Sample Design → NAEP 2010 Sample Design → 2010 Public School Sample

NAEP Technical Documentation2010 Public School Sample

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

The NAEP 2010 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 2010 sampling plan was designed to assess 27,000 fourth-graders, 34,200 eighth-graders, and 31,500 twelfth-graders. These students were allocated among several tests. The operational tests were in civics, geography, and U.S. history for grades 4, 8, and 12. Pilot tests in writing (grades 4, 8, and 12) and mathematics (grades 4 and 8) 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, Black/Hispanic stratum, and estimated grade enrollment. Within noncertainty PSUs, schools were implicitly stratified by PSU stratum, urban-centric locale, and Black/Hispanic/American Indian stratum. 

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.  

Additionally, Black and Hispanic students were oversampled at a moderate rate. Schools in a high Black/Hispanic stratum (i.e., schools with 15 percent or more Black and Hispanic students and at least 10 Black or Hispanic students in the sample grade) were sampled at twice the rate (by doubling their measure of size) as schools not in a high Black/Hispanic stratum to implement oversampling of Black and Hispanic students.

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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