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NAEP Technical DocumentationPrimary Sampling Unit (PSU) Generation: Certainty PSUs for the 2011 Assessments

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 2008 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, D.C., PSUs were included as certainties by design: Honolulu, Hawaii in order to reduce the variability of including Native Hawaiian students, and Washington, D.C., 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 2011 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): 2011

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), 2011 National Assessment.
Grand total			203	30,407,927
Total Northeast			40	6,753,238
1--1	Boston-Cambridge-Quincy	MA	5	903,391
1--2	New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island	NJ-PA	13	1,518,504
1--3	New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island	NY	10	2,915,787
1--4	Pittsburgh	PA	7	481,884
1--5	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington	PA	5	933,672
Total Midwest			40	5,113,204
2--1	Chicago-Naperville-Joliet	IL	9	2,231,409
2--2	Detroit-Warren-Livonia	MI	6	1,089,901
2--3	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington	MN	11	782,054
2--4	St. Louis	MO	9	519,876
2--5	Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor	OH	5	489,964
Total South			93	9,089,075
3--1	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	DC	1	112,016
3--2	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater	FL	4	592,372
3--3	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach	FL	3	1,204,361
3--4	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta	GA	28	1,443,448
3--5	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	MD	5	546,557
3--6	Baltimore-Towson	MD	7	629,656
3--7	San Antonio	TX	8	561,126
3--8	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown	TX	10	1,615,543
3--9	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington	TX	12	1,755,255
3--10	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	VA	15	628,741
Total West			30	9,452,410
4--1	Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale	AZ	2	1,168,524
4--2	Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville	CA	4	519,855
4--3	San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos	CA	1	744,470
4--4	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont	CA	5	923,680
4--5	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario	CA	2	1,174,107
4--6	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana	CA	2	3,314,817
4--7	Denver-Aurora	CO	10	637,268
4--8	Honolulu	HI	1	199,268
4--9	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue	WA	3	770,421

¹ The U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (http://www.Census.gov/popest/) 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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