​​NAEP Technical DocumentationSampling Frame for the 2019 Fourth- and Eighth-Grade Private School National Assessment in Mathematics and Reading

The primary sampling frames for the 2019 fourth- and eighth-grade private school samples for the national mathematics and reading assessments were developed from the Private School Universe Survey (PSS) corresponding to the 2015-2016 school year. The PSS file is the Department of Education’s primary database of elementary and secondary private schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and it is based on a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau during the 2015-2016 school year. These sampling frames are referred to as the PSS-based sampling frames.

Nonrespondents to the PSS were also included in the primary sampling frames. Since these schools did not respond to the PSS, their private school affiliation are unknown. Because NAEP response rates differ vastly by affiliation, to better estimate the target sample size of schools for each affiliation, additional work was done to obtain affiliation for these PSS nonrespondents. If a nonresponding school responded to a previous PSS (either two or four years prior), affiliation was obtained from the previous response. For those schools that were nonrespondents for the last three cycles of the PSS, in some cases internet research was used to establish affiliation. There were still schools with unknown affiliation remaining after this process.

A secondary set of sampling frames were also created for these samples to account for schools that newly opened or became newly eligible between the 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 school years. These frames contain brand-new and newly-eligible fourth- and eighth-grade schools and are referred to as the new-school sampling frames. Because there are no sources available to identify new schools for non-Catholic private schools, the new school frame for private schools contains only Catholic schools.

Both sets of sampling frames excluded schools that were ungraded, provided only special education, were part of hospital or treatment center programs, were juvenile correctional institutions, were home-school entities, or were for adult education.

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