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NAEP Sample Design → Sample Design for the 2000 Assessment → National Main Assessment Sample Design in 2000 → Assignment of Sessions to Schools for the 2000 National Main Assessment

NAEP Technical DocumentationAssignment of Sessions to Schools for the 2000 National Main Assessment

			Session Assignment Probabilities for Private Schools by Subject Area and Sampling Strata

Session types assigned to a school determined the assessment subject or subjects administered at the school. In the 2000 national main assessment, schools could be assessed in at least one subject and up to four different subjects depending on grade, school type (public or private), and student grade enrollment. There were four assessment subjects in grade 4: mathematics, reading, science, and market-basket/short-form mathematics; and two for grades 8 and 12: mathematics and science.

Schools were first assigned one, two, three, or four sessions depending on school type and student grade enrollment estimated from the frame. The cutoffs were as follows:

Grade 4 Public Schools

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 25 or less: one session;

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 26 to 50: two sessions;

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 51 to 75: three sessions; and

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 76 or more: four sessions.

Grade 8 and 12 Public Schools

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 25 or less: one session; and

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 26 or more: two sessions.

Grade 4, 8, and 12 Private Schools

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 24 or less: one session; and

• Schools with estimated grade enrollment of 25 or more: two sessions.

Each session for the school was then assigned a session type based on the following probabilities:

• Fourth-grade public: 7/29 mathematics, 6/29 reading, 9/29 science, and 7/29 short-form mathematics;

• Eighth-grade public: 1/2 mathematics and 1/2 science;

• Twelfth-grade public: 7/16 mathematics and 9/16 science;

• Fourth-grade private: varied by sampling strata and subject; and

• Eighth- and twelfth-grade private: 1/2 mathematics and 1/2 science.

If a school had significantly fewer students than expected (based on frame data) at the time of the assessment, the session count was adjusted downward. This adjustment was automatically made in the student sampling procedure as discussed in Updating Number of Sessions.

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