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TECHNICAL APPROACH TO DATA COLLECTION <br />The SSRC's computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) software and standard <br />operating procedures ensure a superior response to issues of response bias, callbacks, <br />quality control; acid the verification of data entry procedures essential for all telephone <br />survey research endeavors. These are discussed in detail below. <br />Response Bias <br />Response bias is a major source of sampling error that can be minimized by preserving <br />the random nature of the selected sample. By attempting sample records that result in a <br />busy, no answer, or answering machine disposition up to 20 times, a representative <br />sample of WORK Center "Core A" or universal access customers that used the Center <br />between July 1, 2003 and June 30, 2004 will be surveyed. Up to 20 attempts at contact <br />are also made for any sample record known to connect to a residential household, such as <br />requests to phone the individual another time/day. These "callbacks" are explained in the <br />next section. <br />Callbacks <br />The CATI system includes a sophisticated call tracking and callback scheduling <br />procedure. A call history is developed for each number and remains active until a final <br />disposition is assigned. If no contact is made, the call record will note the time of day <br />and the interviewer who attempted the call. The call will then be automatically <br />reassigned at a later time .based upon an algorithm that reduces the probability that the <br />call will come up again on the same day and time. When a contact is made, but the <br />interview is not completed, call information is recorded that includes whether a callback <br />has been scheduled; who the interviewer spoke with; and the current disposition of the <br />call (for example, immediate refusal, answering machine, mid-interview termination, <br />etc.}. In addition, the time of each call, the number of call attempts, and any <br />interviewer-generated notes are recorded. <br />For multi-lingual studies such as this, records with phone numbers known to connect to a <br />Spanish-speaking household (generally established by a prior call attempt) are <br />dispositioned accordingly and automatically routed to an interviewer with that language <br />capability. If no linguistically competent interviewer is available, the system holds the <br />record until such an interviewer is free. <br />The CATI system allows the researcher to set the number of times a telephone number is <br />to be called before it is retired. SSRC standard operating procedure dictates 20 attempts <br />at contact. If contact is not established after 20 calls, the number is transferred to a <br />holding queue. Our policy regarding irrunediate refusals is to call back at random <br />intervals after the initial refusal. Experience shows that- about 30% of initial refusals can <br />be converted simply by contacting the individual another day. Our procedure for <br />13 <br />25N-39 <br />