NAEP Assessment Sample Design → NAEP 2009 Sample Design → Sample Design for the 2009 National Assessment → Hands-On Tasks (HOT) and Interactive Computer Tests (ICT) for the 2009 Science Assessment → Public School 2009 Science HOT and ICT Assessments

NAEP Technical DocumentationPublic School 2009 Science HOT and ICT Assessments

			Target Population Sampling Frame Stratification of Schools Sampling of Schools Substitute Schools Ineligible Schools Student Sample Selection

The NAEP 2009 science hands-on tasks (HOT) and interactive computer tests (ICT) sample design yielded nationally representative samples of public school students in grades 4, 8, and 12 through a three-stage approach: selection of primary sampling units (PSUs), selection of schools within strata, and selection of students within schools. The sample of schools was selected with probability proportional to a measure of size based on the estimated grade enrollment in the schools.

The 2009 HOT and ICT sampling plan was part of a somewhat larger design, with an overall goal of assessing 13,050 fourth-graders, 12,600 eighth-graders and 6,300 twelfth-graders. These students were allocated among several tests. Science probes were administered for HOT and ICT in all three grades. Pilot tests in mathematics and reading (grades 4 and 8), and civics, U.S. history, and geography (grades 4, 8, and 12) were also administered. Target sample sizes were adjusted to reflect expected public school and student response and eligibility.

Schools on the sampling frame were explicitly stratified prior to sampling by PSU type (certainty/noncertainty). Within certainty PSUs, schools were implicitly stratified by census region, urban-centric locale and median household income in the ZIP Code area where the school is located. Within noncertainty PSUs, schools were implicitly stratified by PSU stratum, urban-centric locale, and median income in the ZIP Code area where the school is located. 

From the stratified frame of public schools, systematic random samples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade schools were drawn with probability proportional to a measure of size based on the estimated grade enrollment of the school, in the relevant grade.  

Each selected school in the public school sample provided a list of eligible enrolled students from which a systematic, equal probability sample of students was drawn.

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