Scott Keeter

Consequences of Reducing Nonresponse in a National Telephone Survey

Critics of public opinion polls often claim that methodological shortcuts taken to collect timely data produce biased results. This study compares two random digit dial national telephone surveys that used identical questionnaires but very different levels of effort: a Standard survey conducted over a 5-day period that used a sample of adults who were home when the interviewer called, and a Rigorous survey conducted over an 8-week period that used random selection from among all adult household members. Response rates, computed according to AAPOR guidelines, were 60.6 percent for the Rigorous and 36.0 percent for the Standard study. Nonetheless, the two surveys produced similar results. Across 91 comparisons, no difference exceeded 9 percentage points, and the average difference was about 2 percentage points. Most of the statistically significant differences were among demographic items. Very few significant differences were found on attention to media and engagement in politics, social trust and connectedness, and most social and political attitudes, including even those toward surveys.

Measuring Political Knowledge: Putting First Things First

Research in political behavior has increasingly turned to the cognitions underlying attitudes. The simplest of these cognitions are political facts-the bits of information about politics that citizens hold. While other key concepts in political science-partisanship, trust, tolerance-have widely used (if still controversial) measures that facilitate comparisons across time and among studies, the discipline has no generally accepted measure of the publics level of political information. This paper describes the development and testing of survey-based measures of political knowledge, with special attention to the existing items on the National Election Study surveys. In so doing, it illustrates the use of a variety of techniques for item analysis and scale construction. We also present a recommended fiveitem knowledge index.

Habits from Home, Lessons from School: Influences on Youth Civic Engagement

Civic engagement among Americas youth is a hot topic--and not solely in the world of academia. Government officials, non-profit agencies, and grassroots organizations have spent considerable time and energy trying to spur participation among the post-Generation X cohort of youth. Candidates have created websites promoting youth understanding of political issues. State governments have established volunteer requirements for high school graduation. Activist organizations have targeted young adults for voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives. Others have asked youth to sign e-mail petitions or participate in boycotts. While many of these efforts are designed to engage young people today, much of this work is undertaken in the hope that these early experiences will lead individuals to a richer political life in adulthood. There is much to support this hope. Studies of youth socialization provide evidence that families, schools, peers and religious institutions lay the groundwork for civic and political habits that persist into adulthood. Young people who volunteer in high school and college are more likely than their non-volunteering counterparts to engage in volunteering, community activities, and other forms of civic life as adults. Involvement in after-school activities also plays a role. Individuals who were active in school organizations (except athletics) as teenagers are disproportionately more involved as adults, even when the impact of later influences such as marriage, children, and advanced education are taken into account. (1) Finally, scholars have documented that the connection between high school activities and later civic involvement is not linear--activists in high school are more likely than their less active counterparts to be involved as adults, but only after a sleeper period in which they are relatively disconnected from civic life. (2) Our recent research explored both the overall state of civic and political engagement nationwide, and the distinct paths to participation among young adults. We used two data sources. The first is a telephone survey of 1,001 people, aged 15-25, which is a subset of the total sample of 3,246 respondents ages 15 and older, interviewed in April and May 2002. The second is a survey of 1,166 randomly selected young people, also aged 15-25, administered by Knowledge Networks via WebTV in February 2002. (3) Both data sets were weighted so that the sample reflects the national population in terms of gender, race, education, and region. (4) What Are Youth Doing? The two surveys reveal a mixed image of the political and civic activism of todays young adults, who we have termed the DotNet generation to distinguish them from their Generation X predecessors. (5) While the DotNet generation is not as active as older Americans in some realms, they are equally or more active in other areas. For example, as other surveys have indicated, youth today are active volunteers, but not habitual voters. They score lower on tests of political knowledge and are less attentive to news about politics and government, but they are at least as likely as the rest of the population to report boycotting a product or signing an email petition. (6) Not all DotNets are equally engaged. For example, within the past 12 months, 40 percent have volunteered for a non-electoral group or organization, 38 percent have boycotted, and 20 percent say that they generally wear a campaign button, display a yard sign, or post a bumper sticker on their car during election campaigns. But just 6 percent have done all three things. What distinguishes youths engaged in one or multiple activities from their less active counterparts? This research begins to answer that question. Home Influences Previous research has established the positive link between political participation and such factors as higher income, advanced education, and strong religiosity. …

What Should Be Learned through Service Learning

Service learning is typically distinguished from both community service and traditional civic education by the integration of study with hands-on activity outside the classroom, typically through a collaborative effort to address a community problem (Ehrlich 1999, 246). As such, service learning provides opportunities and challenges for increasing the efficacy of both the teaching and practice of democratic politics. To better understand these opportunities and challenges, it is necessary to make explicit the goals of service learning and to consider how these goals intersect those of more traditional approaches to teaching about government and politics. We believe that one place these sometimes competing models could find common ground is in the learning of factual knowledge about politics. Comments NOTE: At the time of publication, the author was affiliated with Columbia University. Currently January 2008, he is a faculty member of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/8 What Should Be Learned through Service Learning?

Does the Use of Colored Paper Improve Response Rate to Mail Surveys?: A Multivariate Experimental Evaluation

Abstract Although colored paper is frequently prescribed to enhance response rates of mail surveys, the results of previous evaluations of this technique have been mixed. We therefore, conducted a large-scale experimental study, mailing almost 20,000 questionnaires to members of seven different survey samples. Green, pink and white questionnaires were randomly assigned within each sample. When use of a cover letter and personalization of the mailing were controlled, neither pink nor green colored questionnaires were associated with significant differences in response rates for the aggregated sample or for any of the individual studies. Implications for the continuing use of colored questionnaires and other response enhancements techniques in survey research are discussed.

No Second Chance at Making a Good First Impression: Peril and Possibility in the Campus Visit

Scott Keeter is professor of public and international affairs and former department chair at George Mason University. He is on leave from the university and is serving as associate director of the Pew Research Center for the Public and the Press. He was the first of three finalists to visit campus for an interview,l and we were excited. His CV was impressive, his recommendations were strong, and he was pleasant and poised on the phone. The faculty had assembled for his job talk, and we expected a winner. An hour later we couldnt wait to escape. The candidate had read us his paper virtually word-for-word-while rarely looking up to meet our plaintive eyes. He took up almost the entire hour with his own presentation, leaving us no time for questions, but by then we had only one question in mind: How had this disaster occurred? How had such a promising candidate shot himself out of contention? Over the last three years the two of us have had the opportunity to interview 31 faculty candidates on campus. Our department has been fortunate to add new programs and garner supplemental resources (at least when times were flush). To a 26-person department we have added 13 new colleagues. Doing so, though, has required 13 search committees and nearly three dozen campus