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September 27, 2007
Selections from the ESS User list: News from European Social Survey (ESS)
1. First release of ESS round 3 integrated data file
The ESS Data Web Site, http://ess.nsd.uib.no has now been upgraded with the release of:
ESS Round 3:
- Edition 1.0 of the ESS3 data and documentation
VERSION NOTE
------------
ESS3 edition 1.0 (published 26.09.07):
Includes data from Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Hungary, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
Data from Hungary, Romania and Russian Federation are only available from
a separate data file until design weights have been produced for these countries.
- ESS on-line Bibliography
ESS Round 2:
Edition 2 of the ESS2 Contact form data
2. ESS User Bulletin 10
September 2007
1. ESS News
ESS Review –important call for information
After its first six years, the ESS is about to be formally reviewed by its Funders Forum. The review is being coordinated by the European Science Foundation. The team has been keen to compile statistics and other information for the review and would greatly appreciate help from users by telling us how you have been using ESS data. This may be in the form of published work such as journal or newspaper articles, conference or working papers, chapters, books or in lectures, seminars or meetings. If you have not done so already PLEASE complete an ESS publication submission form (click here) so that we can add the information to the list that we are compiling for the review, which starts in October. All publications will also be added to the ESS website and included in future data user bulletins. The ESS will ultimately be judged by the extent and quality of outputs arising from its data. So please take the time to complete this information.
ESS Training Course – call for applicants
This is a call for applications for the 2nd ESS Training Course on “Non response in Cross-National Surveys”, which will be held at Mannheim, Germany, on the 3rd-4th of December, 2007 and will be led by Dr. Ineke Stoop from SCP, Netherlands. The course will discuss the efforts taken to enhance response rates and ways to measure and correct for non response bias in cross-national surveys.
There will be places for up to 60 participants on this course and there is a limited amount of funding available to cover transport and accommodation costs for a select number of participants with outstanding applications. For more information on the course content and application procedure please click here.
Round 2 Contact forms
The ESS Data Archive Web Site has been updated with data from the contact forms for ESS Round 2. The integrated file is available for download from the "Data download" option. A separate report, "Evaluation of Contact files per country" is available from the "Survey documentation option". Please contact Jaak Billiet (jaak.billiet@soc.kuleuven.be) if you have any queries about the Contact form data.
Cross-national cognitive interviewing project
The ESS is collaborating on a WHO / UNESCO / EUROSTAT project called the ‘Budapest Initiative’, which will enable a small number of questions from each of the Round 4 rotating modules to be tested. The following European countries will be participating in the project: the UK (subject to confirmation of funding) Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The results will be used to inform the subsequent development of the Round 4 modules.
The methodology of the project will be based on draft ‘best practice’ guidelines being developed by the Comparative Survey Design and Implementation (CSDI) pre-testing group. It is hoped that these guidelines can be revised according to findings from the project. For further information please contact Rory Fitzgerald (R.fitzgerald@city.ac.uk).
Quality Enhancement: Design and Interviewer effects
The 1st Quality Enhancement Meeting (QEM) on sampling focusing on design effects and interviewer effects was held on 31st January - 1st February in Mannheim, Germany. Design effects are calculated for some countries in the ESS as part of the process of determining sample size. Therefore, the prediction and estimation of design effects is one of the challenges in planning and conducting the ESS. The QEM brought together a group of international experts to discuss different models for the estimation of design effects. As a result of the very active and fruitful discussion at the meeting, a set of recommendations for the ESS were compiled. To download these recommendations, the meeting’s presentations or a state of the art paper on design and interviewer effects click here. But please note that these recommendations have not been adopted and will be discussed in future.
2. Research Visits
EC Funding Available for Collaborative Research Visits
ECASS (the European Centre for Analysis in the Social Sciences) offers an opportunity for funded research visits to analyse the ESS and other datasets at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex. Visits are available for periods up to three months. For more details, visit the ISER website: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ecass/
3. User update
The latest user statistics show that the number of registered ESS users currently stands at 14,621. Further details can be found on the Archive and Data pages of the ESS website.
Posted by ronbo at 03:06 PM
From IES Newsflash: Public and State Library Surveys Transferred to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on October 1, 2007
The Public Libraries Survey (PLS) and the State Library Agencies Survey (StLA), formerly part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), are being transferred to another federal agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), effective October 1, 2007. NCES and IMLS have worked cooperatively to implement this transfer.
Beginning October 1, 2007, information about the state and public library surveys will be available on the IMLS website:
http://www.imls.gov/statistics/statistics.shtm
For Academic and School Library information, please continue to visit the Library Statistics Program located on the NCES website:
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/
Posted by ronbo at 02:52 PM
ACS Alert (No. 54): U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) Selected Population Profiles, Group Quarters Profiles, and Workplace Geography Tables
The Census Bureau today released 2006 ACS selected population profiles, group quarters profiles, and workplace geography tables.
The selected population profiles include 2006 ACS estimates on selected race, Hispanic origin, and ancestry populations. The 2006 ACS data provide key socioeconomic and housing characteristics for about 200 selected population groups at the national and state levels. It allows for easy comparisons across groups and access to a range of data from age, marital status and fertility, to language spoken at home, and educational attainment.
The group quarters data provide the first social and economic characteristic profiles of people living in group quarters - such as college/university housing, adult correctional facilities, and skilled nursing facilities - in nearly three decades.
Workplace-based tables use a person’s place of work as the unit of analysis, as opposed to all of the other ACS tables that use a person’s place of residence.
The data may be found on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder Website at: <http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en>.
___________________________________________________________
The ACS is a key component of the Census Bureau’s 2010 Decennial Census
Program, which also consists of early planning and modernization of
geographic operations and a short-form only for the 2010 Census.
___________________________________________________________________
**Contact Us
If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.
Posted by ronbo at 02:16 PM
September 26, 2007
MEPS Workshop & APHA Learning Institute
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will be conducting a Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Workshop at the American Public Health Association Learning Institute on November 3, 2007 in Washington, D.C. to provide an in-depth learning experience concerning MEPS. The purpose of this workshop is to facilitate the use of the MEPS HC public use data files by the health services research community. The format will be lecture (no SAS experience required) and will last one day.
You must register for the MEPS Workshop and the fee to attend is only $50. A registration to APHA is NOT REQUIRED. See http://www.apha.org/programs/education/APHA-Learning+Institute.htm for registration materials and more information.
If you have an interest in attending a MEPS Workshop and earning CE credits, this is for you. The MEPS Workshop is approved for CME, CHES, and nursing contact hours credits. If you have any questions, please contact workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov
Posted by ronbo at 05:44 PM
From IES Newsflash: New College Navigator Now Online!
Since its creation in 2001, the Department of Education College Opportunities Online (COOL) website has helped hundreds of thousands of students and families learn about colleges and universities. Now, COOL's successor, called College Navigator and located at http://collegenavigator.ed.gov offers consumers even more information in an easy-to-use format.
Launched today, College Navigator is a free consumer information tool designed to help students, parents, high school counselors, and others get information about nearly 7,000 postsecondary institutions in the United States. It offers a wide range of information previously found on COOL -- such as programs offered, retention and graduation rates, prices, aid available, degrees awarded, campus safety, and accreditation. However, College Navigator offers users valuable new information about colleges and universities, and it does so in a way that is vastly more user-friendly. Users can now:
Search
* Search by programs offered, degrees offered, institution type, price, selectivity, distance from home, school size, institutional mission (historically black colleges and universities, single-sex), extended learning opportunities for adults (weekend and evening degree programs), and intercollegiate athletics programs offered.
* Modify or change their search from anywhere within the website.
* Use a simple and intuitive way of selecting keywords to search among programs at a general level (communications, journalism, and related programs), drill down through a menu to a moderate level of detail, and identify highly specific courses of study (health communication).
Compare
* Make comparisons of up to four institutions in one view, and maintain a list of favorite institutions from different searches
Save
* Save their sessions and receive an email with a link taking them back to where they left off.
Export
* Export search results to easily-used formats, such as Excel.
The College Navigator was developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES plans continuing improvements in the content and function of the site, and there are plans for a Spanish version in the coming months.
Visit College Navigator:
http://collegenavigator.ed.gov
Posted by ronbo at 03:33 PM
September 25, 2007
From IES Newsflash: Results of the NAEP 2007 Mathematics and Reading Results Just Released!
Results from the NAEP assessments in reading and mathematics part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) were released today. The Nation’s Report Card: Reading 2007 and The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2007 report national and state-level performance of fourth- and eighth-graders. National data are compared to previous assessments in 2005 in both subjects and 1992 in reading and 1990 in mathematics.
Findings include:
In MATHEMATICS in 2007
* Fourth- and eighth-graders scored higher than in all previous assessment years.
* White, Black, and Hispanic students at both grades demonstrated a better understanding of mathematics compared to all previous assessment years.
