nongovernmental, charitable organizations, including both faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs). This report is based on a telephone survey of 202 FBCOs that provided disaster-related human services and in-depth, field-based case studies of eight organizational responses after the hurricanes. The survey findings address what types of services were provided, to whom, and the collaborations used by FBCOs to deliver services. The case studies explore what motivated the response in 2005 and suggest how such efforts might connect with the larger disaster response and human service delivery systems to provide needed services in future disasters. (With Carol J., De Vita, Fredrica D. Kramer, Lauren Eyster, Samuel Hall, and Petya Kehayova) (December 2008)

 

“2008 Public-Use Data File User’s Guide - A Technical Research Manual” In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau fielded the National Endowment for the Arts’ sixth Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA).  The SPPA is the nation’s largest recurring cross-sectional survey of adult participation in arts and cultural activity.  Besides informing NEA-commissioned reports and policy decisions, the raw data are shared with non-NEA researchers for their own use. This User’s Guide presents basic information on the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) public-use data file. (June 2009)

 

“2009 District of Columbia Health Insurance Survey: Methodology Report” This report describes the methods used to conduct the 2009 DC Health Insurance Survey, which collected information on insurance status and options in the District of Columbia.  Data collection strategy, survey design, data processing, weights and response rate are among the discussed details. It also discusses the dual sample frame design strategy used to capture information on landline households as well as cell phone-only households. (May 2010)

 

“Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey Methodology Report Survey Year: 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011” The report is divided into eight sections.  The first section (Section I) describes the design of the sample used for the survey.  Section II discusses the design of the survey instrument.  Section III describes the data collection strategy.  There were some changes in data collection procedures introduced in the 2009 MHIS that were intended to improve the response rate to the survey.  Those changes are described in Section III.  Data processing and preparation are described in Section IV.  Section V addresses the response rate to the survey.  Section VI describes the survey weights and variance estimation. Section VII estimates the share of non-landline telephone households while Section VIII present’s estimates of the uninsurance rate in Massachusetts for each year.   (With Sharon, Long, David Dutwin, and Susan Sherr) (November 2011)

 

“Developing a National Data Collection System to Estimate Light Vehicle Travel in the United States - Summary Analysis of the Pilot Study and Final Recommendations”

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS) adopted an initiative to regularly produce national estimates of light vehicle driving exposure. The first step in this effort is the development and piloting of a data collection system that captures and disseminates this information. In March of 2012, AAAFTS commissioned the Urban Institute (UI) to prepare such a data collection system with the goal of an inaugural launch in 2013. The project called for a literature review, secondary analysis of demographic and travel related data, a review of data collection approaches and the development of a tentative design to use in conducting a pilot study.  This report summarizes our pilot experience and findings, and it presents our final recommendations for full implementation of a data collection system in 2013. (With Rob Santos, and Sandra Rosenbloom) (December 2012)

 

“American Driving Survey: Methodology and Year One Results, May 2013 – May 2014” On behalf of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the Urban Institute conducts a continuous survey to measure the driving behavior of the American public. The American Driving Survey is a national survey of persons 16 and over who drive of light vehicles (autos, SUVs, trucks) and live in households with landline telephone service or cellular telephones. The survey started in May 2013 and is ongoing. The results of the first year’s data collection are presented in this report. (With Rob Santos, and Sandra Rosenbloom) (April 2015)

 

“Early Implementation of the Head Start Designation Renewal System: Volume I & II” - The Head Start Designation Renewal System (DRS) is an accountability system to determine whether Head Start grantees are delivering high quality, comprehensive services and to implement a competitive grant making process in communities where they are not. This formative evaluation suggests that the DRS is meeting its goal of supporting quality improvement in by incentivizing grantees and applicants to engage in quality improvement activities. But, DRS conditions differ in their ability to differentiate higher versus lower-quality Head Start programs. Findings raise concerns about the precision of the CLASS as a measure of grantee-level quality. (With Teresa Derrick-Mills, Margaret R. Burchinal, Elizabeth Peters, Allison De Marco Nina Forestieri, Saunji D. Fyffe, Devlin Hanson, Caroline Heller, Eleanor Pratt. Heather Sandstrom, and Tyler Woods) (November 2016)

