2008 Summer Workshop:
Analyzing Poverty and Socioeconomic Trends Using the American Community Survey (ACS)
June 23-27, 2008
Ann Arbor, MI
A workshop sponsored by the National Poverty Center, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan and directed by Reynolds Farley.
The National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy invites applications for participants in a five-day workshop that will take place in Ann Arbor during the last week of June, 2008. Participants will be provided with training in the use of the micro-data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey (ACS) to understand social and economic issues affecting low-income populations and carry out their own analyses.
The workshop will be directed by Reynolds Farley, the Dudley Duncan Professor Emeritus at the Population Studies Center in the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, in collaboration with his colleagues: Albert Anderson and Lisa Neidert. There will also be presentations by nationally recognized poverty researchers, including some whose research is based upon ACS data. The National Poverty Center will pay the costs of travel, lodging, and meals for participants.
Aims for this workshop include the following:
- Familiarize participants with the concepts used by the Census Bureau and the way the Bureau codes and tabulates information, including measures of earnings, household income, poverty, race, ethnicity, labor force status, and migration. The workshop will provide practical tips for handling the complex sample design associated with the ACS sample.
- Provide hands-on demonstrations with user-friendly software that allows anyone with access to the Internet to tabulate data from Census Bureau micro-data and obtain summary descriptive statistics such as means, standard errors, median and percentile points.
- Provide hands-on demonstrations with user-friendly software that allows anyone with access to the Internet to select and download observations and variables for use with standard statistical packages. Participants will become familiar with accessing and obtaining data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples available from the University of Minnesota.
- Familiarize participants with tabular data products from the Census Bureau. These allow investigators to build profiles of neighborhoods or catchment areas.
- Work on a project focused on their own interests and produce preliminary findings by the end of the workshop and an appropriate data set that can be used when the participant returns to her/his home institution.
- Provide opportunities for participants to discuss the current status of key research and policy issues regarding poverty with nationally recognized experts.
Applications will be accepted from faculty, postdoctoral fellows, advanced doctoral students, federal and state-level policy and research analysts, and others who would benefit from this workshop. Preference will be given to applicants who meet at least one of the following criteria:
Young scholars, with preference given to those who have received their Ph.D. since 2002.
Persons who are currently employed at universities and colleges that do not provide support for faculty to pursue additional training in poverty research, especially four-year teaching colleges;
Persons who are members of groups that are under-represented among poverty researchers and teachers. Faculty members from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) are particularly encouraged to apply.
Direct Questions to:
ATTN: 2008 Summer Workshop
Shawn Marie Pelak, Program Manager
National Poverty Center
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan
5100 Weill Hall, 735 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
Phone: 734-615-3890
Email: spelak@umich.edu
