NAEP Technical DocumentationDevelopment of Initial School Nonresponse Cells for the 2007 Assessment

The cells for nonresponse adjustments are generally functions of the school sampling strata. Sampling strata definitions differ by sample, that is, they differ by grade, by whether a sample is state-based or national, and by whether they are for public or private schools.

State-Based Public School Samples at Grades 4 and 8

These samples formed initial weighting cells within a jurisdiction using the following nesting cell structure:

Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) district vs. the balance of the state for states with TUDA districts;
urbanicity classification; and
race/ethnicity classification, or achievement level, or median income, or grade enrollment.

In general, the nonresponse cell structure used race/ethnicity classification as the lowest level variable. However, where there was only one race/ethnicity category within a particular level of urbanicity, categorized achievement or median income data were used instead. For Puerto Rico, schools were grouped according to grade enrollment due to the lack of data on urbanicity, achievement, income, and race/ethnicity.

National Public School Sample at Grade 12

These samples formed initial weighting cells within a census region using the following nesting cell structure:

census division stratum,
urbanicity stratum, and
race/ethnicity stratum.

National Private School Samples at Grades 4, 8, and 12

Private school samples formed initial weighting cells using the following nesting cell structure:

private school type (i.e., Catholic, other private),
census division stratum,
urbanicity stratum, and
race/ethnicity stratum.

Last updated 06 January 2010 (JL)

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