* The White-Black score gap narrowed at grade four when compared to 1990 and at grade 8 when compared to 2005.
* Fifteen states (14 states and DC) improved at both grades, with fourth-graders in an additional eight states, and eighth-graders in 11 states scoring higher.
In READING in 2007
* Fourth-graders scored higher than in all previous assessment years.
* Eighth-graders scored higher than in 2005 and 1992.
* At both grades, White, Black, and Hispanic students all scored higher than in 1992. However, only the White-Black gap at fourth-grade was smaller compared to 2005 and 1992.
* Four states had higher scores at both grades, with 14 additional states (13 states and DODEA) improving in just fourth grade and two states scoring higher in just eighth grade. Two states had lower scores at grade 8 than in 2005.
For complete results and to download the report, visit:
http://nationsreportcard.gov
The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2007
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2007/2007496.asp
The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2007:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2007/2007494.asp
Join NCES Associate Commissioner Dr. Peggy G. Carr for an online chat at 2 p.m. today. Submit your questions ahead of time at:
http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/statchat/index2.asp
Come back later to participate in the chat.
Posted by ronbo at 08:41 PM
From IES Newsflash: NEW REPORT! Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools, Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2005-06
This report, released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), uses data from the 2005–06 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) to examine a range of issues dealing with school crime and safety, such as the frequency of school crime and violence, disciplinary actions, and school practices related to the prevention and reduction of crime and safety. SSOCS is the primary source of school-level data on crime and safety for NCES. Since 1999, it has been administered three times to the principals of a nationally representative sample of public primary, middle, high, and combined schools.
To download, view and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007361
Posted by ronbo at 08:40 PM
Recent ICPSR updates and additions - September 25, 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:
4433 National Survey of Local Government Economic Development, 1998
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04433.xml
4434 National Survey of Economic Development Organizations, 1999
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04434.xml
4683 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04683.xml
20241 Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment, 2001
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20241.xml
20541 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20541.xml
20962 Experiments in Financial Liberalization: The Mexican Banking Sector
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20962.xml
20963 How Well Does Employment Predict Output?
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20963.xml
UPDATES:
2491 ABC News Timothy McVeigh Verdict Poll, June 1997
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02491.xml
2939 Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 1999
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02939.xml
3835 ABC News State of the Union Poll, January 1995
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03835.xml
3848 ABC News O.J. Simpson Domestic Violence Poll, June 1994
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03848.xml
4701 Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, Wave 3, 2005-2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04701.xml
6023 ABC News Vice-Presidential Debate Poll, October 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06023.xml
6025 ABC News Daily Tracking Poll, November 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06025.xml
6184 ABC News Waco/Koresh Poll, April 1993
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06184.xml
6686 ABC News United States in Bosnia Poll, November 1995
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06686.xml
6832 ABC News State of the Union Poll, January 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06832.xml
8556 ABC News START Talks Poll, January 1985
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08556.xml
8572 ABC News State of the Union Poll, January 1986
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08572.xml
8575 ABC News Tylenol Poisoning Poll, February 1986
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08575.xml
8674 Slave Trials in Anderson and Spartanburg Counties, South Carolina, 1818-1861
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08674.xml
8857 ABC News Tower Commission Poll, February 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08857.xml
8858 ABC News Stockbroker Poll, February 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08858.xml
9244 ABC News Business World Poll, March 1989
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09244.xml
9430 Southern Agricultural Households in the United States, 1880
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09430.xml
9612 ABC News Supreme Court Nomination Poll, July 1991
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09612.xml
9757 ABC News Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Coup Poll, August 1991
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09757.xml
9933 ABC News Democratic Convention Poll #2, July 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09933.xml
20741 National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003 [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20741.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 08:38 PM
September 24, 2007
Roper Center Data Acquisitions Update, July 2007
Stanford University Libraries maintains a membership to the Roper Center and Stanford faculty, staff, and students can now download data directly accessible via Roper Express. For instructions on requesting data not available via Roper Express, click on the "Data Services - Roper" link on our SSDS web site.
This month the Roper Update (pdf) for the month of July contains:
• 2006 TranAtlantic Trends conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres for The German Marshall Fund of the United States and Compagnia di San Paolo di Torino, Italy, June 6-24, 2006. The survey includes interviews with 13,044 adult residents of Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• 5 new CBS News/New York Times polls conducted from October-December, 2006 including samples of adult residents of Ohio and New Jersey.
These notices have been archived on the Roper Center website at:
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/data/past_data_announcements.html
If you have any questions about these data collections please do not hesitate to contact the Roper Center at rcweb@ropercenter.uconn.edu.
Posted by ronbo at 08:24 PM
Roper Center Data Acquisitions Update, August 2007
Stanford University Libraries maintains a membership to the Roper Center and Stanford faculty, staff, and students can now download data directly accessible via Roper Express. For instructions on requesting data not available via Roper Express, click on the "Data Services - Roper" link on our SSDS web site.
This month the Roper Update (pdf) for the month of August contains:
• 3 new Pew Research Center Polls conducted from September, 2006 to January, 2007 including oversamples of specific Congressional Districts
• A new Cable News Network Poll conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation from June 22-24, 2007.
• A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by Hart/Newhouse Research Companies from June 8-11, 2007 of National adult including an oversample of Hispanics
These notices have been archived on the Roper Center website at:
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/data/past_data_announcements.html
If you have any questions about these data collections please do not hesitate to contact the Roper Center at rcweb@ropercenter.uconn.edu.
Posted by ronbo at 08:20 PM
From IRiSS Eye on the World: New Secure Data Center Opens
This fall IRiSS will open a new Secure Data Center to support research that analyzes confidential and sensitive data sets. According to IRiSS director Karen Cook, the center will develop expertise and specialized infrastructure to stay ahead of two trends in the social sciences--one is the demand for access to the growing mass of micro data available to the research community; the other is the heightened concern about the protection of these data.
Sociology Professor Matthew Snipp has been appointed the founding director of the center. Snipp indicates that leading the list of projects to be launched this year is the opening of a Stanford node of the Census Bureau's Research Data Centers, in collaboration with UC Berkeley. In addition to the many data sets from the Census Bureau, the new center will soon also provide access to health microdata from the National Center for Health Statistics. Future initiatives will facilitate access to a variety of data sets with special licensing restrictions and protections.
Snipp's own research uses Census data to understand how factors such as residence, education and family composition are related to racial identification and especially to questions about multiracial backgrounds.
Inquiries about the Secure Data Center should be sent to IRiSS-info@stanford.edu
Posted by ronbo at 06:16 PM
September 21, 2007
GAUSS upgraded to 8.0 on Stanford Unix
GAUSS upgraded to 8.0
(Matrix-based data analysis)
http://www.aptech.com/
DESCRIPTION
The GAUSS Mathematical and Statistical System is an easy to use data analysis environment based on the fast and powerful GAUSS Matrix Programming Language. GAUSS has been used by technical professionals in all fields for everything from basic statistical analysis to solving real world optimization and data analysis problems of exceptionally large scale.
The above information was taken from the GAUSS web site.
CHANGES
See http://www.aptech.com/GAUSS_8.0.html for details.
UNIX COMMANDS
tgauss
Posted by yan at 02:01 PM
Stata/SE upgraded to version 10.0 on Stanford Unix
Stata/SE upgraded to 10.0
(Statistics Analysis Package)
http://www.stata.com/
DESCRIPTION
Stata is an environment for manipulating and analyzing data using statistical and graphical methods. Stata is an integrated package - not a collection of separate modules. You can intersperse data management, statistical, and graphical commands.
The above is taken from the Stata website.
CHANGES
See http://www.stata.com/stata10/ for details.
UNIX COMMANDS
stata
stata-se
xstata
xstata-se
Posted by yan at 01:57 PM
Stat/Transfer upgraded to version 9.3 on Stanford Unix
Stat/Transfer upgraded to 9.3
(Statistical data transfer and conversion)
http://www.stattransfer.com
DESCRIPTION
Stat/Transfer is designed to simplify the transfer of statistical data between different programs.
Data generated by one program is often needed in another context, either for analysis, for cleaning and correction, or for presentation. However, not only must the data be transferred, but in addition, the variables generally must be re-described for each program with additional information, such as variable names, missing values and value and variable labels. This process is not only time-consuming, it is error-prone. For those in possession of data sets with many variables, it represents a serious impediment to the use of more than one program.
Stat/Transfer removes this barrier by providing an extremely fast, reliable and automatic way to move data. Stat/Transfer will automatically read statistical data in the internal format of one of the supported programs and will then transfer as much of the information as is present and appropriate to the internal format of another.
CHANGES
See http://stattransfer.com/html/new.html for new features.
