CSLI Service Learning – Final Meeting, Spring 2012

Review the processReview the findings

Analyze - Hypotheses

Evaluate the CSLI process◦ Review – what exactly did CSLI do?

Generated questionnaire Oriented students in intro meeting

Reviewed questionnaire with students Reviewed nature of surveys/sampling

Trained students in telephone/marking instructions Conducted telephone interviews

Target at least 400 completions Accomplished – 440 completions

Issue and post on Web site – already available Expect coverage in major media –Capital

Review the process – 1

Questionnaire issues – initial contact ◦ Was the opening statement OK?◦ Hello, I’m a student calling from Anne Arundel Community College whose

Center for the Study of Local Issues is conducting a survey on issues affecting Anne Arundel County Residents. Would you please take a few minutes to complete this survey

◦ Suggestions?

Review the process -2

Questionnaire issues - questions- Did any specific questions give you more problems than

others? Clarity Public constantly asked for restatement Vagueness of what is being asked

◦ Did the respondents seem to think that the questions were generally interesting?

◦ Did the respondents think that the survey was too long or short?

◦ Other suggestions?

Review the process - 3

Public receptivity Were you surprised by how easy/hard it was to obtain a

completion? Problems with phone numbers? Idle chatter from respondents? Bias among interviewers? Partial completions? Other suggestions

Review the process - 4

County: Right or Wrong Direction? Spring ‘99 to Spring ‘12

Sp '99

Fa '99

Sp '00

Fa '00

Sp '01

Fa '01

Sp '02

Fa '02

Sp '03

Fa '03

Sp '04

Fa '04

Sp '05

Fa '05

Sp '06

Fa '06

Sp '07

Fa '07

Sp '08

Fa '08

Sp '09

Fa '09

Sp '10

Fa '10

Sp '11

Fa '11

Sp '12

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

5754

5855

6266

60 61 62

51

58 5853

57 5551 52 51 50 52

4752 52

49 5047

43

2327 25 24 23

15

2621

25

3431

2429 27 26

29 27

33 32 3128 27 28 28 28

32

41

20 19 1720

1519

1418

13 1512

19 18 16 18 20 2116 17 17

2521 20

23 22 22

16

Right Wrong Unsure

'06 '07 '07 '08 ‘08 '09 ‘09 ‘10 ‘10 ‘11 ‘11 12Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

7

12

8

23

38

48

33

36 36 35

48

30

9

1517

16

1210

1211

1311

9

17

21

16 16

12

9

5 5 5

24 4 4

16

12 12 1210

87

89

10

57

119

10

64

68

6 6 68

4

Economy Taxes – too high Growth EducationTransportationCrime / drugs

Most Important Problem Fall 2006 to Spring 2012Economy shows sharp drop as problem in March

2012

County – Economic Conditions vs. State and USA

Federal State County-5

5

15

25

35

45

55

5

27

46

11

30

48

11

31

44

11

32

45

11

35

49

9

33

48

13

38

51

S '09 S '09 S '09S '10 S '10 S '10S '11

General economic conditions – % saying ‘applies’

Facing

the p

ossibi

lity of

unem

ploym

ent

Signifi

cant lo

sses in

your

stock

or ret

iremen

t acco

unts

Facing

the p

ossibi

lity of

house

forec

losure

or lo

ss

Delay i

n mak

ing a m

ajor p

urcha

se suc

h as a

home o

r car

Health

care i

nsuran

ce is u

navai

lable,

too e

xpen

sive o

r inad

equat

e

Found

a new

or be

tter jo

b rece

ntly

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

116

35

15

71

4

3024

75

6

51

2924

70

8

46

33

19

56

7

47

32

21

60

7

44

34

20

52

9

47

35

21

60

8

51

32

1417

44

8

45

32

16S '08F '08S '09F '09S '10F '10S '11F '11S '12

% saying ‘applies’ sorted by Std. Deviation

Condition 

Spring ‘08

 Fall ‘08

Spring ‘09

 Fall‘09

Spring ‘10

 Fall‘10

Spring

‘ 11

Fall ‘11

 

Spring ’12

 

Sp ‘12-Fa

‘11Std. Dev.

Significant losses in your stock or retirement accounts n.a. 71 75 70 56 60 52 60 44 -16 9.84Hard to afford cost of transportation 40 32 21 17 21 24 41 30 36 6 8.31Hard to afford cost of utilities such as electricity or gas 61 50 53 42 44 43 46 39 39 0 6.80Received an income increase 26 35 9 4.50Facing the possibility of unemployment 11 15 24 24 19 21 20 21 17 -4 3.98Wages or salaries are not rising as fast as the cost of living 56 59 55 55 56 56 63 59 66 7 3.65Unable to find affordable housing 21 11 12 13 15 10 14 11 15 4 3.13Delay in making a major purchase such as a home or car n.a. n.a. 51 46 47 44 47 51 45 -6 2.55Hard to afford cost of taxes* 47 58 59 59 63 60 63 58 63 5 2.12Health care insurance is unavailable, too expensive or inadequate

35 30 29 33 32 34 35 32 32 0 1.95Facing the possibility of house foreclosure or loss 6 4 6 8 7 7 9 8 8 0 1.41Found a new or better job recently 14 16 2 1.00

