NAEP Assessment Weighting Procedures → Weighting Procedures for the 2011 Assessment → Computation of Full-Sample Weights for the 2011 Assessment → School and Student Nonresponse Adjustments for the 2011 Assessment → School Nonresponse Weight Adjustment for the 2011 Assessment → Development of Initial School Nonresponse Cells for the 2011 Assessment

NAEP Technical DocumentationDevelopment of Initial School Nonresponse Cells for the 2011 Assessment

The cells for nonresponse adjustments are generally functions of the school sampling strata for the individual samples. School sampling strata usually differ by assessment subject, grade, and school type (public or private). Assessment subjects that are administered together by way of spiraling have the same school samples and stratification schemes. Subjects that are not spiraled with any other subjects have their own separate school sample. In NAEP 2011, the reading, mathematics, and science assessments were spiraled together, but writing (WCBA) was not spiraled with any other subject. 

The initial nonresponse cells for the various NAEP 2011 samples are described below.

Public School Samples for Reading, Mathematics, and Science at Grades 4 and 8

For these samples, initial weighting cells were formed within each 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 (urban-centric locale) stratum; and
• race/ethnicity classification, or achievement level, or median income, or grade enrollment.

In general, the nonresponse cell structure used minority stratum as the lowest level variable. However, where there was only one race/ethnicity category within a particular urbanicity stratum, categorized achievement or median income data were used instead.

Private School Samples for Reading, Mathematics, and Science at Grades 4 and 8

The initial weighting cells for these samples were formed within each grade using the following nesting cell structure:

• affiliation;
• census division stratum;
• urbanicity stratum; and
• race/ethnicity classification.

Public School Samples for WCBA at Grades 8 and 12

The initial weighting cells for these samples were formed within each subject and grade using the following nesting cell structure:

• census region;
• urban-centric locale; and
• indicator of high percentage of Black/Hispanic students within school.

Private School Samples for WCBA at Grades 8 and 12

The initial weighting cells for these samples were formed within each subject and grade using the following nesting cell structure:

• affiliation; and
• census region.

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