UNIX COMMANDS
st
st.real
Posted by yan at 01:51 PM
September 19, 2007
From IES Newsflash: NEW NCES REPORT! - Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003-04
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), (1) examines principals' reports of the prevalence of formal practices in public schools designed to prevent or reduce school violence and (2) describes the distribution of these practices by selected school characteristics. This analysis is based on school-level data reported by principals participating in the school year 2003-04 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Findings from the analysis indicate that schools implemented a variety of school violence prevention and reduction practices and that some practices were more commonly used than others. For example, 59 percent of schools formally obtained parental input on policies related to school crime and 50 percent provided parental training to deal with students' problem behaviors. In addition, practices differed by school level and other selected school characteristics. For example, high schools were more likely than primary schools to implement safety and security procedures, while primary schools were more likely than high schools to promote training for parents to deal with students' problem behavior.
To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007010
Posted by ronbo at 11:57 AM
September 18, 2007
From IES Newsflash: NEW NCES REPORT! - Interpreting 12th-Graders' NAEP-Scaled Mathematics Performance Using High School Predictors and Postsecondary Outcomes from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88)
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) utilizes four sources of NELS:88 data: questionnaire responses, tests, high school transcripts, and postsecondary education transcripts. The NELS:88 1992 12th grade mathematics assessment scores were transformed to the NAEP scale. The report relates mathematics results expressed in the NAEP metric (specifically, the NAEP achievement levels) to cross-sectional (12th grade) correlates of math achievement. It also relates 12th grade NAEP-scaled NELS:88 mathematics results (again expressed in terms of the NAEP achievement levels) to postsecondary educational outcomes. The report is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 provides background information and an introduction. Chapter 2 examines the correlates of math achievement- student, family, and high school predictors (e.g., sex, race, socioeconomic status [SES], school sector, highest math course taken, grades, etc.) of 12th graders' NAEP-Scaled performance. Chapter 3 relates high school seniors' NAEP-scaled mathematics performance to later outcomes such as entry into postsecondary education, and baccalaureate attainment. These senior-year correlates (chapter 2) and future outcomes (chapter 3) are explored through bivariate tables; senior-year achievement correlates are also examined in a logistic regression. Two appendixes provide technical notes, a glossary of variables used, and tables of standard errors for all estimates contained in the report.
To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007328
Posted by ronbo at 10:28 PM
From IES Newsflash: Results of NAEP 2007 Mathematics and Reading Assessments Available September 25 at 10 a.m. ET
Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments in reading and mathematics part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) are scheduled to be released on September 25, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2007 and The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2007 will provide national results and state level data on student performance at fourth and eighth grades for all 50 states, the District of Colombia, and the Department of Defense Schools.
For more information on the assessments, visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/
At the time of the release view the results and watch a web cast of the report release event online at:
http://nationsreportcard.gov
Join NCES Associate Commissioner Dr. Peggy G. Carr for an online chat about the results at 2 p.m. on the day of the release. You can submit questions for the chat ahead of time at:
http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/statchat/index2.asp
Posted by ronbo at 03:02 PM
September 17, 2007
Recent ICPSR updates and additions - September 17, 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:
4228 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #5, October 2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04228.xml
20420 AsiaBarometer, 2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20420.xml
20540 Multiple Cause of Death Public Use Files, 2003
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20540.xml
20741 National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003 [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20741.xml
UPDATES:
2164 Washington Post 1996 Politics Poll, Wave 1, September 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02164.xml
2752 Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th- and 10th-Grade Surveys), 1998
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02752.xml
2778 Gambling Impact and Behavior Study, 1997-1999: [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02778.xml
3522 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 1997-1998: [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03522.xml
4697 General Social Surveys, 1972-2006 [Cumulative File]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04697.xml
6520 Voter News Service General Election Exit Polls, 1994
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06520.xml
6716 Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 1995
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06716.xml
8581 ABC News Chernobyl/Kiev Accident Poll, April 1986
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08581.xml
8860 ABC News North Testimony Poll #1, July 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08860.xml
9460 ABC News AIDS Poll, June 1990
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09460.xml
9930 ABC News Perot Poll #1, July 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09930.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 12:28 PM
September 13, 2007
Selection from SAS Training Report -- September 2007: Support.sas.com Launches Blog
Big changes are coming to support.sas.com, your Web resource for SAS Education course schedules and information, code samples and more. Read the Web site's new blog to stay up-to-date on changes and give your feedback.
Posted by ronbo at 06:00 PM
ANES Announcement: New data available from a collaboration with the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)
In 2005, the American National Election Studies (ANES) announced a new collaboration with the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS). The first product of that collaboration was the purchase of four minutes of time for ANES questions to appear on the 2006 Young Adult component of the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY). A preliminary dataset from this collaboration is now available.
The 2006 Young Adult questionnaire can be viewed at this location:
ftp://ftp.chrr.ohio-state.edu/pub/usersvc/Child-Young-Adult/childya2006/YA2006%20Table%20of%20Contents.html
The ANES questions are YASR-77 through YASR-93, which appear in the "Young Adult Self-Report" section of the questionnaire.
The 2006 Young Adult data itself is available through a preliminary release on the NLS Web-Investigator website, at this location:
http://www.nlsinfo.org/web-investigator/index.php
There is no charge to use the data access tool, though users have to register beforehand.
The National Longitudinal Surveys are run by the Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR) at the Ohio State University. Since the 1960s, CHRR has conducted longitudinal surveys with nationally representative national panels of adults and children. This work has been funded by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Institute for Child Health and Development, and other agencies. The collaborations between ANES and NLS are intended to allow scholars to link electorally-relevant and socially-relevant response across generations. Such linkages can be used to investigate many topics, including how participation and turnout depend on parent-child relations. The longitudinal nature of the NLS studies will further allow studies of how changes over the lifespan affect electorally relevant variables.
The ANES questions included on the 2006 Young Adult study were selected after consultation with the ANES user community. For more information about the collaboration and the questionnaire development process, please refer to these previous announcements on the ANES website:
- January 19, 2006: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/20060119.pdf
- October 10, 2006: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_NLS_20061019.pdf
We hope you enjoy this new addition to the ANES data collection!
Sincerely,
Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
ANES Principal Investigators
Posted by ronbo at 03:17 PM
From IES Newsflash: For NAEP Researchers: 2005 National Indian Education Study, Parts I and II Restricted-Use Data Files
This CD-ROM from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), contains data and documentation files for the 2005 National Indian Education Study (NIES) for use in the analysis of data by secondary researchers. NIES Part I data files include the performance data from the samples of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students at grades 4 and 8 who participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 mathematics or reading assessments. The NIES Part II data files include the survey responses of sampled AI/AN students in grades 4 and 8, their teachers, and their school principals. These data are available on CD-ROM to researchers in organizations holding licenses from NCES. The NAEP Tool Kit, a user-friendly assistant for analyzing NAEP restricted-use data, is also available.
For more information on the NIES, see:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies/
See which NAEP variables are available for analysis for 2005 (and earlier) datasets at:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/variablesrudata.asp
For information on obtaining permission to analyze restricted-use data, read:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/license.asp
To get an idea of the complexity of NAEP data, look at the publicly-available data using the NAEP Data Explorer:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/
Posted by ronbo at 02:06 PM
September 12, 2007
From ACS Alert, Number 53: U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2006 ACS Data on Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics, Demographic and Housing Estimates, and Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) Data
American Community Survey Alert, Number 53
(released September 12, 2007)
The Census Bureau today released ACS social, economic, and housing characteristics, demographic and housing estimates, and PUMS data. Data are again available for the nation, the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, and all counties, places, and metropolitan areas with populations of 65,000 or more.
Key topics included in this release consist of:
*Educational attainment
*Industry
*Occupation
*Class of worker
*Journey to work
*Employment status
*Work status
*Veteran status
*Housing
*Households and families
*Marital status
*Migration
These data may be found at: <
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en>.
As noted in the 2006 ACS data release on Aug. 28, 2007, this year marks the first time that ACS data products cover the total U.S. population, including populations residing in group quarters (such as prisons, college dormitories, military barracks, and nursing homes).
The Census Bureau’s Web site now contains guidance on comparing 2006 ACS data to 2005 ACS data, as well as comparing 2006 ACS data to Census 2000 data. This guidance may be found at: <
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/compACS.htm>.
The final release of 2006 ACS data will occur on Sept. 27, 2007 and consist of selected population profiles/tables for about 200 selected population groups by race, Hispanic origin, and ancestry. In addition, this release will include group quarters profiles, the first such release since the 1990 Census. Also released at that time will be workplace geography tables.
Posted by ronbo at 07:12 PM
From SAS Tech Support: SAS 9.1.3 and Intel-based Macs
SAS 9.1.3 will *not* run natively on the Mac OS X.
If you want to run SAS 9 on a Macintosh, it would need to be an Intel-based Mac and run in a Windows XP Professional partition.
