# National Household Education Survey

**2016 (NHES:2016) Full** **- scale Data Collection**  **OMB# 1850 -**  **0768 v.11 Part B** 

**APRIL 2015** i **TABLE OF CONTENTS** Page DESCRIPT ION OF STATI STICAL METHODOLOGY ................................ ......................... 1 B .1 Respondent Universe and Statistical Design and Estimation
................................ .... 1 B .1 .1 Sampling Households
................................ ................................ ..................... 1 B .1 .2 Within
- Household Sampling
................................ ................................ .......... 2 B .1 .3 Expected Yield
................................ ................................ ............................... 3 B .1 .4 Reliability
................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 4 B .1 .5 Estimation Procedures
................................ ................................ .................... 4 B .1 .6 Nonresponse Bias Analysis
................................ ................................ ............ 5 B .2 Statistical Procedures for Collection of Information
................................ ................. 6 B .3 Methods for Maximizing Response Rates
................................ ................................ . 1 0 B .4 Te sts of Procedures and Methods
................................ ................................ .............. 1 1 B . 5 Individuals Responsible for Study Design and Performance
................................ .... 1 1 **List of Tables** Table Page 1 Expected percentage of households with eligible children or adults, by sampling domain
................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 3 2 Expected numbers sampled and expected numbers of completed screeners and topical surveys
................................ ................................ ................................ .... 3 3 Numbers of completed topical interviews in previous NHES surveys administrations 4 4 Margins of error for screener
................................ ................................ ..................... 4 5 Margins of error for topical surveys
................................ ................................ .......... 4 **List of Figures** Figure 1 Screener Data Collection
................................ ................................ ........................... 8 2 Topical Mailing Plan

– ECPP/PFI
................................ ................................ ............. 9 3 Topical Mailing Plan

– ATES ................................ ................................ ................... 1 01 **PART B. DESCRIPTION OF STATISTICAL METHO**  **DOLOGY B.1**  **Respondent Universe and S tatistical Design and Estimation**  Historically, an important purpose of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) has been to co llect repeated measurements of the same phenomena at different points in time. D ecreasing response rates during the past decade required NCES to redesign the NHES. This redesign involved changing the sampling frame from a list
- assisted Random Digit Dial (RDD) to an Address
- Bas ed Sample (ABS) frame. The mode of data collection also changed from telephone, interviewer
- administered to mail, self
- administered. The last NHES data collection prior to the redesign was conducted in 2007 and included the PFI and the School Readiness (SR) survey 1 . The NHES:2012 comprised of the PFI and ECPP topical surveys, was the first full
- scale data collection using an addressed
-based sample and a self
- administered questionnaire. The overall screener plus topical response rate was approximately 58 percent for both the PFI and the ECPP in 2012 , compared to the 2007 overall response rate of 39
- 41% (depending on the survey). The results suggest that the new methodology has the ability to address the response rate and coverage issues identified in the 2007 data collection. The NHES:2016 will be an address
-based sample covering the 50 states and the District of Columbia and will be conducted from January through August 201 6 . The household target population is all residential addresses except P . O . Boxes that are not flagged as the only way to get mail and is estimated at 126,115,692 addresses. Households will be randomly sampled as described in section B.1.1, and a screening questionnaire will be sent to each sampled household. 2 Demographic information about household members provided on the screener will be used to determine whether anyone is e ligible for the Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) survey , the Parent and Family Involvement in Education (PFI) survey, or the Adult Training and E ducation Survey (ATES )
. The target population for the ECPP survey consists of children age 6 or younger who are not yet in kindergarten. The target population for the PFI survey includes children/youth ages 20 or younger who are enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade or are homeschooled for equivalent grades. The target population for the ATES survey includes adults ages 16
- 65 who are not enrolled in grade 12 or below or homeschooled for equivalent grades
. Ages will be calculated based on information provided in the screener. **B.1.1 Sampling Households**  A nationally representative sample of 200 ,000 addresses will be used. The sample will be drawn in a single stage from a file of residential addresses maintained by a vendor, Marketing Systems Group (MSG), based on the United States Postal Service (USPS) Computerized Delivery Sequence File (CDSF). MSG provided the sample for the previous NHES administration, NHES:2012, and for the NHES Feasibility Study (NHES
-FS) in 2014. As in past NHES surveys, the NHES:2016 will oversample black and Hispanic households using Census data. This oversampling is necessary to produce more reliable estimates for subdomains defined by race and ethnicity. NHES:2016 will use the stratification methodology that was used for the NHES:2012 administration. The sampling design concentrates on achieving a significant sample of black and Hispanic households. The universe consists of Census tracts likely to contain relatively high proportions of these subgroups. The three strata for the NHES:2016 are defined as households in:

