Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University: Survey Research Laboratory

The Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI) provides survey research capabilities for all types of surveys. As an interdisciplinary unit at Texas A&M University, PPRI can assemble teams of researchers experienced in survey research methodology as well as specialized subject matter.

The research group at PPRI has extensive experience in designing and conducting studies to answer research questions using a variety of survey data collection methods. The best-known of PPRI's survey activities is the Texas Poll, a quarterly telephone survey conducted for Harte-Hanks Communication. In addition to telephone surveys, we have conducted field surveys of diverse populations in private homes, prisons, hospitals, and other locations. Our clients include state and federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Texas Department of Health, the Texas Department of Commerce, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and the Texas division of the American Cancer Society.

Complete study design: PPRI staff and other experts at Texas A&M University can provide complete design support for survey projects, including development of basic research strategies, sampling design, and questionnaires.

Writing and production of reports: PPRI survey research teams and office staff write and produce customized reports designed to meet the practical needs of sponsoring organizations. Reports are prepared using print-quality graphics and typeset-quality desktop publishing.

Telephone interviewing: PPRI conducts high-quality telephone interviewing projects on either a short- or long-term basis. With a staff of approximately 60 trained interviewers, a direct supervisory staff of eight, and facilities that include over 50 interview stations, PPRI is equipped to handle survey research projects on any scale.

Field interviewing: PPRI offers an experienced professional, supervisory, and interviewing staff well-qualified in field interviewing.

Bilingual interviewing: Bilingual interviewers are available during all interviewing shifts. PPRI can also arrange for expert translation of questionnaires into Spanish or Vietnamese.

Elite interviewing: PPRI staff includes interviewers with the experience and educational background necessary for the special demands of elite interviewing.

Mail surveys: PPRI can create cost-effective personalized letters for your organization and can construct and manage mailing lists for mail surveys. We can implement hybrid telephone/mail surveys that involve identifying or contacting respondents by phone prior to mailing the survey instrument.

Editing of completed questionnaires: Staff members perform complete edit checking of all interviews for accuracy and completeness.

Coding of open-ended responses: PPRI staff develop meaningful categories for verbatim responses to survey questions through standard content analytic procedures. Experienced coders evaluate the responses and code them into categories, ensuring accuracy and consistency of data.

Data entry: PPRI has trained data entry staff and on-site, computerized data entry facilities that allow fast, accurate entry of data. When time is of the essence, data entry can be coordinated so that analysis begins immediately after the last survey has been entered.

Public Policy Research Institute facilities are equipped to handle the requirements of virtually any survey. Our phone interview facility provides the best possible environment for interviewers. Equipment is available for production of survey instruments, entering and analyzing data, and producing reports. PPRI Survey Laboratory staff utilize a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system that automates much of the survey process.

The computer-assisted telephone interviewing system in place in the Survey Laboratory represents the cutting edge of survey technology. With CATI on-line, a computer manages the survey sample, displays prompt questions for the interviewer, and electronically records responses. The system also produces productivity reports, progress reports, interviewer time sheets, and telephone billing reports.

CATI prevents most mistakes from occurring by guiding the interviewer through the questionnaire and automatically skipping questions as appropriate, based on the respondent's answers. It also eliminates data entry errors that can occur as information is transferred from printed questionnaires into electronic format. The CATI system allows the Survey Laboratory supervisor to monitor all interviewers from a central computer. Other CATI benefits include data entry and coding immediately after the interview window, which makes survey data available more quickly, and simple, speedy production of tables and graphics for reports.

The CATI hardware used in PPRI's Survey Laboratory consists of a network of 50 desktop computers. The operating system for the network is the highly regarded Novell netware system. PPRI uses the widely accepted Sawtooth CATI software in conjunction with custom software using Novell's database management system.

Primary interviewing facility with over 50 phones. Additional phones are available during peak interviewing hours. All phones are centrally monitored.

Low-cost long distance lines available (in Texas and nationwide).

Toll-free 800 number available to respondents to return calls.