If you run Microsoft Windows XP Profession (WinXP) SP2 on an Intel-based Macintosh computer using Apple's "Boot Camp" Software, SAS 9.1.3 --and-- Enterprise Guide are supported under WinXP.
Apple's "Boot Camp" software allows Intel-based Macs to dual boot to both of the following operating systems:
Mac OS X --or-- Windows XP Professional
Only one operating system can be running at a time with Apple's "Boot Camp" software.
For additional information on Apple's Boot Camp software reference the following links: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
Note: Ensure that Intel-based Macintosh hardware has Mac OS X 10.4.8 and higher. You should also apply the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update from Apple to ensure correct numeric calculations. The Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update addresses the defect in Apple's Rosetta emulation.
The Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update can be downloaded from the Apple website.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1048updateintel.html
For information about Apple's "Boot Camp" software, see SAS Note SN-018131:
http://support.sas.com/techsup/unotes/SN/018/018131.html
SAS 9.1.3 is *not* supported under the Parallels Desktop for Mac" software which allows Windows XP to run in parallel with the Mac's OS-X. http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/
SN-19865: http://support.sas.com/techsup/unotes/SN/019/019865.html
Posted by ronbo at 06:17 PM
From IES Newsflash: NEW NCES REPORT! - Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Minorities
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) profiles current conditions and recent trends in the education of minority students. It presents a selection of indicators that illustrate the educational achievement and attainment of Hispanic, Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander students compared with each other and with White students. In addition, it uses data from the 2005 American Community Survey to detail specific educational differences among Hispanic ancestry subgroups (such as Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban) and Asian ancestry subgroups (such as Asian Indian, Chinese, or Filipino). This report presents 28 indicators that provide demographic information and examine (1) patterns of preprimary, elementary, and secondary school enrollment; (2) student achievement and persistence; (3) student behaviors that can affect their education; (4) participation in postsecondary education; and (5) outcomes of education.
* The report finds that over the past quarter century, minority students have made gains in key education areas, such as completing high school and earning a college degree. However, gaps in academic performance persist between students of most minority groups and White students.
* In 2004, minorities represented 42 percent of the public prekindergarten through secondary school enrollment; however, this percentage ranged widely by state, from 80 percent in Hawaii to 4 percent in Vermont.
* On the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment, higher percentages of Asian/Pacific Islander 4th-graders and 8th-graders scored at or above Proficient than did American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, and White students at the same grade levels.
* In 2005, the percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds who were high school status dropouts (the percentage who had not completed high school and were not currently enrolled) was higher among Hispanics than among Blacks, Whites, and Asian/Pacific Islanders.
* Among Hispanic 16- to 24-year-olds, the percentage of status dropouts among those who were foreign born (38 percent) was more than twice that of their native counterparts (13 percent).
* Between 1976 and 2004, the percentage of total undergraduate enrollment who were minority students increased from 17 to 32 percent. In 2004, more postsecondary degrees were awarded to Blacks than Hispanics, despite the fact that Hispanics represented a larger percentage of the total population.
* From 1990 to 2005, all racial/ethnic groups experienced an increase in the percentage of adults age 25 and over who had completed high school, and the percentages of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native adults with bachelor’s degrees also increased.
To browse this report, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/minoritytrends/
To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007039
Posted by ronbo at 05:59 PM
Selections from SAS Publishing News - September 2007
Avoid Entropy with the Ordered List Using SAS Enterprise Guide
In SAS Enterprise Guide, the process flow ties related tasks together and makes it easy to run them as a group, ensuring that tasks that produce output needed by other tasks are run first. But what if you want to run just a subset of the tasks in your project but still keep them in a certain sequence? The manual method would have you selecting each task one a time, running it, waiting while it completed-and repeating these steps for each task in order. This tip is provided by Chris Hemedinger, co-author of SAS for Dummies.
Read More
Helpful Resources from SAS Publishing
Authorline
See what SAS Press authors are up to with new books, proposals, and more. The newest issue of Authorline, the online newsletter, is available at http://support.sas.com/publishing/bbu/authorline_archive.html
SAS Press Companion Pages
Here you'll find valuable information related to the SAS Press books you have purchased or are considering purchasing from SAS. Please visit the home page at http://support.sas.com/publishing/bbu/companion_site/home.html
SAS Learning Edition
SAS Learning Edition is a personal learning version of the world's leading business intelligence and analytical software. For more information, please go to http://support.sas.com/LE
Online SAS Documentation
We provide both an HTML-based online library with features such as full-text search across titles, a master index, expanding and contracting Table of Contents, as well as printer-friendly PDF versions of the documentation. Most titles appear in both formats. Please go to http://support.sas.com/documentation
Posted by ronbo at 05:32 PM
September 11, 2007
Roper Center Newsletter, September 2007
Something new for Roper Center members—each question in iPOLL from the NORC General Social Surveys (1972-2006) is now linked to an online analysis tool. This point-and-click technology is perfect for students and scholars alike who are curious about how various groups in the population responded to some of the best phrased questions on social issues. Check out the GSS in iPOLL today!
Topics at a Glance!--"Congressional Approval"
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/roperweb/pom/pom.htx;start=HS_special_topics?Topic=Congress
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job? Are approval ratings up or down? Are Republicans or Democrats doing a better job? How would you rate your own representative in Congress? Find out how others feel about this topic and more in this month's Topic at a Glance--Congressional Approval!
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 September 4, 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: CASA 2007 Attitudes on Substance Abuse Survey [April,2007]
Source:
Methodology: Conducted by National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, April 27-May 13, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult parents of teenagers (age 12-17) with oversamples of african americans and hispanics sample of 550. Interviews were conducted by QEV Analytics. A parallel survey of 1297 teens age 12-17 was conducted. All of the 562 interviews with parents were conducted in households where the parents gave consent for their teen to be interviewed even though the teen interview may not have been completed. Results were weighted to be representative of a national adult parent of teens age 12-17 sample.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Topic: 'narcotics'; Date: '04/27/2007 to 04/27/2007'
Title: National Missile Defense Survey [July,2007]
Source: Survey by Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
Methodology: Conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, July 19-July 22, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national adult sample of 1,023.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Topic: 'defense'; Organization: 'Opinion Research Corporation'; Date: ' 07/19/2007 to 07/19/2007'
Title: George Washington University Battleground 2008 Survey [July,2007]
Source: Survey by George Washington University.
Methodology: Conducted by Tarrance Group & Lake Research Partners, July 15-July 18, 2007 and based on telephone interviews with a national likely voters sample of 1,000. Likely voters are registered voters who said they are somewhat/very/extremely likely to vote in 2008.
Search for: Searched iPOLL for: Organization: 'Tarrance'; Date: '07/15/2007 to 07/15/20'
Additional resources - Web sites with special survey samples
Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup 39 th Attitudes Toward the Public Schools
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpollpdf.htm
CASA National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XII: Teen and Parents
http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/templates/Home.aspx
AP/MTV Youth Happiness Survey
http://surveys.ap.org/data/KnowledgeNetworks/2007-08-20%20AP-MTV%20Youth%20Happiness.pdf
Posted by ronbo at 06:53 PM
From MEPS list: Recent MEPS Data Products and Publications
AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS data products and publications.