1) Tracts with 25 percent or more Black persons 2) Tracts with 40 percent or more Hispanic persons (and not 25 percent or more Black persons) 3) All other tracts The Hispanic stratum contains a high concentration of households in which at least one adult age 15 or older speaks Spanish and does not speak English very well and will be used for the assignment of Spanish screener mailing materials. The sample allocation to the three strata will be 20 percent to the b lack stratum, 15 percent to the Hispanic strat

um and 60 percent to the third stratum. This allocation will provide improvement in the precision of estimates by race/ethnicity compared to use of a uniform sampling rate across each stratum, and will protect against unknown factors that may affect the estimates for key subgroups, especially differential response rates.

1 NHES:2007 also included an adult education module, but data collection was stopped due to low response rates. 2 Inthe web experiment, each household will receive a letter with a user identification code and URL address asking someone in the household to c omplete the survey by web.2

In addition to stratifying by the race/ethnicity group s mentioned above, these three strata will be sorted by a poverty variable and the sample will be selected systematically from the sorted list in order to maintain the true poverty level proportions in the sample. The Census tracts will be used to define the two categories of poverty level as households in: 1) Tracts with 20% or more below the po verty line

2) Tracts with less than 20% below the poverty line **B.1.2 Within**  **- Household Sampling**  NCES is in the process of evaluating a number of sampling strategies designed to improve efficiency and reduce cost . The within
-household sampling plan described below is an initial description of the plan, which assumes that no more than one adult or child will be sampled from any sampled household. NCES is currently considering the effects on efficiency and cost relative to household burden of sampling both an el igible adult and an eligible child from the same household for the topical stage of data collection. In addition, NCES is considering modifying the sampling probabilities for households with eligible children in order to better represent rare populations such as children being homeschooled. B ased on th e evaluation of the various sampling strategies , the final sample design will be selected and its description updated in this document by July 2015. First
- Stage Sampling: Age Group (Child or Adult) The first stage of sampling is at the age group level (child or adult). Each household will be randomly pre
designated as either a “child household,” or an “adult household.” This pre
- designation will be referred to as the age group pre - designation. A household will be pre
- designated as a “child household” with a .75 probability and an “adult household” with a .25 probability. Because eligible children comprise a smaller portion of the population compared to eligible adults, differential sampling is applied to ensure a sufficient sample size of the children. The pre - designation will only be used when a household has both an eligible child/children and an eligible adult/adults. If a household only has an eligible child/children and no eligible adults, that household wi ll receive a child topical survey, regardless of pre
- designation. Likewise, if a household only has an eligible adult/adults and no eligible children, that household will receive an adult topical survey, regardless of pre
- designation ( it is possible that households with only eligible adults will be subsampled)
. Second
- Stage Sampling for Households Selected to Receive a Child Topical Survey: Domain (ECPP or PFI) The second stage of sampling is at the topical survey level, or the domain level. There are two topical surveys that a child could possibly be eligible for: the ECPP or the PFI survey . A child’s age, among other factors, will determine if the child is eligible for the ECPP or the PFI topical surveys. The eligibility criterion only allows a child to b e eligible for one of the topical surveys, not both. In addition to the age group pre
- designation, each household will be pre
- designated as an “ECPP household” with a .70 probability or a “PFI household” with a .30 probability . This pre
- designation will be referred to as the child topical survey pre
- designation. Because children eligible for the ECPP survey comprise a smaller portion of the population compared to children eligible for the PFI survey , differential sampling is done to ensure a sufficient sample size of the ECPP group. Similar to the age group pre
- designation, this designation will only be used when a household has a child/children eligible for the ECPP topical survey and a child/children eligible for the PFI topical survey. If a household only has a child/children eligible for the ECPP topical survey and not the PFI topical survey, that household will receive an ECPP topical survey, regardless of pre
- designation. Likewise, if a househol d only has a child/children eligible for the PFI topical survey and not the ECPP topical survey, that household will receive a PFI topical survey , regardless of pre
- designation
. Third
- Stage Sampling: Person Level The third stage of sampling is at the person level. If any household has only one person that is eligible for the domain that was selected in the second stage of sampling, that person is selected to receive that topical survey. If any household has two or more people eligible for the domain that wa s selected in the second stage of sampling, one of those persons will be randomly selected to receive that topical survey. Therefore, at the end of the three stages of sampl ing, one eligible child or one eligible adult within a household that has a completed screener will be sampled for the ECPP/PFI topical survey or the ATES topical survey , respectively.3

