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NAEP Sample Design → Sample Design for the 2001 Assessment → National Main Assessment Sample Design in 2001 → Student Sample Selection for the 2001 National Main Assessment → Updating Number of Sessions in the 2001 National Main Assessment

NAEP Technical DocumentationUpdating Number of Sessions in the 2001 National Main Assessment

If a school that had been originally assigned two or more sessions was found to have significantly fewer students than were expected at the time of assessment, the number of sessions originally assigned to the school was reduced as follows:

• In general, sessions were dropped if a school did not have at least 12 students per session for the sampled grade.

• For grade 8 public schools and all private school samples, which had at most two sessions assigned to a school, the enrollment size cutoff for dropping a session was 24 students.

• For grade 12 public schools, which also were assigned at most two sessions, the cutoff was slightly higher (28) because of their differential student allocation rate. Instead of equally distributing students among the sessions assigned to a school as was done for all the other samples, grade 12 public schools required a student allocation of 7/16 to mathematics and 9/16 to science.

• For grade 4 public schools, which could have up to four assigned sessions, the rules for dropping sessions and the number of sessions to drop were more detailed, but still were based on same general principle of a minimum session size of 12 students.

Rules for dropping sessions for grade 4 public schools, national main assessment: 2001

Original number of assigned sessions	Cutoff rules	Number of sessions to drop
4	36 ≤ NSLF < 48	1
	24 ≤ NSLF < 36	2
	NSLF < 24	3
3	24 ≤ NSLF < 36	1
	NSLF < 24	2
2	NSLF < 24	1
NOTE: NSLF = The number of students listed on the student listing form for a given school. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2001.

In schools where sessions were reduced, the types of sessions were dropped proportionally to the session type allocation discussed in Assignment of Sessions to Schools. For example, in grade 12 the probability of dropping mathematics and science session in public schools was 7/16 and 9/16, respectively; for private schools, the probabilities for dropping mathematics and science were both 1/2.

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