NAEP Technical Documentation2014 Public School Social Studies Assessment

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

The NAEP 2014 sample design yielded nationally representative samples of public school students in grade 8 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 2014 sampling plan was designed to assess 23,400 eighth-graders. These students were allocated among tests in civics, geography, and U.S. history. 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, urbanization classification, Black/Hispanic/American Indian stratum, and estimated grade enrollment. Within noncertainty PSUs, schools were implicitly stratified by PSU stratum, urbanization classification, and Black/Hispanic/American Indian stratum. 

From the stratified frame of public schools, systematic random samples of eighth-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 in two ways. First, 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. Second, up to 10 extra Black or Hispanic students were selected in schools in a low 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 sample of students was drawn. Within each school, students of the same race/ethnicity were selected with equal probability.

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