Table of Contents  |  Search Technical Documentation  |  References

NAEP Sample Design → NAEP 2002 Sample Design → 2002 National Main Assessment Sample Design → Target Population

NAEP Technical DocumentationTarget Population

			Targets for State Assessment Nonparticipating Jurisdictions Fourth- and Eighth-Grade Public School Counts and Enrollment Twelfth-Grade Public School Counts and Enrollment

The target population for the 2002 national main assessment included all students in public or private schools who were enrolled in the fourth, eighth, or twelfth grades in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The table below presents the population sizes by grade and school type (i.e., public or private). These are aggregates of enrollment data from the 1999-2000 Common Core of Data (CCD) and Private School Survey (PSS). The assessment targets, the realized totals, and the ratios between these numbers for the operational assessment in reading and writing are also provided. The assessment targets of 32,000 for grade 4 and 8 public schools at the national level were used primarily to provide sample size guidance for states which did not participate in the state NAEP program, and are based on traditional calculations for national NAEP studies in earlier years when the fourth- and eighth-grade public school national and state NAEP programs were separate. Except for the states not participating in the state assessment, the state NAEP samples for public schools in fourth and eighth grade were quite ample enough (by an order of magnitude) for the purposes of the national study. This is reflected in the high ratios between realized assessments and targets for fourth- and eighth-grade public schools. The remaining ratios are lower than 1, reflecting an underestimate in the degree of expected nonresponse.

Target and actual population and sample sizes, by grade and school type, national main assessment: 2002

Grade	School type	Frame population size	Operational assessment target	Realized operational assessments	Ratio
4	Public	3,752,000	32,000	269,000	8.40
	Private	418,000	12,000	11,000	0.91
8	Public	3,599,000	32,000	223,000	6.96
	Private	363,000	12,000	10,800	0.90
12	Public	3,297,000	26,400	23,500	0.89
	Private	282,000	12,000	9,800	0.81
NOTE: The ratios in the last column may not be exactly equal to the ratio of the rounded assessment figures, as they were computed using the unrounded numbers. Public school enrollment figures from 1999–2000 CCD; private school enrollment figures from 1999–2000 PSS. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2002.

Printer-friendly Version