Recent MEPS Data:
MEPS HC-094B: 2005 Dental Visits
Release Date: August 2007
This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, the Dental Visits File provides detailed information on dental events for a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United Sates during the 2005 calendar year. This file consists of 2005 data obtained in the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 10 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005), and contains variables pertaining to household reported dental visits. The file includes the date of the dental event, type of provider seen, if the visit was due to an accident, reason for the dental event, and whether or not medicines were prescribed. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094B
MEPS HC-094C: 2005 Other Medical Expenses
Release Date: August 2007
This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on the purchase of and expenditures for medical equipment, supplies, glasses and other medical items for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated with medical items during the 2005 calendar year. This file consists of 2005 data obtained in the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as rounds 1, 2 and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 9 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005). This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094C
MEPS HC-094H: 2005 Home Health File
Release Date: August 2007
This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Household-reported information on expenditures for home health visits including the type of provider, type of services received, length of the visit, reason for the visit, expenditures, and sources of payment. Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on home health care for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated with home health care during the 2005 calendar year. This file consists of 2005 data obtained in the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 10 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005). This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094H
Recent MEPS Publications:
Research Findings No. 27: Health Care Expenditures for Uncomplicated Pregnancies
Release Date: August 31, 2007
This report uses data pooled from three panels (2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04) of the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) to estimate medical expenditures (in 2004 dollars) associated with an uncomplicated pregnancy and in-hospital delivery. This Research Findings is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/rf27/rf27.pdf
Statistical Brief #179: Aspirin Use among the Adult U.S. Noninstitutionalized Population, with and without Indicators of Heart Disease, 2005
Release Date: July 2007
This Statistical Brief provides estimates of aspirin use among the U.S. population age 18 and older. The brief further looks at the use of aspirin among those with or without indicators of heart disease. The estimates presented are derived from data collected in the questionnaire used in the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st179/stat179.pdf
Statistical Brief #180: The Top Five Outpatient Prescription Drugs Ranked by Total Expense for Children, Adults, and the Elderly, 2004
Release Date: July 31, 2007
Using data from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, this Statistical Brief provides information on the top five outpatient prescription medicines ranked by total expenditures as reported by households in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in calendar year 2004 for children age 17 and under, adults age 18-64, and the elderly age 65 and older, as well as information on average total payment and average out-of-pocket payment per purchase for the top five drugs for each subpopulation. Only prescribed medicines purchases in an outpatient setting are included in the estimates. Insulin and diabetic supplies and equipment are included in MEPS prescribed medicines estimates. Over-the-counter medicines are excluded from these estimates as are prescription medicines administered in an inpatient setting or in a clinic or physician's office. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st180/stat180.pdf
Statistical Brief #181: Co-pays, Deductibles, and Coinsurance Percentages for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in the Private Sector, by Firm Size Classification, 2005
Release Date: August 15, 2007
Using data from data from the 2005 Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC), this Statistical Brief examines what percentage of enrollees paid a deductible and the size of deductibles, what percentage paid co-pays and the size of the co-pays, and the average coinsurance percentage paid. These values are compared for firms of different employment size. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st181/stat181.pdf
Statistical Brief #182: Co-pays, Deductibles, and Coinsurance Percentages for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in the Non-Federal Workforce, by Industry Classification, 2005
Release Date: August 15, 2007
Using data from data from the 2005 Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC), this Statistical Brief examines what percentage of enrollees paid a deductible and the size of deductibles, what percentage paid co-pays and the size of co-pays, and the average coinsurance percentage paid. These values are compared for employers by industry classification. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st182/stat182.pdf
Statistical Brief #183: Long-Term Uninsured in America, 2002-2005: Estimates for the U.S. Population under Age 65
Release Date: August 28, 2007
Using information from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) for 2004 and 2005, this Statistical Brief provides detailed estimates for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized non-elderly (under age 65) population that was uninsured for the entire 2002-2005 period and identifies groups most at risk of lacking any coverage over that four-year period. The addition of questions in MEPS to determine health insurance coverage profiles for the period covering 2002 and 2003, in concert with information on health insurance profiles from the National Health Interview Survey for 2003, facilitated these analyses of extended longitudinal profiles. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st183/stat183.pdf
Posted by ronbo at 05:40 PM
From Eurobarometer List: NEW EUROBAROMETER RELEASES
Dear list members,
we are pleased to announce the following Eurobarometer release:
ZA Study 4527
ICPSR Study Number [not yet assigned]
EUROBAROMETER 66.2
Carried out and managed by TNS OPINION & SOCIAL (BRUSSELS), on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion, between October 6 and November 8, 2006.
Coverage: 25 EU member countries plus accession countries (AC) Bulgaria and Romania, the candidate country (CC) Croatia, and the Turkish Cypriote Community (TCC)
TOPICS:
- Nuclear energy and safety (report published)
- Public health: Electromagnetic fields (report published)
- Public health: Alcohol habits (report published)
- Public health: Smoking habits and passive smoking (report published)
- Public health: Organ donation (report published)
- Public health: Personal state of health and prevention - EMBARGO -
ZA Study 4542
FLASH EUROBAROMETER 202
Young Europeans - A survey among young people aged 15-30 in the European Union
Carried out and managed by THE GALLUP ORGANISATION, on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion, between January 30 and February 4, 2007.
Coverage: 27 EU member countries (after the accession of Bulgaria and Romania)
TOPICS:
- Political participation
- Employment situation
- Personal meaning and future of the European Union
If you would like to order the data, please contact YOUR data archive:
http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/staff/archives.htm
For more information on the respective Eurobarometer please see:
http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/standard_eb_profiles/indexframe_profiles.htm
http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/flash/flash_eb_studyprofiles.htm
The official standard reports are available on the Commission's website:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb67/eb67_en.htm
With kind regards
Meinhard Moschner
--
GESIS-ZA Central Archive for Empirical Social Research Meinhard Moschner meinhard.moschner@gesis.org Tel. ++49 +221 47694 21 Fax. ++49 +221 47694 44 For more information on EUROBAROMETER please see: http://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer
Posted by ronbo at 02:35 PM
From IES Newsflash: Perceptions and Expectations of Youth With Disabilities. A Special Topic Report of Findings From the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)
This report from NCSER provides a picture of the self-representations and expectations of youth with disabilities, how they differ across disability categories and demographic groups, and how they compare with youth in the general population. The National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2), funded by IES, was initiated in 2001 and has a nationally representative sample of more than 11,000 students with disabilities. This report presents findings drawn primarily from telephone interviews or self-administered mail surveys collected from youth when they were ages 15 through 19. The report addresses questions such as how youth with disabilities describe their feelings about themselves and their lives, their secondary school experiences, their personal relationships, and their expectations for the future.
To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/index.asp#NLTS2perceptions
Posted by ronbo at 02:31 PM
From IES Newsflash: NEW REPORT! - Postsecondary Institutions in the United States: Fall 2006 and Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2005-06
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) presents findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) fall 2006 data collection, which included two survey components: Institutional Characteristics for the 2006-07 academic year, and Completions covering the period July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006. These data were collected through the IPEDS web-based data collection system.
To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007166
Posted by ronbo at 02:29 PM
September 07, 2007
From Census Product Update (September 2007): Income in the United States
Real median household income rose between 2005 and 2006 in 15 states and the District of Columbia, while no states experienced a decline. Seven states that experienced increases were in the West (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington), six were in the South (Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas) and two were in the Midwest (Kansas and South Dakota). Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut had the highest median household incomes in 2006, while Mississippi and West Virginia had the lowest. Additional 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) Income and Poverty data are available from the American FactFinder Data Sets page.
Posted by ronbo at 05:22 PM
From IES Newsflash: New! Technical Report of the NAEP Mathematics Assessment in Puerto Rico: Focus on Statistical Issues
In 2003, a trial NAEP mathematics assessment was administered in Spanish to public school students at grades 4 and 8 in Puerto Rico. Based on preliminary analyses of the 2003 data, changes were made in administration and translation procedures for the 2005 NAEP administration in Puerto Rico. This report describes the content and administration of the trial NAEP mathematics assessments in Puerto Rico in 2003 and 2005, problems with item misfit in the 2003 data, results of a special validity analysis, and plans to integrate Puerto Rico into the national sample in future administrations.
See the report summary at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2007462.asp
Find out more about the NAEP mathematics assessment in Puerto Rico at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/puertorico/
and http://nationsreportcard.gov/puertorico_2005/
See summaries of related reports, Mathematics 2003 and 2005 Performance in Puerto Rico-Highlights, at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2007459.asp
and
Mathematics 2005 Performance in Puerto Rico-Focus on the Content, at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2007460.asp
Posted by ronbo at 08:21 AM
September 06, 2007
From SAS Training: Learn About Data Mining from the Experts
One of the best reasons to attend M2007 is the unprecedented gathering of top-notch presenters, leaders and experts. Data mining visionaries share their knowledge to help you come up with new ideas and solve your most pressing data mining challenges. You won't find a gathering like this at any other conference.
M2007, SAS' 10th Annual Data Mining Conference
October 1-2
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
View conference Web site.
Register to attend M2007 to hear from industry leaders including:
David Hand, Head of Statistics, Imperial College, London
Noted author of more than 20 books including his most recent publication:
Information Generation: How Data Rule Our World
Gordon Linoff, Founder and Principal of Data Miners, Inc.
Expert in the fields of data mining and data warehousing and author of some of the industry's top selling books:
Mining the Web, Data Mining Techniques, and Mastering Data Mining
At M2007 you'll learn first-hand from data mining experts across a variety of industries. Hear presentations from leading organizations including:
* AT&T
* Ford Motor Company
* Accenture
* Blue Cross Blue Shield
* HSBC
* The Nature Conservancy
Don’t miss your chance to learn from the data mining community's best and brightest!
Register now.
Posted by ronbo at 03:53 PM
From IES Newsflash: NEW NCES REPORT! - Mini-Digest of Education Statistics 2006
This publication is a pocket-sized compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from kindergarten through graduate school. The statistical highlights are excerpts from the Digest of Education of Statistics, 2006.
To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007067
Posted by ronbo at 12:53 PM
Selections fromArchaeology and GIS News from ESRI (Summer 2007)
Data, Maps, and Models
Terrestrial Ecological Unit Inventory (TEUI) Technical Guide: Landscape and Land Unit Scales [PDF-2.79 MB]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) guide provides information on national standards, methodologies, and classification criteria for developing TEUIs at the landtype, landtype association, and landtype phase levels. See also the FS ArcGIS extension, TEUI Geospatial Toolkit [PDF-1.79 MB], designed to streamline the TEUI premapping process.
