Every five years, the U.S. Census of Agriculture enumerates the characteristics of farms and farmers, and planning is underway for the 2017 census. To ensure it does not systematically miss women or new/beginning farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service called for an expert panel review and invited public comment. Read on to find out what they learned.
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Meet Ivan Fellegi—A Man Who Beat the Odds and the System Many Times
Ivan Fellegi, who held the office of Canada’s chief statistician for 23 years, is a man who respects cleanly collected data with all underlying biases in the data well controlled.
Charles Kincannon
Charles Louis Kincannon, who was 72 when he passed away in December 2012, enjoyed a rich career in statistics lasting 45 years.
Post-Enumeration Surveys in Africa
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) has conducted its fourth census since independence in August 2012.
Politics and Statistics Collide in Argentina
In 2007, when the government of Argentina fired the staff of the National Institute of Statistics and Census division responsible for compiling consumer price indices, few organizations and fewer news outlets took notice of the politically motivated move. Here, William Seltzer and Jay Kadane discuss how the ASA became involved and how you can get involved, too.
Highlights from the COPAFS December 2011 Meeting
COPAFS is the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics and acts as an advocate for the development and dissemination of high-quality federal statistics. Member organizations include professional associations, businesses, research institutes, and others interested in federal statistics. Through COPAFS, members have an opportunity to review and affect issues such as timeliness, quality, confidentiality, and the relevance of data. COPAFS holds quarterly meetings, the last one being on December 2, 2011.
Census at School Uses Real Data to Teach Statistical Problemsolving
In 2010, with the support of the ASA and Population Association of America, former ASA Director of Education Martha Aliaga and other ASA staff members worked with prominent statisticians and statistics educators to launch the U.S. version of Census at School—a free, international classroom project that engages students in grades 4–12 in statistical problemsolving using their own real data. The Census at School project began in the United Kingdom in 2000 and now includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Japan, and the United States.
The ASA is building upon the success of the UK and other countries in using Census at School to enhance statistical problemsolving and interdisciplinary studies using real data of interest to students. Through Census at School, grade 4–12 teachers can enhance their statistics knowledge to better teach the increased statistics content in the Common Core State Standards.
Monroe Sirken
This is an excerpt from the original article “A Conversation with Monroe Sirken,” published in Statistical Science in 2007. The interviews conducted by Barry Graubard, Paul Levy, and Gordon Willis took place in three sessions at the National Center for Health Statistics during the spring of 2006.
Be a Proud Statistician
As statisticians, we make decisions based on data. Of course, that implies we do have to collect good data. This is the year of the Census 2010: Please make sure that you complete your census form.
Challenges Facing Federal Statistics in the United States
Are the federal statistical agencies in the United States meeting the needs of their many users? Surveys required for policy purposes in health, education, labor, and other areas are being conducted with well-tested statistical designs that so far have reasonable margins of error. But what about the future?