Beginning in 2019, the Census Bureau implemented changes to the class of worker, industry and occupation questions as the result of the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) Content Test.

The series of industry and occupation questions were revised to improve question clarity and collect more occupational specificity from respondents. Revisions included standardized examples across the entire series of industry and occupation questions. The new examples specifically listed “elementary school” in the kind of business question, “4^th grade teacher” in the job title question, and “instruct and evaluate student and create lesson plans” in the job duties question. Additionally, the number of accepted characters for the job duties question increased from 60 to 100.

During data review, ACS subject matter analysts noticed a decrease in the estimate of elementary and middle school teachers between 2018 and 2019. This decrease was offset by an increase in the estimate of preschool and kindergarten teachers, secondary school teachers, and special education teachers.

An analysis of the write-in responses to the job title and job duties questions determined the changes within educational instruction occupations were likely due to an increase in occupational specificity.