Digital Historian Forum
The British Arts and Humanities Research Council's Methods Network has an online community forum on the use of technology for historical scholarship. Input is encouraged for working papers that include Tools and Methods for the Digital Historian and other forums including several on electronic publishing. All questions regarding Digital Historian and Methods Network community building should be directed to senior research project coordinator Torsten Reimer.
Yale University Library Map Collection
This site contains not only information on the map collection's inventory but also offers GIS services that cover geospatial data searching, acquisition, data manipulation, instruction, software access, distribution, and output. The collection includes scanned historical Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (dating from 1886) for Connecticut.
PASTMAP Query System for Scotland Datasets
PASTMAP is a map-enabled query system for Scottish National and Regional Archaeological and Architectural Datasets.
ESRI Software Documentation, How-to, and Tools
ArcGIS Explorer Now Available
The no-cost ArcGIS Explorer download enables you to access ArcGIS Online beta services, which include one-meter imagery for the entire United States and submeter imagery for certain major metropolitan areas. This new version has improved KML support, navigation tools, and printing capabilities. An ArcGIS Explorer resources page gives you access to a blog, a discussion forum, and several globes and maps.
ArcGIS Explorer Education Version
ArcGIS Explorer - Java Edition for Education 2.3 is a no-cost, downloadable, lightweight GIS for Macintosh OSX and Windows 2000/XP. The 2.3 version includes a number of improvements.
* Help menu opens the tutorial.
* Projects can use relative paths.
* Open projects or add data begins in the "data" folder.
* Identify tool uses the highlighted layer.
* Selected records can be sorted in the attribute table.
* Move back and forth between map and layout views.
Note: Before installing a new version, you should uninstall previous versions. You can read about installation tips [PDF-2.14 MB], consult the support center, and download the latest version online. Prepared lessons are available at ArcLessons (Search by software: ArcGIS Explorer).
Tips on Using ArcGIS: ArcMap [PDF-2.08 MB]
This GIS Best Practices series booklet focuses on increasing your productivity using ArcMap.
Harvard Map Collection GIS Tutorial
Harvard University's Introduction to ArcGIS tutorial includes videos and hands-on exercises.
Archaeology Management Software Based on ESRI Technology
The Heritage Resource Inventory Application (HRIA) is a database system for managing archaeological and heritage sites.
Posted by ronbo at 01:02 AM
September 05, 2007
From GovTech Top News: NASA Image Archive Will Soon be Accessible Online
Aug 29, 2007, News Report
NASA and Internet Archive of San Francisco are partnering to scan, archive and manage the agency's vast collection of photographs, historic film and video. The imagery will be available through the Internet and free to the public, historians, scholars, students, and researchers.
Currently, NASA has more than 20 major imagery collections online. With this partnership, those collections will be made available through a single, searchable "one-stop-shop" archive of NASA imagery.
Posted by ronbo at 12:10 PM
From SPSS Technical Support: SPSS Proactive Notification - SPSS 15.0.1.1 Patch Update - Patch is now available in additional formats
SPSS Technical Support announces the availability of the SPSS 15.0.1.1 Patch in the following formats:
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Simplified Chinese - Interactive Installation Patch
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Simplified Chinese - Unattended/Silent Installation Patch
English - Career Starter, Faculty Pack, and Graduate Pack Patch
English - Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit, Linux 32-bit, AIX 32-bit, and Solaris 64-bit Server Patch
This patch addresses the issue that was previously announced on June 26, 2007 relating to potential data transformation errors after deleting variables from your dataset in SPSS 15.0.1. Please see Resolution 70501 for more details. This patch does not correct previously saved SPSS data files.
For detailed information on the description of this patch, installation instructions, and downloading go to: http://support.spss.com and click on "Login to Online Tech Support" then enter your user name and password. Select the "SPSS" menu link then on "Patches" followed by "SPSS for Windows". If you have forgotten your user id or password you can use the Find Password feature on our Web site. This can be found at: http://support.spss.com/password.html
Graduate pack and Career Starter patches can be accessed from the Student Access link on the Technical Support home page.
We are continually striving to improve our communication to our clients. However, if you do not wish to receive further proactive e-mails from SPSS Support, please reply to this message with REMOVE on the subject line.
Thank you,
SPSS Technical Support
Posted by ronbo at 10:45 AM
September 04, 2007
ANES Announcement: Place Questions on the 2008 Edition of the Face-to-Face Time Series Study
On September 17, 2007, the American National Election Studies will begin accepting proposals for questions to include on the face-to-face survey we will conduct before and after the 2008 election (we refer to this as the "Time Series" survey, because it continues 50 years of ANES face-to-face interviewing).
This year, for the very first time, anyone can submit a proposal of items to be included in this study through the ANES Online Commons. This letter describes that new opportunity.
About the ANES Time Series Study
The ANES’s core mission is to promote cutting-edge and broadly-collaborative research on American national elections. To honor and expand the existing literature on voting and elections, we must continue to pursue the traditions of excellence established by past ANES studies and, at the same time, take ANES in new directions, so as to empower scholars to enhance the depth and breadth of our collective understanding of electorates. For us, what matters most is the credibility of the study design and its ability to provide data for the many scholars who seek to evaluate an ever-expanding range of important hypotheses.
The heart of the ANES is its presidential year time series surveys. The time series legacy is well known, having generated thousands of publications and serving as a model for election studies around the world. Every four years, a large representative sample of American adults has been interviewed face-to-face on two occasions, first between Labor Day and Election Day, and again between Election Day and the onset of the winter holidays. The two interviews will last no less than one hour each in 2008. Pre-election interviews focus on candidate preferences and anticipated vote choice, plus an array of possible predictors of candidate preferences, turnout, citizen engagement, and an array of indicators of cognitive and behavioral engagement in the information flow of the campaign. Post-election interviews measures a variety of behavioral experiences people might have had throughout the campaign (e.g., turnout, mobilization efforts), plus additional posited predictors of candidate preferences, turnout, and citizen engagement.
Some of the questions asked during these interviews are categorized as "Core" items, meaning that they have been asked regularly over the years, are scheduled to appear on subsequent editions of the ANES Time Series, and permit comparisons across elections. A purpose of categorizing items as Core is to assure scholars who conduct longitudinal analyses that they can continue to depend on ANES to include variables that have been shown to perform well in the past. The Core questions are an important reason for the continuation of ANES Time Series maintaining its traditional methodology. They are its "roots."
At the same time, ANES has sought to evolve the time series in innovative ways. The non-Core component of each questionnaire has routinely focused on matters of interest to the current election cycle. These items are often selected from the "ANES Inventory," which includes questions that have been asked in past ANES surveys but are not part of the Core.
The non-Core content of questionnaires has varied over the years. For example, candidate positions on issues of government policy are recognized as predictors of candidate preferences, but two one-hour interviews do not permit measuring positions on all of the many issues enjoying government attention at any one time in history. So from year to year, different choices have been made about which issues to address.
To enhance the credibility of the study design and its ability to provide data infrastructure for the many scholars who seek to evaluate an ever-expanding range of important hypotheses, ANES in 2008 will attempt to balance demands for continuity and innovation in a more inclusive and transparent manner than ever before.
About the Online Commons
Content for the 2008 ANES Time Series Study will evolve from two sources:
- Previous ANES Time Series questionnaires
- New proposals received via the ANES Online Commons (OC)
The ANES Online Commons promotes communication among scholars and yields rigorously reasoned proposals about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships. The OC uses open source software, tailored to accommodate ANES needs. It improves the quality and scientific value of ANES data collections. In the first two uses of the ANES Online Commons (for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study and for the 2008-2009 Panel Study, respectively), more than 500 scholars participated, and more than 2200 questions were proposed.
The ANES Online Commons will begin accepting proposals for the 2008 Time Series Study on September 17, 2007, and will continue to do so until 3:00 pm Eastern Time on January 15, 2008. The Online Commons will remain open for two additional weeks thereafter to allow commentary and revision of the proposals. This opportunity is open to anyone who wants to make a constructive contribution to the development of ANES surveys.
About the 2008 Edition of the ANES Time Series Study
We will conduct the presidential year study via face-to-face interviewing of a nationally representative sample of Americans and with a high response rate, as has been done in past studies. The spirit of this instruction is to maintain continuity in the data collection methodology, so as to maximize comparability of results. We expect to conduct 1,810 hour-long pre-election interviews and 1,629 seventy-minute post-election reinterviews. Moreover, we believe, as a result of a cooperative grant awarded to Gary Segura and Matthew Barreto at the University of Washington, that we will interview an additional 350 Latino voters as a targeted oversample. Therefore, the total number of interviews should top 2100. Subsequent collaborations with entrepreneurial scholars under our recently announced Complementary Cases program may push the total number of interviews even higher (see http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_BMCC_Announcement_20070813.pdf)
As in the past, ANES will continue to emphasize best practices in sample design, respondent recruitment, and interviewing. As always, we aim to provide top-quality service in many respects, including: (1) the careful and extensive planning that must be done before the field work begins, (2) the hard work that will be done by interviewers, supervisors, and study managers during data collection to monitor productivity and make adjustments in strategy to maximize the quality of the final product, and (3) the extensive data processing efforts (including integration of an extensive contextual data file) that will be required to assemble and document the final data set.
