OMB Package 2018 Ad Can Part B - final

Department of Commerce

United States Census Bureau

OMB Information Collection Request

2018 End-to-End Census Test - Address Canvassing Operation

OMB Control Number 0607-XXXX

Part B – Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

The 2018 End-to-End Census Test occurs in three sites within the continental United States: Pierce County, Washington; Providence County, Rhode Island; and the Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill, West Virginia, area. For the In-Field Address Canvassing data collection within the 2018 End-to-End Census Test, listers will knock on every door in their assigned blocks to ask residents about their living quarters. However, the Census Bureau expects that they would make contact with residents (i.e., someone is at home) at most 25 percent of the time.

2. Procedures for Collecting Information

The data collection is a dependent address listing operation on an automated listing and mapping instrument. An existing address list is extracted from the Master Address File (MAF), and field staff work from the addresses that exist on the ground to the address list to provide updates to the list. These updates can include updates to an address, such as spelling or number errors, adding an address to the list, marking an address on the list as nonexistent, or validating an existing address record and all the accompanying data.

3. Methods to Maximize Response

Interaction with the public is sometimes a by-product of this data collection. Field staff (listers) will knock on doors at every structure in their assigned blocks in an attempt to ensure the Census Bureau has a complete list of living quarters (LQs). If someone answers, the lister will provide a Confidentiality Notice and ask about the address in order to verify or update the information, as appropriate. The listers will then ask if there are any additional LQs in the structure or on the property. If there are additional LQs, the listers will collect/update that information, as appropriate. For Group Quarters, some contact information for the facility as well as address and other information about the facility is required. No other personal data is collected.

4. Tests of Procedures or Methods

In developing this test, the Census Bureau consulted with a variety of stakeholders, including, but not limited to, academics, national researchers, community and organizational leaders, and the Census Bureau’s Advisory Committees. In addition, external consultants from the National Academy of Sciences provided feedback about the Census Bureau’s research plans and objectives for the Address Canvassing operation in the 2018 End-to-End Census Test.

The results from this test will be shared widely with decennial census stakeholders. To help evaluate and assess the results of the 2018 End-to-End Census Test, the Census Bureau will conduct debriefings with field staff who work on the test. In addition, results from this test will be used to improve the operation, feed information to cost and quality reports, and help project the impact of the new operation on various census enumeration operations. Although the 2018 End-to-End Census Test areas are not representative of the entire nation, the answer to this question can provide additional data for estimates of how much of the Address Canvassing workload can be resolved in the office and how much will ultimately need to go to the field.  The table below shows an outline of the information that will be shown to summarize the In-Field operational metrics.

Table 1 In-Field Operational Metrics

Metric	By Groups	Data Source
Total Field Staff	Site Role (field supervisor, field representative, etc.)	Unified Tracking System Reports
Total Basic Collection Units (BCUs)	Site	Geographic Reference File BCU Tally File
Total addresses in the initial universe	Site Type of structure Housing unit or group quarters status	Input MAF Extract
Total addresses worked	Site Type of action (add, delete, etc.) Type of structure Housing unit or group quarters status	Output MAF Extract
Total cost	Site	Production reports
BCUs per hour	Site	Production reports
Miles per BCU	Site	Production reports
Cost per BCU	Site	Production reports
Addresses per hour	Site	Production reports
Miles per address	Site	Production reports
Cost per address	Site	Production reports
Listing and Mapping Instrument issues	Site	Observation debriefings, Service Center calls

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

For more information, contact Robin A. Pennington (301) 763-8132, robin.a.pennington@census.gov.