Social Science Data and Software (SSDS) Blog: May 2007 Archives

« April 2007 | Main | June 2007 »

May 31, 2007

From Stanford GIS List - GIS workshops at UC Berkeley

The Geospatial Imaging and Informatics Facility (GIIF) in the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley is offering an Introduction to GIS workshop on *Wednesday June 13, 2007*.

The GIIF supports research & outreach activities of those interested in geospatial analysis utilizing remote sensing, GIS, spatial analysis, landscape ecology, visualization, and Global Positioning Systems technology. Early registration for workshops is encouraged, as space is limited. Workshops may be canceled due to low registration indicating poor attendance.

****All workshops are available to Stanford affiliates for *$135* each.****

To register or send questions, contact Karin Tuxen at karin@nature.berkeley.edu.

Additional geospatial technology courses are available throughout the summer. A complete list with descriptions is at http://giif.cnr.berkeley.edu/workshops.html.

The half-day course *outline*:

Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 1 hour
> GIS: What is it? Why use it?
> Spatial fundamentals
> Geospatial data considerations
> California data sources
> GIS display & webGIS
> Using ArcGIS 9.2

GIS computer exercise (using ArcGIS 9.2) 2 hours
> Downloading spatial data and imagery off the Internet
> Creating a new point shapefile
> Doing simple geoprocessing
> Creating a map for export

Extra time, supplemental exercises, Q&A 1 hour
> We’ll get experience using other types of GIS software, including QGIS and Google Earth.

Posted by ronbo at 05:59 PM

Roper Center Newsletter, June 2007

Tip of the month!!

AAPOR Lifetime Achievement Award to Harry O’Neill

The Roper Center congratulates Harry O’Neill upon receiving the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s Award for lifetime achievement. Mr. O’Neill is currently a member of the Roper Center’s Board of Directors, having served for ten years as Board Chairman.
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/center/oneill_award.html

WE'VE MOVED

Change you address books, update your contact list, the Roper Center has moved. We are now located within the Homer Babbidge Library, third floor, at the University of Connecticut. We're still the same Roper Center, just with a new address. Come by and visit us sometime, we'd love it!

University of Connecticut
Roper Center
369 Fairfield Way, Unit 2164
Storrs, CT 06269-2164

Topics at a Glance!--"Latin America"
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/roperweb/pom/pom.htx;start=HS_special_topics?Topic=latin_america

How do you feel about our Latin American neighbors? What about trade with these countries? Do you feel that the illegal drug trafficking in Latin America is a large problem today? Find out how others feel about this topic and more in this month's Topic at a Glance--Latin America!

Based on a new topic each month, TAG offers a generous free sampling of related polling data and details of survey datasets held by the Roper Center, along with articles previously published in Public Perspective magazine.

Experience the depth of information housed in the Roper Center archives - The complete list of "Topics at a Glance!" http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/Roperweb/pom/pom.htx;start=HS_pom_list

Newly spotlighted datasets http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/roperweb/Catalog40/Catalog40.htx;start=HS_surveyspot
Updated as of June 1, 2007

Special studies of interest recently added to iPOLL. The database now contains nearly a half million questions!
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html

Title: General Social Survey 2006 [March,2006]
Source:
Methodology: Conducted by National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago, March 10-August 7, 2006 and based on personal interviews with a national adult sample of 4,510. Part of a continuing series of social indicators conducted since 1972.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Organization: 'National Opinion Research Center'; Date: '03/10/2006 to 03/10/2006'

Title: Americans and Summer Gas Prices: Views About the Need for Action by Washington Survey [April,2007]
Source: Survey by Civil Society Institute, 40mpg.org
Methodology: Conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, April 19-April 22, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,013.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: 'gas%'; Organization: 'Opinion Research Corporation'; Date: '04/19/2007 to 04/19/2007'

