Certifying interviewers: the role of testing interviewers to improve data quality

The complexity of conducting personal interviews often requires both classroom training prior to fielding a survey and the certification of interviewers in the field. In an attempt to create a tool that would enable data collection agencies to tailor the training process and more effectively link the classroom to the field, the Census Bureau administered a certification exam to the interviewers of a new, more conversational style of interviewing in the redesign of the Survey of Income and Program Participation-Event History Calendar (SIPP-EHC). This research applied multilevel modeling to the 2010 and 2011 SIPP-EHC field test data to observe the effects of the variation in certification test score on measures of interviewer productivity-interview length and person non-response. From 2010 to 2011, short answer response questions replaced half of the multiple-choice response questions, finding short answer responses are better predictors of both interview length and person non-response than multiple-choice responses. These changes in the exam demonstrated a significant reduction in the interviewer effect seen on both outcomes.