NAEP Technical DocumentationNAEP 2017 Sample Design

			2017 State Assessment Sample Design 2017 National Assessment Sample Design

The sample design for NAEP 2017 included samples for various operational and special studies.

Representative samples were drawn for the following operational assessments:

• national assessments in mathematics, reading, and writing in public and private schools at grades 4 and 8; and
• state-by-state assessments and Trial Urban District Assessments (TUDA) in mathematics and reading in public schools at grades 4 and 8.

Representative samples were drawn for the following special studies and assessment components:

• a special mathematics assessment in public schools in Puerto Rico at grades 4 and 8;
• a national special mathematics assessment in public and private schools at grades 4 and 8;
• a special Multi-Stage Testing (MST) study in mathematics in public and private schools at grades 4 and 8; and
• a special study of writing, using laptop computers rather than tablets, in public schools at grade 8.

The samples for the operational assessments were organized into four distinct groupings and sampled separately. With the exception of the writing laptop special study, the samples for the special studies and assessment components were integrated into these various groupings:

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

The national assessments were designed to achieve nationally representative samples of public and private school students in the fourth and eighth grades. Their target populations included all students in public, private, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools, who were enrolled in grades 4 and 8 at the time of assessment.

For the fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics and reading assessments in public schools, the TUDA samples formed part of the corresponding state public school samples, and the state samples formed the public school grades 4 and 8 part of the national sample. Nationally representative samples were drawn for writing and for the remaining populations of private school students, DoDEA students, and BIE students in the fourth and eighth grades.

The state assessments were designed to achieve representative samples of students in the respective grade. At grades 4 and 8, the target populations included all students in each participating jurisdiction, which included states, District of Columbia, BIE, DoDEA, and school districts chosen for the TUDA. For each grade and assessment subject, samples were designed to produce aggregate estimates with reliable precision for all the participating jurisdictions, as well as estimates for various student subpopulations of interest. 

The figure below illustrates the various sample types and subjects.

Components of the NAEP samples, by assessment subject, grade, and school type: 2017

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2017 Assessments.

Printer-friendly Version