Title: Retirement Confidence Survey 2007 [January,2007]
Source: Survey by Employee Benefit Research Institute, American Savings Education Council.
Methodology: Conducted by Mathew Greenwald & Associates, January 2-January 29, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,252. For some questions there were variations in the question wording between the retired and non-retired respondents which are shown. The status was determined by taking into account the respondent's and spouse's retirement status.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Topic: 'retirement'; Date: '01/02/2007 to 01/02/2007'

Title: National Election Pool Exit Poll [November,2006]
Source: Survey by National Election Pool (ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News).
Methodology: Conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International on November 7, 2006 and based on self-administered and telephone interviews with a national adult exiting voters sample of 13,866. There were two forms of the questionnaire which included some questions in common and some that were unique. The study included a telephone survey of 1478 absentee/early voters conducted October 27-November 5, 2006 by Interviewing Services of America. The telephone data was combined with the self-administered exit poll data.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Organization: 'Exit poll'; Date: '11/07/2006 to 11/07/2006'

Title: The Spiritual State of the Nation Survey [February,2006]
Source: Survey by The Spiritual Enterprise Institute.
Methodology: Conducted by Gallup Organization during February, 2006 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,004.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Topic: 'religion'; Organization: 'Gallup'; Date: '02/28/2006 to 02/28/2006'

Title: Pew Hispanics Survey [August,2006]
Source: Survey by Pew Hispanic Center, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Methodology: Conducted by ICR-International Communications Research, August 10-October 4, 2006 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult hispanics sample of 4,016.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Organization: 'Pew'; Date: '08/10/2006 to 08/10/2006'

Additional resources - Web sites with special survey samples

Pew Research Center and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life Muslim Americans Survey
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Giving Voice to the People of New Orleans: The Kaiser Post-Katrina Baseline Survey
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/7631.cfm

Posted by ronbo at 02:24 PM

From IES Newsflash: Just Released! - The Condition of Education 2007

Report on the State of American Education Shows High School Students Taking More Advanced Coursework

High school students in the United States are taking more courses in mathematics and science, as well as social studies, the arts, and foreign languages, according to The Condition of Education 2007 report released today by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The general increases in credits earned since the early 1980s are, in large part, a product of more graduates taking more advanced courses.

"The recent emphasis on mathematics and science in the high school curriculum has raised some concerns that growth in these and other high priority subject areas has squeezed out courses in other areas, such as the arts and history," said Mark Schneider, NCES Commissioner. "We have not found this to be the case. In fact, credits earned in other subjects have increased at the same time."

The Condition of Education is a congressionally mandated report that provides an annual statistical portrait of education in the United States. The 48 indicators included in the report cover all aspects of education, from student achievement to school environment and from early childhood through postsecondary education.

The report shows that enrollment in U.S. public schools is becoming increasingly diverse. In addition, more individuals are enrolling in postsecondary education, and more bachelor’s degrees have been awarded than in the past. Among the report’s other findings:

High School Coursetaking

* The average number of credits earned by high school graduates increased from 21.7 credits in 1982 to 25.8 credits in 2004.

* Comparing 1982 and 2004, graduates earned an average of 4.0 versus 4.3 credits in English, 2.7 versus 3.6 credits in mathematics, and 2.2 versus 3.2 credits in science.

* These increases in credits earned in English, mathematics, and science have not coincided with a decline in other coursework. Comparing 1982 and 2004, graduates earned an average of 3.2 versus 3.9 credits in history/social studies, 1.1 versus 2.0 credits in foreign languages, and 1.4 versus 2.1 in arts.

* Between 1997 and 2005, the number of students taking AP exams more than doubled to about 1.2 million, with the numbers of Blacks and Hispanics growing faster than those for other racial/ethnic groups.

* The percentage of exams resulting in a qualifying score of 3.0 or better decreased from 65 percent in 1997 to 59 percent in 2005.