**B.1.3 Expected Yield**  As described above, the initial sample will consist of approximately 2 00 ,000 addresses. An expected screener response rate of 70 percent and an address ineligibility3 rate of 11 percent are assumed, based on results from the NHES:2012. Under this assumption, the total number of expected screeners is 1 24 , 60 0. The E CPP/PFI or the AT ES topical surveys will be administered to households with completed screeners that have eligible children or adults, respectively. For the NHES:2016 , we expect to achieve a total percentage of households with eligible children of approximately 28 percent, and for eligible adults a total percentage of approximately 83 percent. 4 Expected estimates of the percentage of households with eligible children or adults overall and in each sampling domain are given in Table 1 , as well as the expected number of screened households in the nationally representative sample of 2 00 ,000, based on the distribution of household composition and assuming 1 24 , 60 0 total completed screeners. **Table 1**  **. Expected percentage**  **of households with eligible children or adults, by sampling domain**  Household composition Percent of households Expected number of

screened households Total households with eligible adults 83 1 03 , 418 Total households with eligible children 28 34 , 888 Households with at least one ECPP eligible child and no PFI eligible children 6 7 , 476 Households with at least one PFI eligible child and no ECPP eligible children 16 19 ,9 36 Households with at least one ECPP eligible child and at least one PFI eligible child 6 7 , 476 NOTE: The distribution in this table assumes 1 24 , 60 0 screened households. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates are based on calculations from NHES:2012. Table 2 summarize s th e expected numbers of completed interviews for the NHES:2016 . These numbers take into account within
-household sampling. A topical response rate of 75 percent is assumed for ECPP and PFI based on results from the NHES:2012, and 70 percent is assumed for AT ES based on the 2010 ATES Pilot Study response rate. Based o n an initial sample of 200,000 addresses and an expected eligibility rate of 89 percent , the expected number of completed screener questionnaires is 1 24,600 . Of these, we expect to have approximately 9,696 children selected for the ECPP, 1 6,464 children for the PFI, and 61,882 adults selected for the ATES questionnaire. **Table 2**  **. Expected number**  **of sampled and completed screeners and**  **topical surveys for households** Survey Expected number sampled NHES:2016 Expected number of completed interviews NHES:2016 Household screeners 200,000 1 24,600 ECPP 9,696 7,27 1 PFI 16,464 12,348 AT ES 61,882 43,317 Table 3 shows the number of ECPP and PFI completed interviews from previous NHES surveys administrations. **Table 3**  **. Numbers of completed topical**  **interviews in previous NHES surveys administrations** Number of completed topical interviews NHES surveys administration

1993 1995 1996 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2012 ECPP † 7,564 † 6,939 6,749 † 7,209 † 7,893 PFI 19,144 † 17,774 17,652 † 12,422 † 10,681 17,563 † Not applicable; children in this category were not eligible for these topical interviews.

3 In eligible addresses are those that are undeliverable. O nce a screener mailing for an address is returned as a postmaster return (PMR) , the address will be coded ineligible
. 4 Percentages based on population proportions from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS)4

**B.1.4 Reliability**  The reliability of the sample sizes is measured by the margins of error. The reliability of the sample size is shown in Table 5 . The value of p represents a survey estimate proportion, so if a survey estimate proportion is 70 percent , the margin of error is below .03 for an overall, 50 percent, 20 percent, and 10 percent characteristics. The same is true with a survey estimate proportion of 60 or 50 percent. **Table 4**  **. Margins of error for**  **s creener**  †† **Screener value of p**  **1.96 times**