 

“Summary Report for the AAAFTS Aging Cohort Driver Exposure Study Module

(Data: June 2015-August 2016)” The purpose of the current Aging Cohort Driver Exposure Study Module is to create for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS) an augmented set of national data on aging drivers that complements, strengthens and advances the research objectives, design and the data content of the LongROAD Study.  This module was added to end of the National Light Vehicle Use Survey (aka the American Driving Survey) which is a nationally representative study that annually gathers data on the driving exposure of different groups of drivers. This report summarizes the data collect on a total 1,040 respondents ages 65 and older of which 442 of these respondents were 75 or older.   (With Rob Santos, and Sandra Rosenbloom) (August 2017)

 

“American Driving Survey 2014–2016 Methodology Report” To address the need for current data regarding driving exposure in relation to driver, vehicle, and trip characteristics, the AAA Foundation commissioned researchers at the Urban Institute to perform, develop, and implement a data collection system to collect national-level data on the driving of the American public. The data collection system, the American Driving Survey, consists of daily telephone interviews of a representative sample of the United States population, in which respondents aged 16 years or older are asked to report all driving that they did over a 24-hour period the day before the interview. By aggregating results from interviews conducted each day, the data are used to estimate the average and total amount that Americans drive each year and to describe the driving that they do. (With Rob Santos, Brian Tefft, and Sandra Rosenbloom) (August 2017)

 

“Policy Research and Analysis on Refugee Self-Sufficiency and Integration

Task Order: Reweighting the 2015 Survey of Refugees” The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is currently overseeing a redesign of the Annual Survey of Refugees (ASR) to ensure the survey presents representative data on the refugee population. As a part of this effort, ORR tasked the Urban Institute with reweighting data from the Fiscal Year 2015 ASR to more accurately reflect the refugee population.  This technical report describes procedures and results from revising the 2015 ASR survey weights.

(With Rob Santos, and Cary Lou) (October 2017)

 

“Methodology for the VoicesDMV Survey” - oices of the Community: DC, Maryland, Virginia (VoicesDMV), is a community engagement initiative from the Greater Washington Community Foundation, in partnership with the Urban Institute, designed to lift up residents’ stories and perceptions of the quality of life in the Greater Washington region. More than 3,000 respondents in Prince George’s County, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, and Washington, DC were surveyed as part of the initiative. The survey results provide a collection of rich, local data that can inform civic engagement, community-driven development, policy considerations, and effective grantmaking in our region. This brief discusses the methodology for the 2017 VoicesDMV survey.

(December 2017)

 

“2016 ASR Annual Survey of Refugees Data File User’s Guide - A Technical Research Manual” In the Spring of 2017 ORR completed its 50th Annual Survey of Refugees (ASR). The data from the ASR offer a window into respondents’ first five years in the United States and shows the progress that refugee families made towards learning English, participating in the workforce, and establishing permanent residence. This user’s guide presents basic information on the 2016 ASR public use data file.

(With Carolyn Vilter) (July 2018)

 

 

Conference Presentations:

"Activity Pattern Differences Between Telephone and Non-Telephone Households" Presented at the International Conference on Telephone Survey Methodology, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1987. The paper looked at time diary records of houses with and without telephones. (With John P. Robinson)

 

"An Alternative Respondent Selection Process for Random Digit Dialing Surveys" A paper presented at the 1989 Field Directors Conference. The paper documents the respondent selection process used on many of the surveys conducted at the University of Maryland's Survey Research Center.