* In 2004, Asian/Pacific Islander graduates were more likely than graduates of any other race/ethnicity to have completed advanced coursework in science, mathematics, English, and foreign language.

* Students who eventually dropped out of high school were behind their peers who graduated on time in the total number of credits they earned in their freshman and sophomore years, as well as the amount they earned in English, mathematics, and science courses. Year-to-year change shows that credit accrual declined for dropouts, putting them further behind.

America’s Students Today

* Minority students make up 42 percent of public school enrollment.

* Twenty percent of school-age children speak a language other than English at home.

* The rate of college enrollment immediately after high school increased from 49 percent in 1972 to 69 percent in 2005.

* Female college enrollment passed male enrollment in 1978. The gender gap has since widened and is expected to continue to grow.

Learner Outcomes

* About three-quarters of the freshman class graduated from public high schools on time in 2003–04.

* The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded increased by 33 percent between 1989-90 and 2003-04, while the number of associate’s degrees increased by 46 percent. Minority students have accounted for about half of the growth in associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.

* Adults ages 25–34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher have higher median earnings than their peers with less education, and these earnings differences increased from 1980 to 2005.

* The average total price for 1 year of full-time graduate education ranged from $21,900 for a master’s degree program to $41,900 for a first-professional degree program.

NCES is the statistical center of the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. The full text of The Condition of Education 2007 (in HTML format), along with related data tables and indicators from previous years, can be viewed at:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/

To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007064

Posted by ronbo at 01:52 PM

May 30, 2007

From IES Newsflash: Upcoming Release! - The Condition of Education 2007

The Condition of Education 2007, the annual statistical portrait of education in the United States, will be released Thursday, May 31st, 2007. The 2007 report summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 48 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on high school coursetaking.

The report will be made available Thursday morning at 10:00 am at: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/

Posted by ronbo at 01:55 PM

May 25, 2007

Selections from the ESS User Bulletin 9 - May 2007

1. Selection of Questionnaire Design Teams for ESS Round 4

Two teams have been selected by the ESS Scientific Advisory Board to design the usual 50-item rotating modules for ESS Round 4. The successful teams are:

* 'Experiences and Expressions of Ageism': led by Dominic Abrams at the University of Kent in the UK, Luisa Lima at the University of Lisbon in Portugal and Geneviève Coudin of Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale in France.

* 'Welfare attitudes in a changing Europe’: led by Stefan Svallfors at Umeå University in Sweden, Wim van Oorschot at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, Peter Taylor-Goodby at the University of Kent, Christian Staerklé at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Jørgen Goul Andersen at Aalborg University in Denmark.

Further information about the successful applications can be found on the home page of the ESS website.

Fieldwork for ESS Round 4 will start in September 2008.

2. ESS News

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
Eighteen national research councils, together with the European Science Foundation, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding about the future of the ESS. The Memorandum commits its signatories to try to establish a framework for longer term collaboration on the funding of the ESS. The Research Councils to have signed the Memorandum so far are from: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Efforts are also being made to secure funding for the ESS from the European Commission under Framework Programme 7.

ESS Book
A new edited volume about the ESS has recently been published by Sage Publications. ‘Measuring Attitudes Cross-Nationally: lessons from the European Social Survey’ is edited by Roger Jowell, Caroline Roberts, Rory Fitzgerald and Gillian Eva, with chapters from many members of the ESS Central Coordinating Team. Six of the eleven chapters describe and justify separate aspects of the ESS’s methodology – sampling, questionnaire development, translation, event-reporting, response enhancement and data access and documentation – each drawing conclusions for comparative social measurement more generally. Two further chapters deal more broadly with the ESS as a measurement model and what we are learning from it. And the final three chapters deal with substantive findings from the early rounds. Further information can be found on Sage’s website or by clicking here: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book228801

ESS Codebook: Round 1 and Round 2
An ESS codebook has also recently been published, containing all questions and response distributions from Rounds 1 and 2 in an easily accessible format. It costs £30 for UK customers and £35 for the rest of the world, including all postage and packaging. If you would like to order a copy, simply download, print and complete the order form, which can be found on the ESS website and post it to: Mary Keane, Room DG16, Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, Social Science Building, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK.

