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Learning with the Center for the Study of Local Issues: Introductory Meeting
Dan Nataf, PhD, DirectorCenter for the Study of Local Issues
Careers 132Anne Arundel Community College
101 College ParkwayArnold, MD 21012-1895http:www2.aacc.edu/csli
Agenda:
I. Review Mission/History of CSLIII. Understanding surveysIII. Your roleIV. Review previous findingsV. QuestionnaireVI. Next steps
CSLI History and Mission
Historical Background: In business since 1978!
1. Creation and operation as part of Division of Social Sciences: 1978-1999 – a community college ‘research center’
2 .Operation as part of Sarbanes Center for Public and Community Service 2006-present
• Advisory Board: 20 +/- community activists, elected officials, government administrators, students, faculty
• Provides guidance and link to the community both within and outside the campus
• Staff: Director, Program Specialist, Student Interns
CSLI History and Mission
1. Provide students opportunities to better understand applied social science research methods while encouraging civic awareness and engagement
2. Serve community and local government by offering research services and communicating survey findings
3. Provide opportunities for faculty professional development
4. Help AACC understand its environment through relevant data collection and analysis
CSLI Mission – four elements
Mission: Provide students opportunities to better understand applied social science research methods while encouraging civic awareness and engagement
Activities providing student opportunities:
Participation in community surveys
Participation in client based research projects
Student internships
CSLI student club (see www2.aacc.edu/csli/csliclub.htm)
CSLI History and Mission
Semi-annual Survey
The survey process at a glance…
1. Conducted in March and October2. Telephone interviews – 350-550 (record 917)
completions3. Press releases4. Public presentations5. Media outreach6. Web site (http://www2.aacc.edu/csli)
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Service Learning and Nataf’s Classes
Semi-annual survey – how students participate for service learning credit (and Nataf’s extra credit)
Up to five contacts with CSLI• Introductory meeting • 2-3+ nights of telephone interviews• Final meeting – review of survey process,
findings, SPSS/hypotheses testing• Short paper (varies by instructor)
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
How do surveys work?
1. Identify a population whose characteristics and attitudes are interesting to us
2. Our population – Residents of Anne Arundel County at least 18 years of age
3. Our goal – Ask a small group (the “sample”) questions 4. Generalize the findings to the whole population (the
“universe”)
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
How do surveys work? (continued)
Find a proper sample size: costs vs. margins of error – Example: Population of 100k+, confidence interval 95%
Error Sample Size
3 1111
5 384
7 204
10 100
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
How do surveys work? (Data collection methods)
Choices:1. Face to face – personal interviews2. Telephone – personal interviews3. Self-administered - by mail, exit poll, group setting4. Online – a version of ‘self administered’
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
How do surveys work? ( Data collection continued)
CSLI’s process:
Telephone – personal interviews – that’s what you will be doing
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
How do surveys work? ( Data collection continued)
How do we choose who shall participate in survey?
Two choices: (1) Randomly select from listed phone numbers (2) Use computer generated “likely unlisted residential numbers within your target jurisdiction”(3) Add in some cell phone numbers (current option)
CSLI’s lists of numbers are a 80/5/15 percent mixWe start with over 10000 phone numbers!
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
How do surveys work? ( Survey assumptions)
What are we assuming in using telephone numbers?
That everyone in our target universe is equally likely to have a phone and willing/able to answer a survey
Could other methods be used to ensure more complete representation?
Ideally, yes! But the other data collection methods are harder to implement and/or more expensive…
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
How do surveys work? (Sources of error)
What are other data collection challenges?
* Interviewer bias * Social desirability (“Halo effect”)* Unclear questions* Non-attitudes* Non-response bias (both overall and to items)* Unequal representation of subgroups
None of these is necessarily a fatal flaw, but should make us sensitive that there are more sources of error than just the statistical ‘margin of error’
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
How do surveys work? (Getting to the finish line!)
What happens to all the completed surveys?
1. Data entry. This means we need to enter all the answers into a database for statistical processing.
2. Statistical analysis.3. Write a report.4. Send it out as a “press release.”5. Post it on the Web.6. Use it in public presentations.
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Semi-annual Surveys -
Why is your role so important?