**standard error**

**- overall**  **1.96 times standard**

**error -**  **50% characteristic**  **1.96 times standard** 

**error -**  **20% characteristic**  **1.96 times standard** 

**error -**  **10% characteristic**  0.7 0.0034 0.0049 0.0077 0.0109 0.6 0.0037 0.0052 0.0082 0.0116 0.5 0.0038 0.0053 0.0084 0.0119 †† A design effect of 1.3 was used in the calculations for this table . The margins of error for the topical surveys are shown in Table 5 . **Table 5**  **. Margins of error for topical surveys**  †† **Topical value of p**  **1.96 times**

**standard error**

**- overall**  **1.96 times standard**

**error -**  **50% characteristic**  **1.96 times standard**  **error -**  **20% characteristic**  **1.96 times standard**  **error -**  **10% characteristic**  ECPP 0.7 0. 0137 0. 0194 0.0 306 0.0 433

0.6 0.01 46 0.0 207 0.0 327 0.04 63 0.5 0.01 49 0.0 211 0.0 334 0.04 73 PFI 0.7 0.0 105 0.0 149 0.02 35 0.0332

0.6 0.01 12 0.01 59 0.02 51 0.03 55 0.5 0.01 15 0.01 62 0.02 56 0.03 63 ATES 0.7 0.0056 0.0079 0.0125 0.0177

0.6 0.0060 0.0085 0.0134 0.0190 0.5 0.0061 0.0087 0.0137 0.0194 †† A design effect of 1.3 was used in the calculations for this table . **B.1.5. Estimation Procedures**  The data sets from the NHES:2016 will have weights assigned to facilitate estimation of nationally representative statistics. All households responding to the screener will be assigned weights based on their probability of selection and a non
-response adjustment, making them representative of the household population. All individuals responding to the topical questionnaires will have a record with a person weight designed such that the complete data set represents the target population. The estimation weights for the NHES:2016 surveys wil l be formed in stages. The first stage is the creation of a base weight for the household, which is the inverse of the probability of selection of the address. The second stage is a screener nonresponse adjustment to be performed based on characteristics available on the frame and screener . The household
- level weights are the base weights for the person
- level weights. For each completed topical questionnaire, the person
- level weights also undergo a series of adjustments. The first stage is the adjustment of these weights for the probability of selecting the person within the household. The second stage is the adjustment of the weights for topical survey nonresponse to be performed based on characteristics available on the frame and screener . The third stage is the raking adjustment of the weights to Census Bureau estimates of the target population. The variables that may be used for raking at the person level include race and ethnicity of the sampled person, household income, home tenure (own/rent/other), region, age, grade of enrollment, gender, family structure (one parent or two parent), and highest educational attainment in household. These variables (e.g., family structure)5

have been shown to be associated with response rates. The final raked person
- level weights include undercoverage adjustments as well as adjustments for nonresponse. Standard errors of the estimates will be computed using a jackknife replication method. The replication process repeats each stage of estimation separately for each replicate. The replication method is especially useful for obtaining standard errors for the statistics that the NHES:2016 produces. **B.1.6 Nonresponse Bias Analysis**  To the extent that those who respond to surveys and those who do not differ in important ways, there is a potential for nonresponse biases in estimates from survey data. The estimates from NHES:2016 are subject to bias because of unit nonresponse to both the screener and the extended topical surveys, as well as nonresponse to specific items. Per NCES statistical standards, a unit
- level nonresponse bias analysis will be conducted if the NHES:2016 overall unit response rate (the screener response rate multiplied by the topical response rate) falls below 85 percent. Additionally, any item with an item
- level response rate below 85 percent will be subject to an examination of bias due to item nonresponse. **Unit nonresponse** To identify characteristics associated with unit nonresponse, a multivariate analysis will be conducted using a categorical search algorithm called Chi
- Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID). CHAID begins by identifying the characteristic of the data that is the best predictor of response. Then, within the levels of that characteristic, CHAID identifies the next best predictor(s) of response, and so forth, until a tree is formed with all of the response predictors that were identifi ed at each step. The final result is a division of the entire data set into cells by attempting to determine sequentially the cells that have the greatest discrimination with respect to the unit response rates. In other words, it divides the data set into groups so that the unit response rate within cells is as constant as possible, and the unit response rate between cells is as different as possible. Since the variables considered for use as predictors of response must be available for both respondents and nonrespondents, demographic variables from the sampling frame provided by the vendor (including household education level, household race/ethnicity, household income, age of head of household, whether the household owns or rents the dwelling, and whether there is a surname and/or phone number present on the sampling frame) and data from the screener (including number of children and the number of adults in the household) will be included in the CHAID analysis. In addition to the above, the magnitude of unit nonresponse bias and the likely effectiveness of statistical adjustments in reducing that bias will be examined by comparing estimates computed using adjusted weights to those computed using unadjusted weights. The unadjusted weight is the reciprocal of the probability of selection, reflecting all stages of selection. The adjusted weight is the extended interview weight adjusted for unit nonresponse (without the raking adjustment). In this analysis, the statistical significance of differences in estimates will be investigated only for key survey estimates including, but not limited to, the following: All surveys  Age/grade of child or age of adult  Census region  Race/ethnicity  Parent 1 or adult’s employment status  Parent 1 or adult’s home language  Educational attainment of parent 1 /adult  Family type  Household income  Home ownership Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP)  Child receiving relative care  Child receiving non
-relative care  Child receiving center
-based care  Number of times child was read to in past week  Someone in family taught child letters, words, or numbers6

