Still rolling: Leslie Kish's "rolling samples" and the American Community Survey

Abstract

Leslie Kish long advocated a design, with non-overlapping monthly panels which can be cumulated over different lengths of time for domains of different sizes. This enables a single survey to serve multiple purposes. The Census Bureau's new American Community Survey uses such a rolling sample design, with annual averages to measure change at the state level, and three-year or five-year moving averages to describe progressively smaller domains. This paper traces Kish's influence on the development of the American Community Survey, and discusses some practical methodological issues that had to be addressed in implementing the design.