Computer data entry equipment that provides for error checking on entry and for complete validation of data. Data can be provided in any standard format for desktop or mainframe computers and desktop computers running SAS-PC, SPSS-PC, and SUDAAN for analysis, and Microsoft Excel for graphics. Typeset-quality reports are produced using Microsoft Word and other popular software programs.

Computerized clerical functions, including management of mailing lists and creation of personalized letters for mail surveys.

High speed on-line access to IBM mainframe computers, Digital Equipment, VAX machines and others. Major analysis packages on these machines include SAS and SPSS Graphics capability includes three dimensions and color.

PPRI is committed to providing the highest quality survey work. Because the skill of the interviewer is such a critical component of the successful survey process, we take special care in training and supervising our interviewers.

Training: PPRI interviewers are trained in general interviewing procedures during their initial instruction period. An additional workshop is required after an interviewer's first month in the Survey Laboratory to review procedures. Interviewers are closely supervised. New interviewers are monitored carefully and are given on-the-job guidance by supervisors. All interviewers working on a project are fully trained in administering the project questionnaire and in any special procedures that might apply.

Evaluation: During each survey shift, at least 20 percent of the interviewers are monitored by the supervisor. Edit checking of the completed questionnaires is done during the shift to allow any errors to be brought to the attention of the interviewer immediately, thus reducing data loss due to inappropriate entry. Data on the efficiency and effectiveness of each interviewer is collected for all interviews on a daily basis.

Survey research has been a major activity of the Public Policy Research Institute since its founding in 1983. Below are brief descriptions of selected PPRI projects reflecting a variety of methods and subject matters.

Population Alcohol and Drug Prevalence surveys were conducted in 1987 and again in 1993 for the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA). Each survey involved telephone interviews with over 5,000 adult Texans screened from a total random sample of 12,000 households. The large sample and the screening allowed accurate estimates to be made of incidence and prevalence of use in age, ethnic, and regional subgroups.

Population Gambling Prevalence surveys were conducted for TCADA in 1992 and again in 1995. Over 6,000 adults and 1,000 adolescents were surveyed in each year to determine the change in experience with gambling before and after the initiation of the state lottery.

The Texas Poll was conducted by PPRI from December of 1983 through 1993. This poll is a quarterly telephone survey of 1,000 randomly selected telephone households in Texas. It is sponsored by Harte-Hanks Communications, is syndicated to major newspapers and television stations throughout the state, and provides survey data for many government and private organizations.

Seven surveys dealing with Transportation have been conducted for the Texas Transportation Institute. The largest of these was a survey of 9,600 people designed to enable separate analyses of the state's 24 highway districts. Other surveys assessed the economic price drivers were willing to pay to use roads, attitudes of respondents regarding mandatory seat belt use, responses to a proposed redevelopment of a transportation corridor in Dallas, and respondents' evaluation of freeway signs.

PPRI has recently conducted several health surveys using telephone methodology, including three surveys of minorities living in selected areas of Houston and Fort Worth. One survey involved 600 males over 40 and was followed by a second survey of the same sample several months later. The third survey involved a sample of 1,200 minorities of all ages living in the same areas. All of these surveys are a part of a program to increase cancer prevention measures among the targeted populations. Another PPRI-conducted health survey included 1,200 residents of 10 rural counties in Texas with oversamples of the elderly and minority populations. This assessment focused on the identification of cancer prevention needs, available services, practice patterns of primary care physicians and nurse practitioners in relation to cancer screening and prevention, and identifying gaps in services in these rural counties.

For the Texas Department of Health, PPRI is conducted a survey of 4,800 households with children under the age of two investigating immunization status along with attitudes, knowledge, and other factors that might influence immunization. The project involved screening over 100,000 households in person to locate those with children of the correct age range. Interviews were conducted in-person with shot record verification. The statewide sample in thirty counties was selected using a multiple stage cluster sample approach.