ESS Website
The ESS website has recently been re-designed and upgraded in an attempt to make it even easier to use and navigate. The site will be re-launched on Friday 1st June at the usual address (www.europeansocialsurvey.org).

ESS Training Courses
The first ESS Training Course on "Designing and Implementing Questionnaires for Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Contexts" will be held at Ljubljana University, Slovenia, on the 6th-7th of August, 2007. The course will focus on questionnaire design and implementation within a framework of survey process quality monitoring and includes consideration of documentation and quality monitoring. Examples will be drawn from the ESS, the ISSP and other well-known cross-national surveys. Courses are funded by the European commission under an infrastructure grant to the ESS.

The course instructor is Professor Janet Harkness, Director of the Survey Research and Methodology Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the UNL Gallup Research Center, and Senior Scientist at ZUMA, Mannheim, Germany. Although this course is now oversubscribed, it will be repeated at a later date. In addition, there will be nine more ESS Training courses on other topics of comparative research over the next four years.

For more information on these courses please visit http://www.cjm.si/ESS_Train

3. Conferences, programmes and sessions

ESRA 2007 conference
A reminder that the second European Survey Research Association conference (ESRA 2007) is being held on 25-27 June 2007, hosted by the University of Economics, Prague. Registration for the conference is now open. See http://esra.sqp.nl/esra/conferences/2007/

Conference on Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences (QMSS) programme of the European Science Foundation (ESF)
This will take place the week before ESRA 2007, from 21st - 23rd June 2007 and will also be hosted by the University of Economics, Prague. The two conferences have been timed to facilitate attendance at both events. More details can be found at: http://www.s3ri.soton.ac.uk/qmss/conf07/

---

5. User update

The latest user statistics show that the number of ESS users currently stands at 13,797. Further details can be found on the Archive and Data pages of the ESS website.

6. About the ESS

The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically-driven social survey designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations. The survey covers over 30 European nations and employs rigorous methodology. Funding for the central design and coordination of the ESS comes from the European Commission via its Framework Programmes, supplemented by support from the European Science Foundation which initiated the project. Funding for national data collection and coordination comes from funding agencies in participating countries. The European Commission also funds the ESS as an infrastructure.

Posted by ronbo at 08:54 PM

May 21, 2007

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - May 14, 2007

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

NEW ADDITIONS:

4401 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #2, September 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04401.xml

4684 National Election Pool General Election Exit Polls, 2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04684.xml

UPDATES:

2165 ABC News Between Debates Horserace Poll, October 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02165.xml

2962 Indianapolis-St. Louis Election Study, 1996-1997
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02962.xml

3867 ABC News O.J. Simpson and the Media Poll, July 1994
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03867.xml

6340 Surveys of Officer and Enlisted Personnel and Military Spouses, 1985
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06340.xml

8577 ABC News Poll on Nicaragua, March 1986
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08577.xml

8588 ABC News General Election Exit Polls, 1985
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08588.xml

8640 ABC News Daniloff Freedom Poll, September 1986
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08640.xml

8895 ABC News North Testimony Poll #2, July 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08895.xml

9072 ABC News Politics Poll, August 1988
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09072.xml

9461 ABC News/Washington Post Poll, July 1990
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09461.xml

9932 ABC News Democratic Convention Poll #3, July 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09932.xml

You can also view a list of all studies added and updated in the last ninety days by visiting the ICPSR Web site at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/.