 

"Report on the Mean Call Attempts to Complete an Interview" A paper presented at the 1992 Field Directors Conference. The paper measures the difficulty of reaching various demographic groups in terms of number of call attempts needed to complete an interview.

 

"Automated Management of Two Stage RDD" A paper presented at the 1993 Field Technologies Conference. This paper describes the programs developed to improve the efficiency in releasing and managing a two-stage RDD sample with replacement.

 

"How Important are Additional Call Attempts" A paper presented at the 1993 Field Directors Conference. This paper looked at both the benefits and costs of increasing call attempts and trying to complete interviews with respondents who initially refused to participate. Besides presenting this paper, served as chair for the session on refusal conversion, in which this paper was presented.

 

"Design and Implementation of a Survey Cost Information Data Base” Presented at the 1994 International Field Directors/Technologies Conference. This paper explained the procedures and design plans for the comprehensive management information system that is used at the University of Maryland’s Survey Research Center. Both the objectives of tracking costs and survey performance for all projects and technical programming issues were discussed in this presentation.

 

"Call Attempts and Refusal Conversion Cost Analysis" Presented at the 1994 International Field Directors/Technologies Conference. This paper focused on the costs of making additional call attempts and refusal conversion.

 

"Initial Cooperators versus Converted Refusals are there Differences in Data Quality?" This was presented at the 1995 International Field Directors/Technologies Conference. The presentation was revised then presented again at the May 1996 AAPOR (American Association of Public Opinion Research) in Salt Lake City, Utah. This presentation showed that respondents who initially refused but later agree to complete an interview provide less information than those who cooperate from the start.

 

"Using a parallel CASES instrument to edit call record information and remove incorrect data (A description of the SRC fixit program)" This paper was first presented at the March 1996 Data Editing Workshop and Exposition held at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This research was revised and presented again at the May 1996 International Field Technology conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The presentation described both how the fix-it program works and how other organizations could easily develop their own in-house editing program.

 

"Trials and Tribulations - Using E-mail for Conducting Surveys” This paper was presented at the May 1997 AAPOR conference held in Norfolk, Virginia. Presentation described the procedures and difficulties that occurred in using E-mail for collecting data from a large sample of Federal employees. This presentation was also done at the May, 1997 International Field Technology Conference also held in Norfolk Virginia.

 

"To Minimize Call Attempts: How Many Times Should a Phone Number be Tried" This was presentation done at the May, 1997 International Field Directors Conference held in Norfolk, Virginia. This presentation used results from several survey projects to determine what strategy would reduce the call attempts needed to complete interviews. In addition, the presentation went over how this strategy would affect the final sample distribution.

 

"Results from The CASES users Survey" This was a presentation of the results from the electronic mail questionnaire that was sent to organizations that use the CASES software. This presentation was done at the May, 1997 Field Technology Conference.

 

"Using Groupware to Improve Questionnaire Design" This presentation outlined and demonstrated how the Survey Research Center uses Lotus Notes to improve questionnaire design. This presentation was done at the May, 1998 International Field Technology Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

"Changing Patterns of Telephone Call Attempts" Organized, presented and chaired this panel discussion on the changing pattern of telephone call attempts in RDD studies and how these changes are affecting budgets, response rates and auto-scheduling algorithms. This panel presentation was done at the May, 1999 American Association for Public Opinion Research in St. Petersburg, Florida

 

"A Transition from Paper Training Manuals to On-Line Training Manuals" This presentation demonstrated how the Survey Research Center has begun the process of implementing the use of HTML formatted telephone supervisor manuals. This presentation was done at the May, 1999 International Field Technology Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida

 

"Internet Data Collection - What Have We Learned and What Do We Do Next?" This presentation reviewed previous e-mail studies conducted at the University of Maryland Survey Research Center. After this historical review the presentation went on to discuss the University of Maryland's current and future plans for implementing e-mail and web surveys. This presentation was done at the May, 2000 International Field Technology Conference in Portland, Oregon

 

"How Long Should You Wait Before Trying to Convert a Refusal?" How long should you wait before attempting to convert a telephone refusal?  Often you hear the argument that you should allow a cool down period of a few weeks.  However, project schedules often force us to make refusal conversion well before this two to three-week period.  Perhaps more importantly, there is not any real quantitative evidence that two or three weeks are necessary to improve the chances of successful refusal conversion.  This presentation was done at the May, 2001 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference in Montreal, Canada.  