PPRI is conducting over 2,000 household surveys in the boarder areas, including the colonias to study drug and alcohol use. In some of these surveys, samples of hair are collected to allow validation of the self-report data.

PPRI collected knowledge and attitude data related to health for the Texas Department of Health from a sample of 900 women over the age of 40 in the Lubbock, Ft. Worth, and Longview areas in Texas. PPRI designed the sample and conducted in-person, household-based interviews in the three areas.

Job Training Partnership Act Follow-Up Surveys have been conducted by PPRI since 1984. These surveys have cumulatively involved over 240,000 participants in job training programs conducted in the state by the Texas Department of Commerce and provide evaluation data used to determine bonuses for contractors and to inform policy makers regarding future training activities.

A Study of the Costs of Epilepsy involved a survey of 1,000 people with epilepsy to estimate the annual indirect costs of epilepsy in the U.S. as well as the expected lifetime earnings loss caused by the disorder.

The workers' compensation small employer survey provided data on the experience of small employers in obtaining workers' compensation insurance. In a related study, injured workers were surveyed.to examine the medical treatment and vocational rehabilitation services received by permanently impaired workers' compensation claimants, and the extent to which the work-related injury caused financial hardship for the injured worker.

A survey of over 1,000 recently insured drivers was conducted by PPRI for the Texas State Board of Insurance to determine how many of these individuals had not been previously insured.

PPRI conducted a survey of over 500 women 18 - 45 years of age in four south Texas counties to determine the impact of a program to reduce alcohol and drug use during pregnancy.

PPRI has conducted surveys of prison, jail, Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facility, and probation populations within the state for the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA). During 1989, in-person interviews with over 1,000 Texas Department of Corrections inmates and 1,000 youthful offenders in the TYC facility were conducted. The prison and TYC population surveys are being conducted again in 1993 and 1994 and is being expanded to include an additional 500 interviews with women prisoners. A survey of inmates in a county jail and a sample of probationers in three counties were conducted.

On behalf of TCADA, PPRI conducted in-person interviews with over 1,000 postpartum women in five hospitals in all of the major metropolitan areas in Texas. In addition to interviews, blood samples were collected along with data on birth outcomes.

A survey of obstetrical patients was conducted for the Texas Department of Health. PPRI developed a questionnaire and devised a sampling design that allowed for data collection from a representative sample of postpartum women during their hospital stays for the purpose of estimating the need for prenatal care and delivery services across the state.

The National Science Foundation commissioned PPRI to evaluate the effectiveness of a special program designed to promote the academic careers of women in the sciences and engineering. The study involved conducting telephone interviews with 600 women who received grants under the NSF's Research Opportunities for Women (ROW) program, with women who received funding through traditional disciplinary grant programs, and with women who applied for but did not receive funding either through ROW or NSF disciplinary programs.

A Minority Leadership Development Study sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board was conducted to identify potential minority leaders and increase their involvement in the community college and technical/vocational education systems in Texas. Staff at PPRI assessed levels of minority involvement through a telephone survey of administrators and faculty working in Texas' community colleges and technical institutes. Interviews were also conducted with chief executive officers and successful minority leaders working in both the public and private sectors.

In a study conducted by PPRI for the Educational Economic Policy Center, nearly 1,000 business leaders, principals, other school administrators, and teachers as well as 700 parents were interviewed by telephone to determine the educational priorities of different groups. This information was included in a report to the Texas legislature.

Five hundred Texas Tech Law School graduates were surveyed to evaluate the law school program and determine long-term professional outcomes.

PPRI is conducting a mail survey of over 1,000 schools nationally. The survey is a part of an evaluation of the services provided by the Drug Free Schools programs regional centers being conducted by Decision Information Resources, Inc.

A statewide survey of student alcohol and drug use in grades 7 and 12 was first conducted in 1988. Expanded studies that included 4th through 6th graders as well were conducted in 1990 and 1992. Surveys have been conducted in over 400 local school districts, allowing comparisons to be made between district and statewide samples. Over 200,000 questionnaires are administered and processed each year.