Semi-annual Surveys: Recent Major Topics
Semi-annual survey – topics over the last few years • Major issues facing the county• Economic conditions and concerns in the county• Cost of higher education• Sequestration and debt ceiling fed. govt. shutdown• County infrastructure needs• Death Penalty• Presidential job approval• Gun control• Lots of demographic info: age, income, employment
situation, race, religion, gender, party, ideology
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Presidential job approval: Fall ‘07 to Fall ‘13
Fall '07 Spring '08 Fall '08 Spring '09 Fall '09 Spring '10 Fall '10 Spring '11 Fall '11 Spring '12 Fall '12 Spring '13 Fall '130
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
35
2824
53
47 4742
47
3742 44 44
40
32 3025
61
54
4743
47
4045
50 49
43
CSLI Gallup
ObamaBush
Right/Wrong Direction: Spring 1999 to Fall 2013
Sp '99
Fa '99
Sp '00
Fa '00
Sp '01
Fa '01
Sp '02
Fa '02
Sp '03
Fa '03
Sp '04
Fa '04
Sp '05
Fa '05
Sp '06
Fa '06
Sp '07
Fa '07
Sp '08
Fa '08
Sp '09
Fa '09
Sp '10
Fa '10
Sp '11
Fa '11
Sp '12
Fa '12
Sp '13
Fa '13
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
5754
5855
6266
606162
51
585853
57555152515052
475252
495047
43
504950
23
2725 24 23
15
26
21
25
3431
24
2927 26
2927
33 32 3128 27 28 28 28
32
41
3633
35
20 1917
20
15
19
14
18
1315
12
19 1816
1820 21
16 17 17
25
21 2023 22 22
1614
1816
Right Wrong Unsure
Most Important Problem: Fall 2007 to Fall 2013
Fall '07 Spring '08 Fall '08 Spring '09 Fall '09 Spring '10 Fall '10 Spring '11 Fall '11 Spring '12 Fall '12 Spring '13 Fall '130
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
12 1210
87
89
10
57
8 86
10
64
68
6 6 68
4
75
9
17 16
1210
12 1113
119
17 1719 19
3 42 1 2
4 3 3 4
9 911
17
8
23
38
48
3336 36 35
48
3027
23
16
1
Education Crime / drugs Taxes – too high Govt. inefficient, corrupt Economy
Economy
Taxes
Govt. Waste/Ethics
Crime
Education
Perceptions of the Economy: County, State, Federal (F ‘6 to F ‘13)
F '06 S '07 F '07 S '08 F'08 S '09 F '09 S '10 F '10 S '11 F '11 S '12 F '12 S '13 F '130
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
71 71 69
5549 46 48
44 4549 48 51 48 49
53
27 30 31 32 35 3338
33 30
40
511 11 11 11 9
13 1612 14
County State Federal
Is there a relationship between income and economic conditions? (Fall, 2013)Condition Under $75,000 $75,000+ Signif.
Received a salary increase or other increase in income recently 27 44 .01
Hard to afford cost of utilities such as electricity or gas 48 28 .01
Health care insurance is unavailable, too expensive or inadequate 40 25 .01
Unable to find affordable housing 19 10 .02
Facing the possibility of house foreclosure or loss 11 5 .02
Hard to afford the cost of transportation 41 33 .03
Wages or salaries are not rising as fast as the cost of living 68 62 .04
Delay in making a major purchase such as a home or car 50 41 .06
Facing the possibility of unemployment 19 14 .1
Significant losses in your stock or retirement accounts 41 48 .2
Found a new or better job recently 14 18 .3
Taxes are too high in relation to the government services provided 63 59 .5
21
Issue Support Oppose Unsure
Imposing an additional fine of up to $1500 on drivers caught drunk driving 86 13 1
Permitting the use of off-shore wind power near Ocean City 80 10 10
Increasing the alcohol tax 68 29 3Permitting the purchase of marijuana for medical purposes 65 29 7
Taking away drivers’ licenses from those who refuse to pay taxes 64 32 3
Increasing the use of cameras to ticket those running red lights 59 41 4
Making same sex marriages legal in Maryland 47 46 7
Making preparations to implement President Obama’s health care reform law 43 50 8
Limiting the use of binding arbitration when the county negotiates with public safety unions 35 42 23
Allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition for college 33 63 4
Increasing university tuition to maintain the quality of higher education 32 66 2
Reducing the pension and retiree health benefits of state workers 28 65 7
Promising state workers no furlough days, and providing them with a $750 bonus 25 59 16
Increasing the county income tax to the maximum allowed by law to avoid cuts in essential services 25 68 7
Increasing the gasoline tax to bolster the transportation trust fund 17 80 3
State and County Issues (Fall 2012)
Mental Health Services16% with experience (22% students)
Description Agree Stds
Agree Disagree No knowledge
No answer
Services are accessible and easily available
34 23 21 49 7
Services are affordable 20 21 19 54 7Services are high quality 24 19 16 58 7Providers are compassionate 20 29 6 58 6
Fall, 2013
Budget Issues: Party and Ideology
All Dem Rep Ind. D-R
Maintaining the tuition freeze at the University of Maryland 79 79 79 85 0
Maintaining the level of state funding for public schools 78 81 76 77 5
Requiring school employees to take several unpaid days off 36 39 36 30 3
Shifting the cost of teachers’ pensions to local governments 24 23 28 20 -5
O’Malley doing poor job %
Ideology Conservative 55
Moderate 33Liberal 10
Conservative-Liberal 45Party
Democrat 21Republican 62Independent 38
Democrat-Republican -41
% saying “support”
O’Malley’s job balancing budget: Good=13%; Okay=42%; Poor=38%
Yes No Unsure/N.A.
Total
President Obama’s state of the union speech? 72 28 1 101
Governor O’Malley’s inaugural speech or his state of the state speech
41 58 1 100
Watched County Council hearings being broadcast on local cable stations anytime over the last year?
19 80 1 100
Watched, listened or read about…(F ‘12)
Perceptions of 2020: Health Care by Ideology and Party
Conservatives Moderates Liberals Dems Reps Indep.0
10
20
30
40
50
60
18
31
47
35
23 2221
35
56
41
24
30
Percentage saying “Better”
Health Care Quality/Access
Earthquake - communication: Method, Success (Fall 2011)
Method % Saying used Successful Not successful
Other/No answer
County Students
Mobile phone 66 71 40 55 5Text message 42 78 57 30 14Land line telephone 40 17 45 37 18Email 25 9 27 41 32Social media 19 49 25 40 35
The Spring 2014 Semi-annual SurveySee Word document
CSLI: The Semi-annual Survey
Next Steps
1. Make sure you know which evenings you are spending with us2. First night – come at 5:30 p.m. training in telephone interviewing
methods and questionnaire marking3. Last two nights – no need for more training, come at 6:00 p.m.4. Final meeting – in three weeks5. If necessary, don’t forget to turn in your short paper
See you next week!
CSLI: Your Next Steps
