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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 25 / Tuesday, February 9, 2021 / Notices and display. Additionally, we wanted to learn about participants perceptions about having this type of item on the ACS generally, including whether they understood its purpose. Cognitive testing resulted in recommended wording for the feedback question and indicated that respondents understood the purpose of the feedback question Katz, forthcoming. The Census Bureau is now ready to pilot a feedback question to establish a way to process the comments and evaluate the type of comments received. Respondents will not be required to answer the feedback question.
Testing the Use of Administrative Data: The Census Bureau has made significant progress exploring the use of administrative data in surveys and censuses, potentially as a substitute for questions asked of respondents.
Administrative data refer to data collected by government agencies and other sources for the purposes of administering programs or providing services. The Census Bureau has evaluated the availability and suitability of several different data sources for use in the ACS to replace or supplement questions pertaining to telephone service, the year a residence was built, condominium status, income, residence one year ago, and self-employment income. We are currently exploring administrative data use to replace or supplement questions pertaining to property values, property taxes, and acreage. Similarly, we plan to evaluate the availability and suitability of using administrative records in lieu of enumeration for institutional GQs U.S.
Census Bureau, 2017.
Administrative data may also be used to reduce burden of existing questions by allowing for modification of the questions. For example, the ACS asks respondents to provide their total income for the past 12 months as well as income received from various sources wages, interest, retirement income, etc.. By supplementing data collection on income with administrative records, we may be able to modify questions to only ask about the source of income rather than the amount. We are cognitively testing this change as well as changing the reference year from the past 12 months to the previous calendar year to align with administrative records sources. As a continuation of this research, the Census Bureau proposes a field test of revised content for income as well as other topics both for the housing unit questionnaire as well as the GQ questionnaire. Some questions may be modified while others would be removed. Multiple tests may be conducted.

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Group Quarters Testing: The ACS
samples about 19,000 GQ facilities each year. A GQ is a place where people live or stay in a group living arrangement that is owned or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/
or services for the residents. There are two categories of GQs: Institutional and noninstitutional. Institutional GQs include places such as correctional facilities and nursing homes.
Noninstitutional GQs include college housing, military barracks, and residential treatment centers. Most interviews conducted in GQs are interviewer-administered 94 percent of interviews in institutional GQs and 75
percent in noninstitutional GQs, but some GQ respondents self-respond using a paper questionnaire. The Census Scientific Advisory Committee Working Group on Group Quarters in the ACS
recommended that the Census Bureau consider making an internet version of the ACS available to noninstitutional GQ residents, especially in college dorms, military barracks, and group homes. Additional support was identified for this proposal in a workshop held in 2016 with the National Academies of Science Committee on National Statistics National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016. The Census Bureau proposes a field test of an internet ACS self-response GQ form for residents in noninstitutional GQs.
We would evaluate the quality of the data received from the internet instrument compared with traditional data collection methods for GQs paper questionnaires and intervieweradministered as well as assess operational issues with offering the internet option, including feedback from interviewers.
Content Testing: Working through the Office of Management and Budget Interagency Committee for the ACS, the Census Bureau solicited proposals from other Federal agencies to change existing questions or add new questions to the ACS. These proposals included changes to the following questions:
Household roster, educational attainment, health insurance, disability, means of transportation to work, income, weeks worked, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP, condominium fees, and home heating fuel. Additionally, three new questions on solar panels, electric vehicles, and sewage disposal were proposed. The objective of content testing is to determine the impact of changing question wording and response categories, as well as redefining underlying constructs, on the quality of
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the data collected. The Census Bureau proposes evaluating 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 wellknown sources of such information. The questions would be tested using all modes of data collection. 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.
Additional content testing may include a shift in the content collection strategy for the fifth person in the household on the paper questionnaire. In order to reduce respondent burden for large households who self-respond using the paper questionnaire, as well as potentially increase self-response by reducing the size of the paper questionnaire, one testing proposal includes no longer collecting detailed data for Person 5 on the paper questionnaire i.e., the same items collected for Person 1 through 4 and only collecting basic demographic information as is currently done for Person 6 through Person 12. Detailed person information for households with five or more people would be collected through a telephone follow-up, similar to what is currently done for households with six or more people.
Internet Instrument Testing: In 2013, the ACS incorporated the use of an internet instrument to collect survey responses. The design of the instrument reflected the research and standards of survey data collection at that time. With a growing population using the internet to respond to the ACS, as well as the increased use of smartphones and other electronic devices with smaller screens, an evaluation and redesign of the internet instrument is needed. Design elements will be developed and tested based on input from experts in survey methodology and web survey design.
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.
Respondent Help Testing: If respondents need help completing the ACS or have questions, they can call the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance TQA toll-free hotline. When respondents call the TQA, they enter an Interactive Voice Recognition IVR
system, which provides some basic information on the ACS and recorded answers to frequently asked questions.
Callers can also request to speak directly
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