Posted by ronbo at 11:15 PM

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - May 21, 2007

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

NEW ADDITIONS:

1344 The Lower and Upper Bounds of the Federal Open Market Committee's Long-Run Inflation Objective
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/01344.xml

1345 Granger Causality and Equilibrium Business Cycle Theory
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/01345.xml

1346 Milton Friedman and U.S. Monetary History: 1961-2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/01346.xml

4675 National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, 1966-1990
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04675.xml

4704 National Violent Death Reporting System, 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04704.xml

UPDATES:

2003 ABC News/Washington Post Poll, August 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02003.xml

3905 Multiple Cause of Death, 1968-1973
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03905.xml

3906 Multiple Cause of Death, 1974-1978
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03906.xml

4536 Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04536.xml

6021 ABC News Perot Reentry Poll, October 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06021.xml

6086 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #1, September 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06086.xml

6088 CBS News/New York Times Florida State Survey, September 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06088.xml

9755 ABC News/Washington Post Poll #1, October 1991
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09755.xml

You can also view a list of all studies added and updated in the last ninety days by visiting the ICPSR Web site at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/.

Posted by ronbo at 10:15 PM

May 10, 2007

Selections from Archaeology and GIS News from ESRI - April 20, 2007

Helpful Tools from ESRI

Animating Data through Time
This ESRI Web help page discusses creating an animation that changes the data in a display or graph over time.

Animation in ArcMap
This ESRI Web help tutorial covers animation using the ArcMap selection.

Mapping and Modeling Groundwater Chemistry with ArcGIS 9.2 [PDF - 2.89MB]
This paper covers importing Microsoft Excel spreadsheet data into ArcGIS 9.2 to create a simple groundwater quality model.

Script Tools at esri.com

TerraServer Download for ArcGIS 9.2
This tool gives the ability to download imagery hosted by TerraServer directly into ArcMap.

Data, Maps, and Models

Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation
This Web site provides documents, maps, photographs, and tools to help you find information regarding archaeological and historic sites. It includes Washington Information System for Architectural and Archaeological Records Data (WISAARD), an online GIS map tool for locating designated historic sites listed on the Washington state National Register of Historic Places.

CGIAR-CSI and SRTM
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR-CSI) is a coordinating center for the application of GIS and remote sensing in sustainable agricultural development. It maintains a data download portal that includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) worldwide 90-meter digital elevation model, which has been further processed to fill in the NoData voids.

HydroSHEDS-International River and Watersheds SRTM
Hydrological Data and Maps Based on Shuttle Elevation Derivatives at Multiple Scales (HydroSHEDS) provides international high-resolution hydrological data derived from SRTM digital terrain data; only South America is completed thus far.

Philadelphia History
The Philadelphia City Archive has photographs dating back to the late 1800s of Philadelphia and its industry, architecture, culture, and people.

World Heritage IMapS
This viewer locates World Heritage Sites designated by the United Nations Environment Program and World Conservation Monitoring Center.

Posted by ronbo at 11:23 PM

Selections from SAS Training Report - May 2007

Coder's Corner

Quick Tip: Freezing Table Headers in ODS HTML
Learn how to freeze table headers while scrolling in ODS HTML. DATA Step, ODS MARKUP and cascading style sheet examples are provided. Applicable to all operating systems.
Read More

Question from the Field: Removing Formatting from SAS Data Sets
How do I permanently remove the format associations from a SAS data set so that the unformatted values are used, not the formatted values?
Read More

Insider's View: Explaining SAS Date Values
Co-founder John Sall's birthday? The date of the first release of SAS? Discover how SAS' authors came to choose Jan. 1, 1960 as the base date for SAS date values.
Read More

Posted by ronbo at 05:20 PM

NEW NCES REPORT! - Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has just released Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey. This report presents findings on the literacy skills of incarcerated adults and analyzes the changes in these skills since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS).

Major findings include the following:

* The average Prose, Document, and Quantitative literacy scores of the prison population were higher in 2003 than in 1992.

* Prison inmates had lower average prose, document, and quantitative literacy than adults living in households. On average, inmates also had lower levels of educational attainment than adults living in households.