Moreover, the 2008 edition of the ANES Time Series will include an exciting new feature. We can offer researchers the opportunity to present visual stimuli to respondents during the interview. For up to ten minutes of the post-election interviews, interviewers will position their laptops so that respondents can see the screen, put headphones on to hear sounds, and view still pictures or video presentations (such as campaign ads or news stories). We will be particularly interested in proposals that can leverage this technology. Because so much of contemporary politics revolves around visual images, the potential value of this presentation medium is high.
Proposal Evaluation Criteria
The new version of the Online Commons will accept two categories of proposal:
- Category 1: Proposals to add questions to the 2008 ANES that are not included in the ANES Core.
- Category 2: Proposals to change the ANES Core.
To have a question included on the 2008 ANES, Category 1 proposals are sufficient. To have a question included in the 2008 -and- future editions of the ANES Time Series, a Category 2 Proposal is required.
When the ANES Online Commons reopens on September 17, it will contain a full listing of questions that constitute the current "Core," as well as a comprehensive list of questions in the ANES Inventory. Some questions that have appeared on the ANES repeatedly are not currently part of the Core. Their repeated appearance has been the result of previous ANES Boards of Overseers and PIs deciding to run the questions. Arguments for their inclusion in 2008 will help to bolster their case for inclusion.
In what follows, we first describe the criteria by which all proposals will be evaluated. Then, we describe a number of additional requirements for Category 2 proposals. We strongly encourage anyone who is considering making a proposal to read the following section carefully.
These nine criteria will be focal in the evaluation of each proposal:
1. Demonstrated Validity and Effectiveness of Questions. Questions may be taken from the inventory of questions that have been asked in prior ANES surveys (for lists of these questions, see http://www.electionstudies.org/resources/questions/questions.htm). Questions may also be those that have been asked in other empirical studies and have been shown to yield valid and reliable measurements of the constructs of interest. Rigorous demonstrations that are directly applicable to the electoral context will have an advantage. For questions new to the ANES, it is critical that the proposer provide evidence of effective item functioning. Due to the broad demand for questions and high expectations for questionnaire quality, untested questions cannot be considered in this competition.
2. Building on a Solid Empirical Foundation. Have the ideas advocated in the proposal been empirically tested and supported by past research? For many proposals, demonstrating the effect of the variables in previous election-oriented research will provide valuable evidence in this regard. For other proposals, it can be helpful to see that focal concepts have also been evaluated in a laboratory setting, in addition to past performance on sample surveys.
3. Building on Solid Theoretical Footing. Do the ideas in this proposal follow from strong, convincing theory about how people are likely to think and/or act? Given ANES’s mandate to serve a broad user community, it is important that users be able to understand, and explain to others, the theoretical rationale for including particular concepts and questions on the ANES survey. Concepts should be defended as part of a set of cause-and-effect relationships that ultimately have the potential (alone or with other factors) to have a significant impact on vote choice or turnout. Regarding the questions that represent the concepts, it is important to think about the quality of the data that questions will provide. Quality, in turn, is a function of wording. If we ask a question that a nationally representative set of respondents understand in the same way, then the data has greater value in analyses that depend on comparing responses. Many questions, however, either confuse respondents or are asked in ways that should undermine an analysts confidence in the comparability of responses. Much of the feedback that we offer to OC proposers is in the spirit of working with them to arrive at more effective theoretical arguments about the relevance and role of particular concepts and questions.
4. Breadth of Relevance and Generalizability. Will the ideas being advocated be interesting, and/or provocative, and/or counter-intuitive to many scholars? Given the broad usage of the ANES Time Series, are unable to accommodate requests to include questions that are relevant for one - or only a few - hypothesis tests. Questions that can be used in a wide range of analyses will be advantaged. [The ANES Bonus Minutes program offers limited opportunities for scholars who have more specifically tailored interests. Please see http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_BMCC_Announcement_20070813.pdf for details.]
5. Suitability to ANES. What kinds of statistical analyses would be required to make the most of the proposed questions, and can these analyses be conducted with the array of measures that will be available to analysts? This criterion is critically important as most ANES users draw inferences from the data using statistics. This criterion may lead us not to act on some very good ideas, if the ideas are likely to produce very unusable data (e.g., proposals featuring questions for which it is likely that only a few respondents will say "yes"). While such frequencies can be valuable to know, they can limit the usefulness of such variables to most ANES users.
6. Bridge-Building. Can the ideas proposed build intellectual bridges from one or more research traditions to others? There is no single approach to explaining turnout or vote choice. Where possible, however, we would like to challenge researchers within certain paradigms to explore the consequences of interacting with other scientific communities. In the past, we have received proposals that brought ideas from outside traditional ways of looking at elections into the context in exciting and potentially path-breaking ways. Subject to such proposals meeting the other stated criteria, wed like to see more of this.
7. Controversy-Relevant. Are the ideas proposed relevant to ongoing controversies among researchers, such that our including particular questions can advance the debate?
Special Rules for Proposals Pertaining to Category 2 Proposals (Changing the ANES Core)
When the 2008 questionnaires are designed, the status of the Core will be central considerations. Core questions need not have an infinite shelf life. Science advances, and new insights can reveal more effective ways of asking important questions or can show that some questions do not in fact meet the requirements of staying in the core.
But the core should be changed only very rarely, recognizing the value of continuity over time. Our default intent for the 2008 study is to include all questions that are were in the Core as of the last Time Series study in 2004.
We will welcome proposals to change the Core, but the burden of proof required for making such changes will be high. We will take most seriously arguments that are backed by concrete evidence and strong theory.
To balance the scholarly benefits of continuity and innovation, we are committed to holding the size of the ANES Core constant. The Core will constitute a majority of the 120 minutes of interviewing time. [The result of separate calls for proposals will increase the total length of the interview. A joint call for proposals by ANES and the Department of Homeland Security will be made later this fall and will add 17 minutes to the post-election wave. An existing call for scholars to contribute to the study by purchasing "ANES Bonus Minutes" may increase the total amount of interviewing time even further. All of these additional questions will be available for everyone in the ANES user community to use.]
Since the size of the Core will remain constant, proposals to elevate to Core status questions must include not only a full explanation as to why the ANES user community will benefit by such a change, it must also name specific questions now in the Core that will be removed from the Core to make room for the new content. This requirement reflects the hard choices that ANES would have to make with respect to such proposals and we feel that it is beneficial to the user community to require scholars who wish to change the Core to offer rigorous and public arguments about the tradeoffs involved.
If changes are made to an existing question in the Core, they will be made with a "splice." In many cases, the splice will result in a randomly-selected subset of survey respondents (usually numbering about half of the sample) receiving the traditional version of the question and all other respondents receiving the new version. Scholars can then use a comparison of responses to the old and new to construct a means of continuing inference.
We are excited about the opportunity to build the 2008 edition of the ANES Time Series study with you. Please feel free to pass this invitation along to anyone (e.g., your students) who you think might be interested. For additional information about how to submit a proposal and the proposal evaluation process, please visit http://www.electionstudies.org. We hope to hear from you.
Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies
ANES is funded by the National Science Foundation
Posted by ronbo at 11:02 AM
New Stanford course on Introduction to Mapmaking and Spatial Analysis
CASA 156:
Interpreting Space and Place:
An Introduction to Map Making
Space and place are fundamental components in social analyses. Topics like globalization and migration, urbanization, or archaeological landscapes, implicitly or explicitly invoke questions about location. By helping to trace movements of people, the transformation of places and spatial relationships maps and spatial tools can play a pivotal role as research instrument.
Objective of this course is to introduce students to maps, geographical information systems (GIS), and spatial tools and to demonstrate how those can be applied in social research. Readings on selected topics from the social sciences and cultural studies will be
complemented by the hands-on exploration of original data sets.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00am-10:50am
Building 160 Room 120
Instructor: Claudia Engel
For more information see http://casa156.stanford.edu
Posted by ronbo at 10:58 AM
From IES Newsflash: BPS:2006 Beginning Postsecondary Students DAS Online application now available!
The DAS contains data from the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06). This study is the first follow-up of a national sample of students who first entered postsecondary education in academic year 2003-04 and were first surveyed as part of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. They were followed-up three years later in 2006. This DAS allows users to conduct analyses on data gathered in this study while on-line via the web.