 Child recognizes letters of alphabet  Child can w

rite own name  Child is developmentally delayed  Child has health impairment  Child has good choices for child care/early childhood programs Parent and Family Involvement in Education (PFI)  School type : public, private, homeschool  Whether school assigned or chosen  Contact from school about child’s behavior  Contact from school about child’s school work  Child’s overall grades  Parents participate in 5 or more activities in the child’s school  Parents report school provides information very well About how child is doing in school About how to help child with his/her homework About why child is placed in particular groups or classes About how to help child plan for college or vocational school About the family's expected role at child’s school  Parents attended a general school meeting (open house), back
- to - school night, meeting of parent
- teacher organization  Parents went to a regularly scheduled parent
- teacher conference with child’s teacher  Parents attended a school or class event (e.g., play, sports event, science fair) because of child  Parents acted as a volunteer at the school or served on a committee  Parents check to see that child's home wo rk gets done Adult Training and Education Survey  Certification or license  Certificate  Com pleted work experience program The final component of the bias analysis will include comparisons between respondent characteristics and known population characteristics from extant sources including the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Community Survey (ACS). Additionally, for substantive variables, weighted estimates will be compared to prior NHES administrations if available. While differences between NHES:2 016 estimates and those from external sources as well as prior NHES administrations could be attributable to factors other than bias, differences will be examined in order to confir m the reasonableness of the 2016 estimates. **Item nonresponse** In order to examine item nonresponse, all items with response rates below 85 percent will be listed. Alternative sets of imputed values will be generated by imposing extreme assumptions on the item nonrespondents. For most items, two new sets of imputed values

—one bas ed on a “low” assumption and one based on a “high” assumption

— will be created. For most continuous variables, a “low” imputed value variable will be created by resetting imputed values to the value at the fifth percentile of the original distribution; a “high” imputed value variable will be created by resetting imputed values to the value at the 95 th percentile of the original distribution. For dichotomous and most polytomous variables, a “low” imputed value variable will be created by resetting imputed values to the lowest value in the original distribution, and a “high” imputed value variable will be created by resetting imputed values to the highest value in the original distribution. Both the “low” imputed value variable distributions and the “high” imputed value variable distributions will be compared to the unimputed distributions. This analysis helps to place bounds on the potential for item nonresponse bias through the use of “worst case” scenarios. **B.2 S**  **tatistical Procedures for Collection of Informa tion**  This section describes the data collection procedures to be used in the NHES:2016 . These procedures represent a combination of best practices to maximize response rates based on findings from the ATES 2010 Pilot Study, the NHES:2011 Field Test, NHES:2 012, the 2013 National Adult Training and Education Survey (NATES), and the 2014 NHES -Feasibility Study (NHES
-FS) within the Agency’s budget constraints. The NHES is a two
-phase self
-7