Economic conditions: Found job, got income increase

County residents vs. AACC students

05

10152025303540

1426

1827

16

35

2328

County Students County Students

Fall 2011

Spring 2012

Consumer confidence: County vs. students

Economic growth Unemployment Inflation Your personal financial situation0

10

20

30

40

50

60

36 36

9

24

31

25

6

34

40

46

4244 44

14

27

55

1818

29

40

16

Better County Better Students Same County Same Students Worse County Worse Students

Support for Various Issues – Spring 2012

 Proposal SupportPop/Students

Oppose Unsure No answer

Legalizing same-sex marriage 46/59 47/26 5/13 2/1Doubling the so-called ‘flush tax’ from $30 to $60 to help improve wastewater treatment 32/25 56/37 10/25 3/13Increasing state funding by $15 million for building affordable rental housing in Maryland 37/35 51/38 10/25 2/3The next two proposals would require the county to take funds from other agencies or raise taxes to cover the costs. 

Shifting pension fund contributions for teachers from the state to the counties 22/25 63/29 12/42 3/4Strictly enforcing the requirement that local schools be funded at no less than last year’s levels 65/53 28/16 6/27 1/46% Increase in gasoline tax

21/11 74/66 5/30 0/0

Support for Gambling– Spring 2012

  Agree Disagree Unsure No answer

Adding a location in Prince George’s County would increase state revenue significantly

47/51 44/19 7/30 1/0Adding table games would increase state revenue significantly

51/55 38/19 9/26 2/0Adding a site in Prince George’s County would reduce revenue at the Arundel Mills site and therefore reduce Anne Arundel County’s revenue

33/28 48/39 15/33 3/0Adding more sites or table games would lead to significantly more gambling addiction

49/53 43/21 7/25 2/2Expanding gambling by adding another site has more costs than benefits

42/27 43/37 11/35 4/2Expanding gambling by adding table games has more costs than benefits

34/21 48/40 13/37 5/3

Satisfaction with Various Government Agencies– Spring 2012

  Level of satisfaction(very satisfied, somewhat satisfied…)

Have you had any direct contact

within two years

  Very Somewhat Not very NA Yes No

Fire Department 87/75 8 1 3 42/28 58Police Department 67/42 21 8 4 45/52 55Public libraries 68/61 16 6 10 67/76 33Public schools 41/43 27 16 15 51/70 49Permit application center 18/34 19 20 44 29/4 71

Department of Aging and Disabilities

30/46 12 9 49 25/13 75

Department of Health 36/39 16 9 40 32/33 68  “No answers” removed below    Permit application center 32 33 35 --    

Department of Aging and Disabilities

59 23 17 --    

Department of Health 59 26 14 --    

Satisfaction with Various Government Agencies– Spring 2012

  Very serious

Somewhat

serious

Not very

serious

Unsure/NA

Total

Pollution of the Bay hurting the maritime industry and water-oriented tourism 66/41 21 11 2 100Budget constraints limiting the ability of county government to provide services 43/57 28 19 10 100An over-dependency on government employment 43/37 27 22 9 101Air pollution causing illnesses 39/46 26 32 3 100Changes in the quality of county schools 39/57 26 19 16 100Rising sea levels threatening low lying areas with flooding

31/45 33 27 9 100

Presidential job approvalFall 2007 to Spring 2012

2007 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2010 2011 2011 2012Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

35

2824

53

47 47

42

47

37

42

3230

25

61

54

47 43 47

40

45

CSLI Gallup

Presidential Job Approval by Party Registration

Fall 2009 to Spring 2012

F '09 S '10 F '10 S '11 F '11 S '120

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

47 4742

47

3742

72 70

61

7067

73

17

24 2418

712

54 53

33

57

47

34

Overall Democrats Republicans Unaffiliated

Trust in Political Parties – Spring 2009 to Spring 2012

Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring2009 2010 2011 2012

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

42

37

33 34 34

31

37

3028

31

37

3230

34

20

27

31

21

29

32

21

Democrats Republicans Neither

Exercise: Develop Hypotheses1. Identify a dependent variable – attitude, preference

2. Identify an independent variable – a social/demographic characteristic

3. Specify a likely relationship between the two based on a “theory” or hunch

you have about people and attitudes

Test Hypotheses using SPSS1. Login2. Go to CSLI Web site: http://www2.aacc.edu/csli3. Double click on CSLI_Fall_2011_Data.sav4. Weight the dataset /data/weight cases/weight cases by Weight5. Cross-tabs - /Analyze/Descriptive Statistics/Crosstabs6. Find Income75– click once on it to select it then use arrow to place in

columns box7. Find ‘v4.2’ or ‘v4.3’ – click once to select it then use arrow to place in rows box 8. Click on “cells” and then click on Percentages “columns” then OK9. Click on “statistics” and then click on Nominal “Phi and Cramer’s V” OK10.Click on OK in main crosstabs dialog box11.Check results: Did a higher percentage of under $75k agree with “unemployment”

than those over $75k?” Were the results statistically significant – were the Phi and Cramer’s V values under the column “Approx. Sig” under .05?

12.If the answer is yes to both these questions, then it is possible that your hypothesis is correct – you have disproved the ‘null hypothesis” 13. Try it again with the “significant losses in stocks and retirement accounts” variable (v4.3)14. Continue with other hypotheses15. In the last 10 minutes, we will go around the room asking you to tell us your most interesting finding