NAEP Assessment Sample Design → NAEP 2008 Sample Design → Selection of Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) for the 2008 Assessment → Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) Generation: Certainty PSUs for the 2008 Assessment

NAEP Technical DocumentationPrimary Sampling Unit (PSU) Generation: Certainty PSUs for the 2008 Assessment

Any primary sampling unit (PSU) was defined as a certainty PSU if it had 500,000 or more youths. The estimated number of youths is the number of persons age 17 or under from the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program.¹ These PSUs were so large that a sample of schools was taken from all of them (rather than from only a subsample of them, as with noncertainty PSUs). There were two exceptions to the 500,000 cutoff. The Honolulu, Hawaii, and Washington, DC PSUs were included as certainties by design: Honolulu, Hawaii in order to reduce the variability of including Asian/Pacific Islander students and Washington, DC as it is essentially a part of the larger MD-VA-DC Washington area PSU. A total of 29 PSUs were classified as certainties in the 2008 frame. The table below provides a listing of the certainty PSUs by Census region.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) definition for certainty PSUs, by primary sampling unit (PSU): 2008

Primary sampling unit (PSU)	Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)	State	Number of counties	Number of youths
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2008.
Grand total			203	30,504,257
Total Northeast			40	6,938,735
1--1	Boston-Cambridge-Quincy	MA	5	912,414
1--2	New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island	NJ-PA	13	1,604,752
1--3	New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island	NY	10	2,964,262
1--4	Pittsburgh	PA	7	505,169
1--5	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington	PA	5	952,138
Total Midwest			40	5,215,332
2--1	Chicago-Naperville-Joliet	IL	9	2,268,191
2--2	Detroit-Warren-Livonia	MI	6	1,160,161
2--3	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington	MN	11	759,664
2--4	St. Louis	MO	9	514,586
2--5	Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor	OH	5	512,730
Total South			93	8,786,785
3--1	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	DC	1	112,837
3--2	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater	FL	4	591,544
3--3	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach	FL	3	1,300,938
3--4	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta	GA	28	1,299,684
3--5	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	MD	5	581,228
3--6	Baltimore-Towson	MD	7	656,933
3--7	San Antonio	TX	8	517,562
3--8	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown	TX	10	1,492,285
3--9	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington	TX	12	1,619,509
3--10	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	VA	15	614,265
Total West			30	9,563,405
4--1	Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale	AZ	2	1,053,835
4--2	Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville	CA	4	532,243
4--3	San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos	CA	1	760,274
4--4	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont	CA	5	951,425
4--5	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario	CA	2	1,160,191
4--6	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana	CA	2	3,542,542
4--7	Denver-Aurora	CO	10	616,549
4--8	Honolulu	HI	1	208,845
4--9	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue	WA	3	737,501

¹ The U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (http://www.Census.gov/popest/estimates.php) yearly publishes total resident population estimates by demographics such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin for the nation, states, and counties.

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