Federal and State Officials Views on the Operations of Five Federal/State Cooperative Statistical Programs

Historically, Federal-State cooperative statistical programs have lacked Federal policy guidelines. It has been recognized that the need for joint Federal-State participation is a condition to successful policy development. The views of Federal and State officials were obtained in 10 States operating statistical programs that produce data on employment, occupational injuries and illnesses, population, health, and education to discover the types of problems being caused by the absence of policy guidance.

Although Federal and State officials were generally satisfied with the level of funding, training opportunities, and the data quality controls, they expressed concern about the absence of program evaluations. Federal evaluations were limited and infrequent, and those at the State level were nonexistent. The Error Profiles being developed by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards should include the Federal-State cooperative programs. These Error Profiles disclose survey data errors in the programs which should help identify and rank areas of program operations where Federal policy guidance might be needed.