NAEP Technical DocumentationSchool and Student Participation Rates for the 2011 Private School National Assessment

			School Response Rates Weighted Student Response and Exclusion Rates for Mathematics Weighted Student Response and Exclusion Rates for Reading Weighted Student Response and Exclusion Rates for Science

Private school participation in NAEP is not mandatory. The 2011 assessment holds true to the historic pattern of having higher rates of participation among Catholic and Lutheran schools than among Conservative Christian and other private schools. Although a portion of the participating school sample consisted of substitute schools, it is preferable to calculate school response rates on the basis of school participation before substitution.

In every NAEP survey, some of the sampled students are not assessed for the following reasons:

• withdrawn students,
• excluded students with disabilities (SD),
• excluded English language learner (ELL) students, or
• students absent from both the original session and the makeup session (not excluded but not assessed).

Withdrawn students are those who have left the school before the original assessment. Excluded students were determined by their school to be unable to meaningfully take the NAEP assessment in their assigned subject, even with an accommodation. Excluded students must also be classified as SD and/or ELL. Other students who were absent for the initial session are assessed in the makeup session. The last category includes students who were not excluded (i.e., “were to be assessed”) but were not assessed either due to absence from both sessions or because of a refusal to participate. Assessed students are also classified as assessed without an accommodation or assessed with an accommodation. The latter group can be divided into SD students assessed with an accommodation, ELL students assessed with an accommodation, or students who are both SD and ELL and accommodated. Note that some SD and ELL students are assessed without accommodations, and students who are neither SD nor ELL can only be assessed without an accommodation.

The weighted response rates utilize the student base weights and indicate the weighted percentage of assessed students among all students to be assessed. The exclusion rates, in contrast, provide the weighted percentage of excluded SD or ELL students among all absent, assessed, and excluded students.

Printer-friendly Version