* In general, either prison inmates had lower average Prose, Document, and Quantitative literacy than adults living in households with the same level of educational attainment or there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The exception was that among adults without any high school education, prison inmates had higher average literacy on all three scales than adults living in households.

* In 2003, 37 percent of the prison population did not have a high school diploma or a GED, compared with 49 percent in 1992.

* Incarcerated White adults had lower average prose literacy than White adults living in households. Incarcerated Black and Hispanic adults had higher average prose literacy than Black and Hispanic adults living in households.

* Between 1992 and 2003, average prose and quantitative literacy levels increased for prison inmates who were Black, male, or in the 25- to 39-year-old age group.

To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007473

Posted by ronbo at 03:01 PM

May 09, 2007

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - April 30, 2007

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

NEW ADDITIONS:

4316 Washington Post Poll: DC-Region Traffic Poll, January 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04316.xml

4400 New York Times New York City Poll, August 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04400.xml

4451 National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04451.xml

6660 Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) [United States], Fall 1993
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06660.xml

9135 Eurobarometer 28.1: Young Europeans -- Life, Interests, Education, Employment, and Knowledge of Foreign Languages, October-November 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09135.xml

13702 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Flagged Instrument List, Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13702.xml

13712 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Header Data (Primary Caregiver), Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13712.xml

13713 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Header Data (Subject and Young Adult), Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13713.xml

13717 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Personal Identity, Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13717.xml

13718 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Interviewer Impressions (Primary Caregiver), Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13718.xml

13719 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Interviewer Impressions (Subject), Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13719.xml

13720 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Interviewer Impressions (Young Adult), Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13720.xml

UPDATES:

2760 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), 1995-1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02760.xml

6795 Expenditure and Employment Data for the Criminal Justice System [United States]: CJEE Extracts File, 1993
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06795.xml

8487 National Study of Tolerance and Political Ideology, 1973
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08487.xml

You can also view a list of all studies added and updated in the last
ninety days by visiting the ICPSR Web site at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/.

Posted by ronbo at 10:03 PM

NEW NCES REPORT! - Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2005; Graduation Rates, 1999 and 2002 Cohorts; and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2005

This report presents findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) spring 2006 data collection, which included four components: Student Financial Aid for full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students for the 2004-05 academic year; Enrollment for fall 2005 and 12-month counts for 2004-05; Graduation Rates for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students beginning college in 1999 at 4-year institutions or in 2002 at less-than-4-year institutions; and Finance for fiscal year 2005. These data were collected through the IPEDS web-based data collection system. Major findings: * Title IV institutions in the United States enrolled 18 million students in fall 2005; 61 percent were enrolled in 4-year institutions, 37 percent were enrolled in 2-year institutions, and 2 percent were enrolled in less-than-2-year institutions. * Overall graduation rates at 4-year institutions were higher than at 2-year institutions (56 percent and 33 percent, respectively). * During 2004-05, nearly 75 percent of the 2.6 million full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates attending Title IV institutions located in the United States received financial aid. Among full-time, first time undergraduates, the proportion of students receiving financial aid varied by sector of institution: 76 percent of those attending public 4-year institutions; 80 percent of those attending private for-profit 4-year institutions; and 85 percent of those attending private not-for-profit 4-year institutions.

To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007154

Posted by ronbo at 04:45 PM

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - Errata: Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS)

An update has been made to The Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) release announced on the 2007-05-07. The TARS project data, codebooks, and related materials will not be available until December 2007. The study has been removed from the ICPSR Web site. If you would specific notification of the release date please email Russel Hathaway at rhataway@umich.edu.