Visit and use DAS on-line:
http://nces.ed.gov/das/
Posted by ronbo at 10:53 AM
From Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) list: CSES papers and presentations at the 4th ECPR General Conference in Pisa
Dear Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) colleagues,
We want to inform you about some of the papers using CSES data that will be presented this week at the 4th General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in Pisa, Italy.
This announcement can also be viewed, with links to websites for the listed sections, panels, and papers, on the CSES website at address: http://www.cses.org/announce/newsltr/20070903.htm
Section 17, "Voting Behaviour and Electoral Institutions in a Comparative Perspective" is organized and chaired by Oddbjorn Knutsen of the University of Oslo, and Gabor Toka of the University of Oxford, and contains at least eight papers that make use of CSES:
Panel 150, "Multivariate and multi-level models of determinants of party choice," is on Thursday, September 6 at 11:30. The panel chair and discussant is Bernhard Wessels of the Wissenschaftzentrum für Sozialforschung (WZB). The panel includes two papers that make use of CSES.
- Paper 469. "The politicised participant? Explaining the impact of left-right position on political participation," by Tom Van Der Meer of Nijmegen, and Peer Scheepers of Radboud University.
- Paper 472. "The effect of social spending on vote choice in OECD countries," by Lluis Orriols or the University of Oxford.
Panel 154, "Party identification," is on Friday, September 7 at 14:00. The panel is to be chaired by Jacques Thomassen of the University of Twente, with Paolo Bellucci as discussant. The panel includes two papers that make use of CSES.
- Paper 485. "Partisanship and system support in comparative perspective," by Aida Paskeviciute of the University of Essex.
- Paper 487. "Party identification revisited: A comparative study of partisanship and the vote in Europe," by Jacques Thomassen of the University of Twente.
Panel 155, "The impact of electoral systems on voting behaviour," is on Friday, September 7 at 16:00. The panel is to be chaired by Susan Banducci of the University of Exeter, with Michael Marsh as discussant. The panel includes two papers that make use of CSES.
- Paper 488. "Accountability and representation: Voter approaches to elections," by Stephen D. Fisher of the University of Oxford, Laurence Lessard-Phillips of the University of Oxford, Sara Binzer Hobolt of the University of Oxford, and John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde.
- Paper 489. "Does globalisation affect public perceptions of 'who in power can make a difference'? Evidence from 37 countries, 1996-2005," by Jack Vowles of the University of Auckland.
Panel 156, "The impact of voting behaviour on policy and institutional change," is on Saturday, September 8 at 09:00. The panel is to be chaired by Jeffrey Karp of the University of Exeter, with James Stimson and Sarah Binzer Hobolt as discussants. The panel includes one paper that makes use of CSES.
- Paper 492. "Policy outcomes, voting, and citizen knowledge," by Gábor Toka of Central European University.
Panel 159, "The impact of European integration on the vote in national elections," is on Saturday, September 8 at 16:00. The panel is to be chaired by Romain Lachat of the University of Montreal, with Simon Bornschier as discussant. The panel includes one paper that makes use of CSES.
- Paper 501. "The dual nature of EU issue voting: The impact of European integration in national and European parliamentary elections," by Martin Rosema of the University of Twente, and Catherine De Vries of Vrije University.
These presentations, or their associated papers, also make use of CSES:
- Paper 99, "The conditional effect of political leadership on party support. Ideological positioning and institutional context," by Georgios Xezonakis of the University of Essex, is part of Panel 203, "Attitudes towards leaders and parties" on Friday, September 7 at 14:00.
- Paper 523, "Diploma democracy: The disappearance of the less educated from political life," by Mark Bovens of the University of Utrecht, and Anchrit Wille of Leiden University, is part of Panel 267, "Social backgrounds and careers of political elites" on Friday, September 7 at 14:00.
If your ECPR presentation or paper makes use of CSES and is not listed here, please let us know and we will make sure it appears in the announcement on the CSES website, and in the CSES Bibliography.
Best wishes,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
Posted by ronbo at 10:51 AM
Selections from ESRI Newsletters: ArcSchool Reader (August 2007)
Software News
ArcGIS Service Packs
ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 3 is now available for download! This is a cumulative patch, containing all fixes from previous service packs plus important new tweaks and fixes. Lab managers getting ready for the new school year should be sure to install this latest service pack. There are special downloads for ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Desktop Help, ArcReader, and ArcView 9.2 Evaluation Edition. Download now.
Updated ArcGIS Explorer
A new version of ArcGIS Explorer is ready for download! This no-cost, lightweight application for Windows lets you connect to a variety of ready-to-use globes hosted by ESRI. It can also connect to "tasks" that allow you to do more than just visualize a simple map. You can use ArcGIS Explorer to connect to 3D and 2D data, services, and applications on the Web and integrate these with local shapefiles on your hard drive or local network. Explore all the resources available from the new Resource Center. Get started.
ArcExplorer - Java Edition for Education Version 2.3.1
ArcExplorer - Java Edition for Education is a no-cost, lightweight, downloadable, introductory GIS for use on Windows and Macintosh OS X. It has just been upgraded to version 2.3.1. Users can create and share projects, analyze data from online sources or local data (including GPS points), and construct layouts. This is an excellent introductory GIS for students and educators to use at school and install at home. The help menu includes a direct link to the onboard tutorial, so users can more easily learn to use the full capacity of ArcExplorer-Java Edition for Education. A new Introduction to ArcExplorer-Java Edition for Education page has been constructed on the Education Community portal. (Safety tip: Move any special data outside the ArcExplorer-Java Edition for Education folder before uninstalling an older version.) See ArcExplorer - Java Edition for Education.
Data News
Education Community Data Tab
The Education Community portal is a collaboration zone for educators. One area of keen interest for educators (and confusion for new users) is spatial data. The Data tab at the top of the portal pages links to key information about data resources for educators: ESRI Data & Maps (media that comes with ArcGIS products); online data from ESRI such as ArcGIS Online, ArcWeb Services, or Business Analyst Online; and interesting online data hosted by a variety of content providers using ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server. Learn more.
Support News
ArcGIS Explorer Blog
Looking for the latest tip on using ArcGIS Explorer? Want to share a task that accomplishes a valuable function? Got a cool screen shot that demonstrates a powerful capacity? Head to the ArcGIS Explorer blog! This is where you'll find some terrific tips and tricks plus users' links to excellent external resources. Optimize your experience, and share your work with others! Check the blog.
Understanding Place
GIS is a powerful tool for education in part because it can fit in so many different environments. That flexibility can also be a challenge. This book presents a series of case studies showing how a number of authors have incorporated spatial thinking across the curriculum and why maps are such powerful tools for learning. While the stories are primarily about college students, the principles apply across grade levels and school settings. See the book.
New ArcLessons
The ArcLessons collection continues to expand. This repository of lessons comes from users around the world, covering a broad range of topics at a scale from global to local, using the full range of ESRI software. The lessons are often timely-and sometimes timeless. Newest topics include a race around the world using ArcGlobe, an investigation about oil using ArcView 3 (from an educator in Germany), a study about "agri-security" and infectious disease using ArcExplorer-Java Edition for Education, and determining potential impact of mining on wilderness areas using ArcGIS Desktop. Explore ArcLessons.
User News
2007 Community Atlas Model Project
The ESRI Community Atlas offers users in educational programs a framework for an introductory project. Groups of students put together profiles of their communities, each consisting of 10-20 original maps and 1,000-2,500 original words. At the end of every school year, a model project is selected, highlighting a project that presents clear maps showing good analysis combined with text that integrates the story. For the 2006-2007 school year, the model project designee was the 4-H Club from McLean County, Kentucky. See Community Atlas.
Bring Back Geography
The growing popularity of GIS technology is helping to boost the profile of traditional geography. But according to Jerome E. Dobson, president of the American Geographical Society, precious few in the United States (including some high-ranking policy makers) appreciate or understand the importance of this science. He calls on GIS professionals to begin rallying for a return of geography to American schools. Read the article.
Posted by ronbo at 10:42 AM
From IES Newsflash: NEW!! On-Line Application Procedures for Restricted Use Data Licenses for IES/NCES
This Restricted-Use Data Licensing Application Tool for IES/NCES data sets was created to facilitate the restricted-use data application process, as well as to explain the laws and regulations governing these data. Our goal is to maximize the use of statistical information, while protecting individually identifiable information from disclosure. This Restricted-Use Data Licensing Application Tool may also be used to facilitate licensed users requests for license amendments. We hope that this Tool answers any questions or concerns you may have regarding obtaining access to restricted-use data, and speeds the application process.
IES/NCES will only accept restricted-use data License applications through this new Electronic Application System. Any License application that does not come through this new system will be returned to the applicant.
This on-line application tool can be found at:
http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/instruct.asp
Posted by ronbo at 10:38 AM