 

"Comparing an E-mail Survey with a Web Survey" This presentation compared a government employee satisfaction survey that had been conducted in previous years using e-mail questionnaire with a version done entirely using a Web form.  The presentation discussed advantages and disadvantages of both modes of data collection with recommendations for future employee satisfaction surveys.  This presentation was done at the May, 2001 International Field Technology Conference in Montreal, Canada.

 

"Effects on Survey Estimates from Reducing Nonresponse in the National Survey of America's Families" This presentation presented the results of research conducted to analyze the effects of the extensive efforts to reduce potential nonresponse bias in NSAF survey estimates.  This poster presentation was done at the May, 2002 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference in St, Petersburg, Florida.

 

"Collecting Time Diary Data Using a Web Survey - Does It Produce Similar Results?" Within minutes the time diary information that is entered can be converted into the traditional minutes per day data file. However, how does this data compare with traditional paper diary forms or telephone diaries that researchers have traditionally used? This presentation evaluated both the advantageous and disadvantageous of the web diary, using student diary data for comparison purposes. This presentation was done at the May, 2002 International Field Technology Conference in Clearwater, Florida.

 

"Using a Short Follow-up Survey to Compare Respondents and Nonrespondents" This research was presented at the August, 2002 Joint Statistical Meeting held in New York City. The research analyzes the potential for nonresponse bias in the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) survey. The NSAF is primarily a random digit dial (RDD) telephone survey, consisting of a short screener interview to determine household eligibility and a longer extended interview during which survey items of interest are gathered for sampled household members. To examine the potential for nonresponse bias, a follow-up survey of a sample of respondents and refusals from the NSAF screener interview was conducted by a different survey organization than the one which conducted the main survey. The follow-up survey contained key items from the main survey, which were used to examine differences between respondents and nonrespondents on these measures.

 

"Determining the Probability of Selection for a Telephone Household in a Random Digit Dial Sample Design is Becoming Increasingly More Difficult" This research was presented at the May, 2003 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference held in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years, researchers using a RDD sample design could estimate the total number of residential telephone numbers in a household by simply asking one, sometimes two, and at most three questions. The 2002 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) is telephone survey that relies primarily on a large RDD sample design using over 400,000 telephone numbers. For the 2002 study a more complex set of questions was asked of each household which included learning more about what these additional phone numbers were being used for. This paper compares the results of these questions with other large RDD studies, with previous rounds of NSAF, and discusses the impact these questions have on the probability of selection adjustments.

 

"Comparing Incentives at Initial and Refusal Conversion Stages on a Screening Interview for a Random Digit Dial Survey" This research was presented at the May, 2003 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference held in Nashville, Tennessee. This paper describes the results of an experiment that tested the use of pre-paid incentives to increase response rates at the initial household contact on a random digit dial (RDD) survey. The experiments were conducted as part of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), a large RDD effort, sponsored by several private foundations to assess the impact of changes in federal policy on social programs. The goal of the experiment was to assess the relative effects of sending money prior to the initial interview or at the refusal conversion stage. Sending money prior to the initial call should increase the initial cooperation rate and thereby reduce the amount of time spent converting refusals. Conversely, waiting to send money at refusal conversion may more effectively target those persons for whom an incentive will make the biggest difference.