administered survey. In the first phase, households are screened to determine if they have eligible adults or children. In the second phase, a detailed topical questionnaire is sent to households with the eligible adults or children. The NHES employs multiple contacts with households to maximize response. These include an advance letter and up to four questionnaire mailings for both the screener and the topical surveys. In addition, households will receive one reminder postcard after the initial mailing of a screener or topical questionnaire
. Respondent contact materials are provided in Appendix 1 and survey instruments in Appendix 2
. **Screener Procedures** Figure 1 presents a flow chart for the NHES:2016 data collection which will begin with the mailing of an advance notification letter in early January 201 6 . The NHES:2011 Fie ld Test showed that using an advance letter was effective at raising response rates to the first questionnaire mailing which reduces the amount of follow
-up required
. Based on this finding , NHES:2012 , NATES , and NHES
-FS also used an advance letter. A questionnaire package will be mailed to households one week after the advance letter. The packages will contain a cover letter, household screener, business reply envelope , and a $5 incentive. Households selected for the targeted incentive experiment will receive either a $2 or a $7 incentive depending on their modeled response propensity. Many years of testing in the NHES have shown the effectiveness of a small cash incentive on increasing response . T he NHES:2011 Field Test showed that a $5 incentive was more e ffective at increasing screener response than a $2 incentive
. The NHES
FS confirmed the positive effects on response rates of a $5 incentive versus no incentive. A Spanish version will be offered with the sec ond, third, and fourth mailing s in addition to the English version. Cases that are sampled as part of the Hispanic oversample, or where the frame vendor indicates a Spanish surname is associated with the address, will receive both the English and Spanish versions with the first mailing. The same version of the questionnaire sent in the first mailing will be sent in all subsequent nonresponse follow
-up mailings. A thank you/reminder postcard will be sent to all sampled addresses approximately one week after the first mailing. All nonresponse follow
-up questionnaire mailings will contain a cover letter, replacement screener questionnaire, and business reply envelope. A second questionnaire mailing will be sent to nonresponding households approximately two weeks after the postcard. Approximately three weeks after the second mailing, a third questionnaire mailing will be sent to non
responding households using rush delivery (FedEx or U S PS Priority Mail 5 ). Results from the 2009 and 2011 tests indicated that households with eligible children tend to respond to later mailings . F or this reason we added a mailing to our process and extended the data collection period for the NHES:2012 and NHES
-FS . We will continue that protocol in the NHES:2016 . The fourth questionnaire package will be sent to nonresponding households approximately three weeks after the third questionnaire mailing. **Topical Procedures** Topical survey mailings will follow procedures similar to the screener procedures. Households will receive a topical package in English or Spanish depending on the language they used to complete the screener. As described earlier, h ouseholds with at least one eligible person will be assigned to one of three topical survey mailing groups : (1) Households that have been selected to receive an ECPP questionnaire only ; (2) Households that have been selected to receive a PFI questionnaire only; (3) Households that have been selected to receive a ATES questionnaire only; Within each group, questionnaires will be mailed in waves to minimize the time between the receipt of the screener and the mailing of the topical. Regardless of the treatment group or wave, households with a selected sample me mber will have the same topical contact strategy. The initial topical mailing will include a cover letter, questionnaire, business reply envelope, and a cash incentive. All nonresponse follow
-up mailings will contain a cover letter, replacement questionnaire, and business reply envelope. The NHES:2011 Field Test , the NHES: 20 12 , and the NHES
-FS showed that a $5 incentive was effective with most respondents at the topical level. However, late screener respondents (those that responded after the third or fourth mailing) were more likely to respond to the $15 incentive amount. As a result, we will offer these late screener responders a $15 prep aid incentive with their first topical questionnaire mailing. All other respondents in the main sample will receive $5 with their initial mailing
. Households with low response propensity in the targeted incentive experiment who received a $7 incentive for the screener will also receive a $7 incentive for the topical survey, unless they are a late screener responder in

5 Because FedEx cannot deliver to P
. O . Boxes, P . O . Box - only addresses will be delivered using USPS Priority Mail.8

which case they will receive a $15 incentive. One week after the initial topical mailing, all households will receive a tha nk you/reminder po stcard. Nonresponding households will be mailed a second topical questionnaire approximately two weeks after the reminder postcard. If households that have been mailed a second topical questionnaire do not respond, a third package will be mailed by rush de livery (FedEx or U S PS Priority Mail ) approximately three weeks after the second mailing. Most households will be sent packages via FedEx delivery; only those households with a P
. O . Box - only address will be sent USPS Priority Mail. If the household does not respond to the third mailing, a fourth mailing will be sent via USPS First Class mail
. Figure s 2 and 3 show the topical mailing plans. **Figure 1: Screener Data Collection**9

