NAEP - Long-Term Trend: Reading Participation Rate

School and student participation rates for the reading long-term trend assessments: 1971–2004

Year	Age	Weighted percent of schools participating before substitution	Weighted percent of students participating	Overall participation
1971	9	92.5	90.9	84.1
	13	92.0	84.2	77.5
	17	90.5	73.5	66.5
1975	9	93.9	87.2	81.9
	13	92.8	85.2	79.1
	17	91.0	73.2	66.6
1980	9	94.5	90.5	85.5
	13	93.2	85.5	79.7
	17	90.5	74.2	67.2
1984	9	88.6	92.9	82.3
	13	90.3	89.2	80.5
	17	83.9	78.9	66.2
1988	9	87.2	92.5	80.7
	13	92.7	90.2	83.6
	17	78.1	82.1	64.1
1990	9	87.0	92.5	80.5
	13	89.0	90.2	80.3
	17	79.0	82.1	64.9
1992	9	87.0	93.8	81.6
	13	85.3	90.8	77.5
	17	80.9	83.3	67.4
1994	9	86.7	94.1	81.6
	13	79.7	91.8	73.2
	17	80.1	84.2	67.4
1996	9	83.5	95.6	79.9
	13	82.0	92.2	75.6
	17	81.7	83.8	68.5
1999	9	84.9	94.4	80.2
	13	80.8	92.1	74.4
	17	74.0	80.2	59.4
2004 bridge	9	85.4	94.5	80.7
	13	83.2	92.4	76.9
	17	73.4	75.5	55.4
2004 modified	9	85.1	94.3	80.2
	13	82.5	92.4	76.2
	17	74.1	76.0	56.3
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), selected years, 1971–2004 Long-Term Trend Reading Assessments.

School and student participation rates for the long-term trend assessments are shown in the table above. For assessments conducted before 1984, the school and student participation rates were obtained from the NCES public use data tape user guides. Rates for more recent assessments were obtained from reports of NAEP field operation and data collection activities.

Although sampled schools that refused to participate were replaced (or substituted), school participation rates were computed based on the schools originally selected for participation in the assessments. The student participation rates represent the percentage of students assessed of those invited to be assessed, including those assessed in follow-up sessions when necessary.

The overall response rate (the product of the weighted school participation rate before substitution and the weighted student participation rate) for age 17 fell below the NCES reporting target of 85 percent for ages 13 and 17 at the school level and for age 17 at the student level.

At age 13, a bias was found for private schools, as a greater proportion of nonresponses were from other private schools as compared to Catholic schools, which were more likely to respond. In addition, nonrespondent schools had a lower percentage of Black students than schools that participated in the long-term trend assessment.

Likewise, at age 17, private schools were disproportionately less likely to participate, and within private schools, Catholics and Conservative Christian schools had higher participation rates than other private schools. Nonrespondent schools also had a slightly higher percentage of Asian students compared to participating schools at age 17. At the student level at age 17, some bias was shown for race/ethnicity, free lunch eligibility, and disabled students.

School and student participation rates for the reading long-term trend assessments: 1971–2004

Last updated 24 June 2005 (JJ)