 

"Success and Failures of Various Approaches People Have Been Using to Try and Maintain Decent Response Rates" Organized this panel discussion held at the May, 2003 International Field Director's and Technology Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. This expert panel discussion was put together to discuss the problems of survey nonresponse. Special emphasis being placed on finding consensus of what things seem to work as well as what does not work.

 

"Sampling nonrespondents, why, when, and how much?"  This research was presented at the August, 2003 Joint Statistical Meeting held in San Francisco. This research paper looks at some of the other potential benefits from sampling nonrespondents besides the obvious time and cost savings. 

 

"Using an E-Mail Invitation to Screen Survey Respondents" This research was presented at the May, 2004 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona.   Internet surveys can be designed so that the respondent can simply click on a link that indicates that they do not want to fill out the survey.   The link could be embedded in the e-mail invite or for on-line invite surveys they could be included on the invite page.  The decline option would be appropriate for those respondents that are not actually the end-user and, thus cannot answer most of the questions.  This option can potentially improve your response rate estimate as well as provide additional information about your respondents.   However, there is the concern that the decline option would provide an easy out for legitimate respondents.  This research analyzes the effect the decline option had on the response rate and survey responses. 

 

"The National Survey of America’s Families, 1997-2002: A Project Summary of Response Rate Initiatives, Implementation, and Results" This research was presented at the May, 2005 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference held in Miami, Florida. This research presents a summary of the response rate initiatives and survey operations undertaken by the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) across six years and three rounds of data collection.  NSAF is a large-scale national survey of the economic, health, and social characteristics of children, adults under the age of 65, and their families.  The survey was conducted in 1997, 1999, and 2002, yielding information on over 40,000 families and 100,000 persons in each round.  For each round of data collection, several strategies were employed to improve declining response rates, including various systems of pre-notification mail-outs, incentive structures, changes in call scheduling, refusal conversion, and refusal sub-sampling.

 

"Evaluating Recall Bias" This research was presented at the May 2005 International Field Director's and Technology Conference in Miami, Florida.  For questions requiring the respondent to recall information the length of the recall period has been shown to positively correlated with the potential for recall bias.  The large number of interviews and long field period makes the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) a good study to investigate the seriousness of this problem.

 

“Socio-Demographic Study of Telephone Survey Nonrespondents” This research was presented at the November, 2005 Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Conference held in Arlington Virginia.  This research looks at the differences between respondents and nonrespondents to the 2002 National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF).   Auxiliary information about nonrespondents comes from the 2000 census at the block group level.

 

“Finding low-income telephone households and people who do not have health insurance using auxiliary sample frame information for a random digit dial survey” This research was presented at the May, 2007 American Association for Public Opinion Research Conference held in Anaheim, California and at the August, 2007 DC-AAPOR seminar in Washington, D.C.  This paper describes the results of oversampling low-income areas in Massachusetts by separating telephone numbers into high, medium and low-income strata based on census tract information for each telephone exchange’s 100 banks of telephone numbers.

 

“Tips on how to write better survey questionnaires” This was a short course presentation given to a group of 35 people attending the May 2008 International Field Director's and Technology Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. This short course summarized and provided some of the key tips that are useful in writing questionnaires.

 

“Can your spouse accurately report your activities – an examination of proxy reporting from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” This paper was presented at the 2009 AAPOR conference in Hollywood Florida.  This paper explores the extent to which proxy reporting may have resulted in over or under reporting participation.  Also, when there are differences should you adjust your estimate?  Of particular interest were comparisons between husbands reporting about the wives’ activities and vice a versa.  Finally, this paper explored whether the quality of proxy reporting varies by key population sub groups.

 

“Comparing Random Digit Dial (RDD) and United States Postal Service (USPS) Address-Based Sample Designs for a General Population Survey: The 2008 Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey” This paper was presented at the 2009 AAPOR conference in Hollywood Florida.   This paper compares respondents from a Random Digit Dial (RDD) sample design with respondents from a United States Postal Service (USPS) address list sample design for a general population study conducted to gather information on health insurance coverage in Massachusetts.  The research provides insight into the coverage and cost/benefit trade-offs that researchers can expect from RDD sample designs that conduct all interviews over the phone versus using a full or combined USPS address sample design that utilizes a multi-mode (phone, web, mail) data collection approach.