Posted by ronbo at 04:40 PM

NEW NCES REPORT! - Event Dropout Rates for Public School Students in Grades 9-12: 2002–03 and 2003–04

The report summarizes and compares event dropout rates for public high school students, by state, for 2002-03 and 2003-04. Event dropout rates included in the report measure the percent of 9th- through 12th-grade students who drop out over the course of a school year. A dropout, as defined for this report, is as an individual who was enrolled in school at some time during the previous school year, was not enrolled on October 1 of the current school year, and did not graduate from high school or complete some other district- or state-approved educational program. Among reporting states in 2003-04, the rates ranged from a low of 1.8 percent in Connecticut and New Jersey to a high of 7.9 percent in Louisiana.

To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007026

Posted by ronbo at 02:40 PM

May 08, 2007

From SAS Tech Report - May 2007

SAS News

Dynamically Determine the Creation Date and Last Modified Date for an External File
Use the DIR command and FILENAME PIPE to dynamically determine the creation and last modified dates of an external file on Windows.
Read More

Create Variable Labels from Data Set Values
Dynamically create variable labels from data set values and apply them using PROC DATASETS. This technique can also be used when reading flat files that contain a record you want to use for variable labels.
Read More

Announcing SAS® Visual BI Software
SAS® Visual BI, powered by JMP®, marries rich, interactive visualization capabilities with SAS' powerful analytics and integrated business intelligence platform. Available as an add-on for SAS Enterprise BI Server, SAS Visual BI provides yet another way for business users to interact with information visually and dynamically.
Read More

Optimization with SAS/OR®
This white paper describes the nature and purpose of optimization and considers the various types of optimization problems that can be solved with SAS/OR software. In addition, it explores the value that optimization adds to enterprise data, analytical technologies and business intelligence.
Read More

SAS Education Announces the Opening of Two New Training Locations
SAS is extending its reach throughout the US with the opening of two new training facilities in Houston and Sacramento, CA. Some courses begin this month, so register early.
Read More

Create a New Data Set for Each BY-Group in a Data Set
Create multiple SAS data sets from one SAS data set based upon the value of the BY variable.
Read More

Posted by ronbo at 01:50 PM

May 07, 2007

From Census Product Update: Hot Tip - U.S. Census Bureau Releases Research Data from Study on Multi-Year Estimates

The Census Bureau has released research data on single and multi-year estimates in preparation for the 2008 release of official 3-year estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS). A total of 14 data sets were created for this study using data from 1999 to 2005: three 5-year estimates, five 3-year estimates, and six 1-year estimates. Data profiles that include demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics are available for a broad set of geographic areas in 34 ACS Test counties. In addition to the online data profiles, background information about the study, methodology documentation, quality measures, and a set of questions and answers are available on the ACS web site under "Advanced Methodology."

Posted by ronbo at 11:23 PM

Upcoming S-PLUS Courses and Web Casts

FEATURED COURSES:

Advanced Programming Methods in S-PLUS®
May 17-18, Philadelphia, PA
Oct 8-9, San Francisco, CA

This two-day hands-on course includes a blend of theory, concepts and practical examples. We discuss efficient programming, debugging, graphics, simulations, object-oriented programming, help files, creating libraries for others, and other topics...

Bootstrap Methods and Permutation Tests
May 21-22, Philadelphia, PA
Oct 10-11, San Francisco, CA

This two-day hands-on course begins with a graphical approach to bootstrapping and permutation testing, illuminating basic statistical concepts of standard errors, confidence intervals, p-values and significance tests. We consider graphical and numerical diagnostic checks for the validity of traditional Gaussian-based inferences...

For a complete training schedule go to the Insightful Training page.

Posted by ronbo at 10:49 PM

Roper Center Newsletter, May 2007

Tip of the month!!

WARREN MITOFSKY AWARD

The Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research
An annual award of The Roper Center. The 2007 award prize is $1,000, for more information please click or link to this address http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/center/mitofsky_award.html

WE'VE MOVED

University of Connecticut
Roper Center
369 Fairfield Way, Unit 2164
Storrs, CT 06269-2164

NEW DATA RELEASE

I case you missed it, the 1972-2006 General Social Survey (GSS) cumulative data file conducted by the National Opinion Research Center is now available from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research on CD-ROM. More...