Figure 2: Topical Mailing Plan

– ECPP/PFI

1 st Mailing : Cover letter , questionnaire , $ 5 incentive ( $ 15 for late screener returns ) , return envelope , First Class

Reminder Postcard

Returned questionnaire ? 2 nd Mailing Cover letter , questionnaire , return envelope , First Class

Returned questionnaire ? Yes No 3 rd Mailing : Cover Letter , questionnaire , return envelope , Fedex

Returned questionnaire ? No

Yes Yes

4 th Mailing : questionnaire , cover letter , return envelope , First Class No Begin **ECPP /**  **PFI** Topical Cycle

Send to **ECPP /**  **PFI** Data Processing

Returned questionnaire ? Yes Stop No10

Figure 3 : Topical Mailing Plan

– AT ES

**Survey Monitoring** Mail survey returns will be processed upon receipt, and reports from the survey management system will be prepared at least weekly. The reports will be used to continually assess the progress of data collection. **B.3 Methods for Maximizing Response Rates**  The NHES:2016 design incorporates a number of features to maximize response rates. This section discusses those features.11

**Total Design Met hod/Respondent** **- Friendly Design.**  Surveys that take advantage of respondent
- friendly design have demonstrated increases in survey response (Dillman, Smyth, and Christian 2008; Dillman, Sinclair, and Clark 1993). We have honed the design of the NHES forms through multiple iterations of cognitive interviewing and field testing. These efforts have focused on the design and content of all respondent contact materials. As noted previously, we will include a respondent incentive in the initial screener mailing. Respondent incentives will also be used in the initial topical mailing. Many years of testing in the NHES have shown the effectiveness of a small cash incentive on increasing response. The Census Bureau will maintain an email address and a toll
- free questionn aire assistance (TQA) line to answer respondent questions or concerns. I f a respondent chooses to provide their information to the TQA staff, staff will be able to collect the respondent’s information o n an Internet -based screener questionnaire
. Additional ly , the questionnaires contain frequently asked questions (FAQs) and contact information for the Project Officer. **Engaging Respondent Interest and Cooperation.** The content of respondent letters and FAQs is focused on communicating the legitimacy and importance of the study. Past experience has shown that the NHES child survey topics are salient to most parents. In the NHES:2012, Census Bureau “branding” was experimentally tested against Department of Education branding. Response rates to Census Bureau branded questionnaires were higher compared to Department of Education branded questionnaires. Based on this finding, we will highlight the Census Bureau’s participation in the data collection. **Nonresponse Follow -**  **up.** The data collection protocol includes several stages of nonresponse follow
-up at each phase. In addition to the number of contacts, changes in method (USPS First Class mail, FedEx, and automated reminder phone calls ) are designed to capture the attention of potential respondents. **B.4 Tests of**  **Procedures and Methods Web**  **Experiment:** As described in Part A, section A.1 , of this submission, the NHES:2016 will include a self
response internet experiment to determine if asking respondents to complete the survey on the internet results in an acceptabl e response rate. If an acceptable response rate is achieved, self
-response internet surveys will be considered as a main mode of data collection in the future. Several key design features and the sample size of the web experiment are still under development and will be described fully in the update to this document that will be available by July 2015. **Targeted Incentive Experiment:** As described in Part A, section A.1 and A.9, of this submission and section B.2. of this document, the NHES:2016 will also include an incentive experiment designed to examine the effectiveness of leveraging auxiliary frame data to target (a) lower screener incentives to households that have been with a higher modeled propensity to respond and (b) higher screener incentives to hous eholds with a lower modeled propensity to respond. Key design features and sample sizes for the targeted incentive experiment are still under development and will be described fully in the update to this document that will be available by July 2015
. **B.5 In**  **dividuals Responsible for Study Design and Performance** The persons listed below participated in the study design and are responsible for the collection and analysis of the data: Sarah Grady, NCES Sharon Boivin, NCES Lisa Hudson, NCES Andrew Zukerberg , NCES Carolyn Pickering , Census
**REFERENCES** Dillman, D.A., Sinclair, M.D., and Clark, J.R. (1993). Effects of questionnaire length, respondent
- friendly design, and difficult que stions on response rates for occupant
- addressed Census mail surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 57, 289 - 304. Dillman, D.A., Smyth, J.D., and Christian, L.M. (2008). Internet, mail, and mixed mode surveys: The Tailored Design Method. New York: Wiley.