 

“Survey Design of the Study of Congregational Giving for International Development & Relief” This methods research was presented at the 2010 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) conference.  The presentation described the methodology and key findings from the 2009 survey of U.S. congregations.  The main goal of this nationally representative survey was to estimate the how much international relief is given both directly or indirectly by congregations of all sizes and denominations.  In addition, to describing how much and who is providing international assistance, this presentation also provided information on where the money is being sent.

 

“Alternate Strategies for Obtaining Cell Phone Samples:  Preliminary Comparisons of Cell Phone Respondents Attained from RDD and ABS Samples in Massachusetts” It has now become widely agreed that a telephone survey that relies entirely on the use of a landline random digit dial (RDD) sample for conducting a general population study is likely to miss a majority of potential respondents.   This research was presented at the May 2011 AAPOR conference held in Phoenix, Arizona. The purpose of this research was to not further investigate the decline in the use of landline RDD, but rather to compare two promising alternative solutions. The first solution is to select a sample using the United States Postal Service (USPS) delivery sequence file (DSF).  This sampling method is referred to as address based (AB) sampling and is becoming popular because virtually all households have an address and almost all households receive mail from the USPS.  Using reverse-matching data bases telephone numbers for many addresses can be obtained so that telephone survey can still be conducted, but the AB sampling also requires a multi-mode survey approach in order to reach people in households for which phone numbers cannot be found. The second solution is to conduct the telephone survey using both a landline RDD sampling frame and a cellphone RDD sampling frame.  

 

“When proxy interviews are acceptable: Does it help to speak with the spouse or partner?” In most situations, you usually want to question your targeted respondent directly, however many surveys allow a knowledgeable person to answer on behalf of others.  There are three main reasons why surveys accept proxy responses. First there is proxy out of necessity because the individuals that you would like to interview cannon be reached or are unable to respond on their own behalf because of they may be either too young or too old to respond or cannot respond due to a physical or mental condition.   Second there is proxy to increase the efficiency of a survey.  This occurs when you accept proxy responses for people capable of providing their own information to save time and money.  Third there is proxy to improve the quality of the data for studies in which it is believed that proxy information would be as good as or perhaps even better than the information you would obtain from a direct interview.  We do know that in general proxy responses have the potential to be less accurate, but less is known about the degree of proxy reporting inaccuracies.  This presentation looks at recent survey studies to explore proxy out of necessity, proxy used to increase efficiency, and proxy reporting by design to see what information can be reliably collected via proxy and looks at whether spouse or partners are generally good proxy respondents.  This research was presented at the May 2012 International Field Director's and Technology Conference in Orlando, Florida.

 

“When Proxy Interviews are Acceptable: Does it help to speak with the Spouse or Partner?”  This paper looks at differences between proxy and self-reported estimates for measures of attendance at cultural events.  Of interest, will be comparisons between men and women’s self-reported estimates compared with what their partners report they do.  In addition, given the large sample size of proxy reported data we will explore whether difference in proxy reporting varies by age, education, race and possibly other population sub-groups. This research was presented at the 2014 AAPOR conference in Anaheim California.

 

“Reconciling Public Participation Rate Differences in Census Bureau versus Academic/Commercial Survey Estimates” The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) was established in 1982 to provide accurate benchmarks of Americans’ participation in the arts. When the 1997 SPPA was conducted by a commercial survey firm (Westat), rather than the US Bureau of the Census, the arts participation estimates were notably higher than in the previous three surveys conducted by Census in 1982, 1985 and 1987 (as well as subsequent SPPA surveys conducted by Census in 2002 and 2008). For each arts activity, the Census figures were up to 13 percentage points lower than those from Westat and other surveys. This research explores several explanations for these higher figures.  This paper was presented at the May 2014 AAPOR conference in Anaheim California.