Topics at a Glance!--"Immigration"
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/roperweb/pom/pom.htx;start=HS_special_topics?Topic=immigration
How important is the illegal immigration problem in the United States? Do you think that illegal immigrants help or harm the nation's economy or American workers? Do you believe that immigrants cost the taxpayers too much money? Find out how others feel about this social topic and more in this month's Topic at a Glance--Immigration!

Based on a new topic each month, TAG offers a generous free sampling of related polling data and details of survey datasets held by the Roper Center, along with articles previously published in Public Perspective magazine.

Newly spotlighted datasets http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/roperweb/Catalog40/Catalog40.htx;start=HS_surveyspot
Updated as of May 1, 2007

Special studies of interest recently added to iPOLL. The database now contains nearly a half million questions!
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html

Title: Public Agenda Confidence in US Foreign Policy Index Poll [February,2007]
Source:
Methodology: Conducted by Public Agenda Foundation, February 21-March 4, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,013.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Organization: 'Public Agenda Foundation'; Date: '02/21/2007 to 02/21/2007'

Title: Nuclear Energy Institute Poll [March, 2007]
Source: Survey by Nuclear Energy Institute.
Methodology: Conducted by Bisconti Research and Gfk NOP
Search for: Searched iPOLL for 'nuclear & energy'; Date: ' 03/30/2007 to 03/30/2007'

Additional resources - Web sites with special survey samples

CASA (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University) Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance abuse at America 's Colleges and Universities – College Student Sample
http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/articlefiles/380-College%20II%20Final-Revised.pdf

American Jewish Committee Hispanic Attitudes Toward Jews
http://www.ajc.org/atf/cf/%7B42D75369-D582-4380-8395-D25925B85EAF%7D/Hispanic_Attitudes_Jews_042007.pdf

Posted by ronbo at 10:41 PM

From SAS Events: Recipe for Success: SAS Predictive Analytics Webcast

Recipe for Success:Stirring Up a Complete
Predictive Analytics Process

Step 1: Ingredient Check (Preparing Your Data)
Live Web Seminar
Thursday, May 31 | 1:00 p.m.

Learn More and Register

Please join us for the kickoff Webcast in this new Predictive Analytics series. Like a chef undertaking a culinary challenge, you are ready to create amazing things from the rich ingredients you have on hand – i.e., stores and stores of unused data.

But you need a recipe to shed some light on the steps that will lead you from raw ingredients – data – to a rich array of business intelligence.

If you’re ready to learn how to take the data you have in hand and turn it into savory business insights, join us on May 31 and make sure you know what you need to get started on your predictive analytics challenge!

We hope you’ll join us!

Questions? Contact Natasha George at Natasha.George@sas.com.

Posted by ronbo at 10:30 PM

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - May 07, 2007

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

NEW ADDITIONS:

4679 Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS): Wave 1, 2001
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04679.xml

4699 National Crime Victimization Survey, 1992-2005: Concatenated Incident-Level Files
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04699.xml

6659 Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) [United States], Fall 1994
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06659.xml

13737 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Relationships, Wave 3, 2000-2002
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/13737.xml

UPDATES:

2102 Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) XII: Financial Statistics of Institutions of Higher Education for Fiscal Year Ending 1977
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02102.xml

2485 ABC News Clinton/Jones Poll, April 1998
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02485.xml

4276 National Crime Victimization Survey, 2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04276.xml

4449 National Crime Victimization Survey: Unbounded Data, 2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04449.xml

6180 ABC News Clinton Economy Speech Poll, February 1993
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06180.xml

9885 ABC News Clinton Poll #1, January 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09885.xml

You can also view a list of all studies added and updated in the last ninety days by visiting the ICPSR Web site at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/.

Posted by ronbo at 09:48 PM