NAEP Technical DocumentationSample Design for the 2017 National Assessment

			Public School National Assessment Private School National Assessment Public School Writing Assessment Private School Writing Assessment

The 2017 national assessment included operational assessments in mathematics, reading, and writing in public and private schools at grades 4 and 8.

The sample designs aimed to achieve nationally representative samples of students in the defined populations who were enrolled at the time of assessment.  

The samples were based on a two-stage sample design:

• selection of schools within strata; and
• selection of students within schools.

The samples of schools were selected with probability proportional to a measure of size based on the estimated grade-specific enrollment in the schools.

For fourth- and eighth-grade public schools, the aggregate of the NAEP state student samples and assessments in mathematics and reading constitute the corresponding NAEP national student samples and assessments.

The samples for the remaining national assessments were organized into three distinct groupings and sampled separately:

• mathematics and reading assessments in private schools at grades 4 and 8;
• writing assessments in public schools at grades 4 and 8; and
• writing assessments in private schools at grades 4 and 8.

Starting in 2017, digitally based assessments (DBA) using tablets were administered in addition to paper and pencil assessments (PBA) at the operational level. Specifically, for the mathematics and reading assessments, students were assigned to either DBA or PBA during student sample selection. For the writing assessments, all students were administered DBA using tablets. Details can be found in the student sampling selection section for each assessment type.

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