NAEP Technical DocumentationSelection of New Public Schools for the 2000 National Main Assessment

The 1997–98 NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) files do not contain data on schools that opened between 1998 and the assessment dates. Special procedures were implemented ensure that the NAEP assessment represented students in these more recently opened public schools. Small school districts—those with only one eligible school for a given grade—were handled differently from large school districts—those with more than one eligible school for a given grade. In small school districts, the schools selected for a given grade were thought to contain all students in the district that were eligible for the assessment. Officials of each sampled school district were asked if other schools with the appropriate grades for the assessment existed, and if so, the other schools were automatically included in the assessment.

For large school districts, a district-level frame was constructed from the schools on the CCD file. Districts were sampled systematically with probabilities proportional to a measure of size. In most cases, the measure of size was total district enrollment, but in districts with very small size measures, a minimum measure of size was used. Each sampled district was asked to update the list of eligible schools derived from information on the CCD file. Frames of eligible new schools were then constructed at each grade, and samples of new schools were selected systematically with probability proportional to eligible enrollment using the same sampling rates as for the CCD schools. As a result of this process, two new public schools were selected at grade 4, four at grade 8, and one at grade 12.

Last updated 08 May 2008 (MH)

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