Courtney Kennedy is director of survey research at Pew Research Center. Her team is responsible for the design of the Center’s U.S. surveys and maintenance of the American Trends Panel. Kennedy conducts experimental research to improve the accuracy of public opinion polls. Her research focuses on nonresponse, weighting, modes of administration and sampling frames. Her work has been published in Public Opinion Quarterly, the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology and the Journal of Official Statistics. She has served as a co-author on five American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) task force reports, including chairing the committee that evaluated polling in the 2016 presidential election. Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Kennedy served as vice president of the advanced methods group at Abt SRBI, where she was responsible for designing complex surveys and assessing data quality. She has served as a statistical consultant for the U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial census and panels convened by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Kennedy has a doctorate from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, both in survey methodology. She received bachelor’s degrees from the University of Michigan in statistics and political science. Kennedy has served as AAPOR standards chair and conference chair.
Courtney Kennedy
Expertise:
Publications
Confronting 2016 and 2020 Polling Limitations
Looking at final estimates of the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential race, 93% of national polls overstated the Democratic candidate’s support among voters, while nearly as many (88%) did so in 2016.
What 2020’s Election Poll Errors Tell Us About the Accuracy of Issue Polling
Given the errors in 2016 and 2020 election polling, how much should we trust polls that attempt to measure opinions on issues?
Measuring News Consumption in a Digital Era
As news outlets morph and multiply, both surveys and passive data collection tools face challenges.
Understanding how 2020 election polls performed and what it might mean for other kinds of survey work
Many who follow polls are asking how these errors could happen. Here, we’ll take a preliminary shot at answering that question.
A Resource for State Preelection Polling
If a battleground state poll does not adjust for having too many college graduates, it is at risk of overstating support for a Democratic presidential candidate. The Current Population Survey provides high-quality data that can mitigate overrepresentation of college graduates.
Key things to know about election polling in the United States
The real environment in which polls are conducted bears little resemblance to the idealized settings presented in textbooks.
Polling methods are changing, but reporting the views of Asian Americans remains a challenge
The rise of internet polling makes it more feasible to publish estimates for Asian Americans. But these estimates offer a limited view.
What is machine learning, and how does it work?
Assessing the Risks to Online Polls From Bogus Respondents
While the growth of online interviewing is a prominent trend in polling, there is variation within that trend in how researchers recruit respondents. This study finds that sourcing affects data quality.
A Field Guide to Polling: Election 2020 Edition
While survey research in the United States is a year-round undertaking, the public’s focus on polling is never more intense than during the run-up to a presidential election.