 

“Demographic characteristics of respondents who are more likely to have problems reporting prior day events” Research has shown that surveys that require respondents to recall events can be subject to relatively high levels of measurement error.  Recall error tends be less problematic for highly salient events and events that have recently occurred.   However, there is less information on whether certain types of respondents are prone to having problems with answering questions that involve recalling an event.   This research uses data from the National Driving Exposure Study where people are asked to report the length of driving trips that they made yesterday.    The analysis looks at over 14,000 reported driving trips from data collected from 4,744 respondents who reported having been the driver for at least one driving trip on day prior to day they were interviewed (yesterday).  This paper was presented at the May 2016 AAPOR conference in Austin Texas.

 

Consultant Work:

 

EASTERN RESEARCH GROUP – 2012, 2013  

Consulted on the feasibility, sampling possibilities, and survey design for a study that   would collect second-by-second data on a randomly selected set of light-duty OBDII-compliant in-use personal vehicles in the United States. The focus of the data collection will be to collect data that quantifies fuel economy (FE), which is the distance driven per volume of fuel, and the major factors that influence fuel economy.

 

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY - 2010

Constructed survey weights for a telephone survey conducted in the Philadelphia city and surrounding counties. This work included providing documentation on how to use the weights and how to take into account the survey design effects when estimating standard errors.

 

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS – 2008, 2009  

Help develop the survey design for the National Endowment Arts survey of outdoor arts festivals.  Provided recommendations on how to improve the sampling methodology and reviewed the survey questionnaire. Also, provided help with putting together an OMB application to get the survey approved.

 

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN’S INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH - 2007  

Created a set of new national survey weights for a Howard Schuman project on collective preferences in Democratic politics

 

CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICES - AMERICORPS PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT PROJECT: - 2004, 2005

Provided help in developing a sampling strategy, assisted with questionnaire design, helped obtain OMB clearance, and provided support in creating data set weights

 

WEBUSE- SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET: - 2002, 2003

Trained graduate students on how to create on-line data sets for posting on the University of Maryland’s “WebUse” data archive website. In addition, edited and updated several of the current on-line data files.

 

PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE: - 2001

Created on-line time diary form for collecting time diary data on the internet. In addition, developed tools to extract and aggregate data from the web server into a SPSS data file structure.

 

AMERICAN'S USE OF TIME PROJECT: - 2000

Cleaned and edited previous time diary data files. Created a new aggregate activity data file for making it easy for internet users to perform on-line statistical analysis. These data file were made available at the University of Maryland's "WebUse” data archive website.

 

NEW ENGLAND RESEARCH INSTITUTES: - 1999

Tested and evaluated a new Windows based computer-assisted telephone interviewing software program.

 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY LIBRARIES: - 1998

Helped design and validate a sampling plan for estimating the loss rate of materials at each library in the Montgomery county public library system. This included providing sampling error estimates for each individual library in the public library system as well an overall county sampling error estimate.

 

REAL ESTATE SOLUTIONS: - 1997

Combined five mortgage banking studies that were conducted every two years starting in 1988. Besides merging, recoding and cleaning five data files, wrote data set documentation and a created a master codebook.

 

U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT: - 1996

Put together a time use data file containing eight-time use studies done between the years 1965 and 1995. Using this time use file, made a series of computer runs for a U.S. News and World Report article on parental time.

 

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: - 1996

Reviewed and evaluated the Report "Results Tables from a Detailed Analysis of the National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS) Respondents".

 

NEW ENGLAND RESEARCH INSTITUTES: - 1996

Reviewed and evaluated a proposed Windows based computer assisted telephone interviewing software program.

