OMB Fast Track Clearance Request

Request for Approval

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Census Bureau Decennial Language Research Services, Focus Groups in Seven languages.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to tailor and improve messages for use with non-English speakers in order to increase response from these populations in general and self-response in particular. Over the past several years, various research initiatives have focused on translating and adapting written and verbal messages for use with potential Census participants who speak non-English languages. The study will conduct focus groups in the top six more frequently spoken non-English languages in the U.S.: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian and Arabic in addition to English.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: A total of 42 focus groups will be conducted across 7 languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, and Arabic. Six focus groups will be carried out in each language. For each language, three groups will be composed of monolingual respondents and three groups will be composed of target-language-dominant bilingual respondents. Each group will be comprised of 8 respondents for a total of 336 respondents.

The total number of respondents required for each language is 48 (eight per each of the 6 groups per language). We will over-recruit respondents to ensure that the number of respondents for each focus group can be a minimum of eight, even in the case of no-shows. The target number of over-recruits is calculated based on our experience of no-shows from numerous multilingual research projects we have conducted over time. We anticipated recruitment of participants from diverse national origins by language because birth place and origins have implications to linguistic and cultural understanding among Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and Russian speakers.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ X] Focus Group

[ ] Other:

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: __The Decennial Census and other Census Bureau administered surveys.

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X ] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [X ] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [X ] Yes [ ] No

Respondents will be provided a token of appreciation in the amount of $75.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time (in minutes)	Burden (in minutes)	Burden (in hours)
Total number of recruits screened	1593	5	7965	132.75
Focus Group participant	531	90	47790	796.5
Total BURDEN				929.25

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $356,335.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe?

[ ] Yes [ X] No

The detailed recruitment plan is included in Attachment C.

A total of 42 focus groups will be conducted across seven languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, and Arabic. Six focus groups will be carried out in each language. For each language, three groups will be composed of monolingual respondents and three groups will be composed of target-language-dominant bilingual respondents. Each group will be comprised of 8 respondents for a total of 336 respondents.

The total number of respondents required for each language is 48 (eight per each of the 6 groups). We will over-recruit respondents to ensure that the number of respondents for each focus group can be a minimum of eight, even in the case of no-shows. As shown in Exhibit 1 of Attachment C, the target number of over-recruits is calculated based on our experience of no-shows from numerous multilingual research we have conducted over time.

The sites were selected jointly by the Census Bureau and the Contractor team based on concentration of the target population and proximity to qualified recruiters and moderators to control cost. Focus groups will be conducted in Chicago, IL; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Pasadena, CA; Garden Grove, CA; Westminster, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Detroit, MI; and Washington, DC. For more details on the sites for each language see Exhibit 2 in Appendix C.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[X ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[] Other:

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X ] Yes [] No

1.      Line of Business – General Government

2.      Subfunction - Central Records and Statistical Mgt.

3.      Number of Respondents for small entity - 0

4.      Affected Public – Individuals

5.      Percentage of respondents reporting electronically – 0%

Please submit all instruments, instructions, correspondences (emails, letters, etc.) to respondents, and scripts as separate documents along with this request document.

Every instrument must have the following displayed –

OMB Control No. 0690-0030

Expiration Date: 6/30/17

ENCLOSURES

Attachment A. Focus group materials: moderator guide, handouts, etc.

Attachment B. Video scripts

Attachment C. Recruitment Plan, Screener, Recruitment Materials, and Consent Forms

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