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Projects by Research Department |
| Economics & Population |
| Education and Child Development |
| Health Survey, Program and Policy Research |
| Statistics and Methodology |
| Substance Abuse, Mental Health, and Criminal Justice |
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NORC’s projects fall into five major substantive areas: economics and population; education and child development; health survey, program and policy research; substance abuse, mental health, and criminal justice; and statistics and methodology. Within each issue area, NORC’s projects range from design and implementation of complex surveys and other data collection strategies to sophisticated interpretation of social science data using advanced statistical and other analytic techniques. Many NORC projects involve both data collection and analysis. Its national studies are its best known, but NORC’s focus includes local, regional, and international perspectives as well.
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Florida Ballots Project
A consortium of the largest news organizations in the United States selected NORC to provide the definitive picture of the Florida vote count in the disputed presidential election of November 2000. The consortium chose NORC for this work because of its long-standing reputation for nonpartisan, objective, and analytically rigorous data collection and analysis. Kirk Wolter, NORC’s Senior Vice President of Statistics and Methodology and Professor of Statistics at the University of Chicago, has directed NORC's effort on the project. |
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General Social Survey
One of the oldest of NORC’s landmark surveys, the General Social Survey (GSS) has been administered 24 times since its initial fielding in 1972, with core funding from the National Science Foundation. |
Resident Relocation Survey
The Resident Relocation Survey, a survey of public housing leaseholders in Phase II of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Housing Transformation initiative, was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, with funding and support from the MacArthur Foundation. This survey was designed as a vehicle to inform the improvement of processes of the Transformation, which began in early 2000. Housing Transformation involves a staged, multi-year process of demolishing, or in some cases rehabilitating, the most substandard and broken high rise public housing developments in Chicago and replacing them with new construction while at the same time assisting and supporting the relocation of thousands of affected leaseholders to new and improved dwellings. The Resident Relocation Survey, a census of the public housing leaseholder population relocated in 2002, is the first study to gather data from and about those most affected by the relocation process. |
The Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS)
The Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) is the only
comprehensive source of national-level data on energy-related Information for U.S. households. This information includes: the physical characteristics of the housing units, the appliances used, household characteristics, the types of fuels used, and other information that relates to energy use. For more RECS information visit www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/contents.html
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Public Response to a National Tragedy
As part of its 60-year tradition of research in the public interest, NORC periodically assess public reactions to natural and human disasters. This body of research helps the nation understand and come to terms with tragedies such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The latest in NORC's studies of America's reactions to tragic events is exploring psychological and social aspects of America's response to that September 11 terrorist attack. The current study, funded by the National Science Foundation, the Chicago Tribune, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Russel Sage Foundation includes a random-digit-dial (RDD) sample of the entire United States, supplemented by additional samples from Washington, DC; New York City; and Chicago. Principal Investigators are Kenneth A. Rasinski and Tom W. Smith. |
Projects by Issue Area
NORC is organized into five substantively defined issue areas, each with its own director. This structure ensures full integration of data gathering with analysis, emphasizes NORC’s commitment to specific areas of research, ensures full integration of data gathering and analytic actitivities, facilitates interaction with faculty at the University of Chicago, and maximizes NORC’s responsiveness to clients. |
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