 

HUGHES CORPORATION: - 1994, 1995

This work included writing a questionnaire that was used to collect information from scientists about their data information needs. Also, provided help in developing methodology for administering a questionnaire on the World Wide Web so scientists around the world could fill out the questionnaire.

 

RESOURCE PLANNING CORPORATION: - 1992, 1994

Wrote methodology report describing the three modes of data collection (personal, telephone and mail) used in three nationwide time-use studies done at the University of Maryland during 1985 and 1986. This work included combining data from these three time-use studies into a single easy to use data base.

 

CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD: - 1989

Developed time diary coding procedures that would be useful in a study aimed at measuring air exposure rates.  Also, created a time diary data base with minutes per activity as the unit of analysis

 

 

LEGG MASON: - 1988, 1989

Hired as a consultant to help design of a survey instrument that would be used to measure the retail effect of a new subway station. Also, consulted on the sample design of the market study and helped in statistical analysis of this Washington Metro study.

 

STATE OF MARYLAND'S CONSUMER PROTECTION DIVISION: - 1988

Helped design questions on people's perception of advertising. Testified (as an expert witness) about the validity of the telephone survey that collected information on people’s perceptions of advertising questions.  Also, analyzed results of questions asked of Maryland residents that pertained to the Hecht Company law suit.

 

SURRES (Survey Research Division of Applied Technology Corp.): - 1984-1988

Responsible for the implementation of projects between SURRES and the University of Maryland's Survey Research Center. This included writing computer programs for telephone questionnaires, developing computer software and setting up computer networks. In addition, this work included generating random digit dial samples and other sample designs. Finally, this work included producing computer graphics for both reports and meetings.  Other tasks included managing the data collection process and the preparation of data sets for final analysis.

 

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION: - 1983, 1984

Consulted on research proposals and questionnaire design issues and wrote computer programs for telephone questionnaires. Coordinated statewide evaluation of information services in County library facilities. For the library study, main responsibility was organizing the data collection process.

 

Survey Research Computer Programs Developed:

Add or Delete Program - A program written in Visual Basic, that deletes lines or adds line to an ASCII file. One purpose of this program is to add blank lines to sampling data bases so that sample can be printed on call record sheets. Another use is the removing of unwanted records from data sets or to prevent printing extraneous sampling information on the call record sheets. The program has been expanded to include options for randomizing a file, adding a random number to a file, merging multiple files and sorting a file starting at any field location.

 

Combine - A program written that combines open end text files created by the CASES' computer-assisted-telephone-interviewing software (CATI). The program will combine the text file for surveys whose case identification number is listed in a specified ASCII file.  Also, this program attaches the interviewer identification number to each open-ended item.

 

Compare - A program that checks two data files and lists all column and record discrepancies. This program was written as a tool for checking the accuracy of data entry done at the University of Maryland’s Survey Research Center.

 

Data Conversion (clean, household–to-diary) - Two programs that were written for the time use studies conducted at the University of Maryland. These programs are used to help convert the data into several different formats. In addition, the cleaning program was written to check the accuracy and consistency of time diary data.

 

Impute – A program that imputes a random donor record based on a series of matching keys that includes the option of assigning each matching key a priority weight.   

 

Random - A program used to generate strings of random numbers that can be added to any ASCII file. The main purpose of this program is for generating random numbers to be pre-loaded into a computer assisted survey instrument.

 

Replacement - A series of programs that can be used to more efficiently draw multi-stage random digit dial samples.

 

Sample - A program used in designing and drawing random digit dial samples. This program sets up the random telephone number, case ID number, and cluster number for all Random digit dial surveys conducted at the Survey Research Center.

 

Tally - A program that enables telephone supervisors to get quick counts of how many completed interviews and refusals an interviewer has on any given shift.

 

Major Areas of Research Interest:

Public Opinion
Survey Research Methodology
Public Choice
Questionnaire Design
Survey Sampling
Time Use
Experimental Research Designs