​​​NAEP Technical Documentation Final Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) Samples for the 2022 Assessment

There was one primary sampling unit (PSU) sample for the 2022 Long Term Trend (LTT) assessment, consisting of 105 sample PSUs of which 29 were certainty and 76 were noncertainty​. These are the same sampled PSUs used for the 2020 LTT assessment. Using the same PSU sample was necessary in order to maximize overlap between the 2022 LTT school sample and the 2020 LTT school sample.

To select the noncertainty PSUs for the LTT assessments, one PSU was selected from each of the 76 noncertainty strata defined in Final Primary Sampling Unit Strata. Each PSU was selected with probability proportionate to size, where the size measure was the number of persons 17 years of age and younger from the 2017 Census Bureau population estimates.

In addition, to reduce the burden of any particular school when selecting the 2020 sample PSUs, efforts were made to minimize overlap with the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018 PSU samples. This overlap control was facilitated through the careful assignment of the random starts used to select the noncertainty PSUs. There was a small PSU sample that included 32 noncertainty PSUs in 2017, with which overlap control was not attempted. There was no PSU sample for NAEP 2019.

The table below shows the distribution of the 2022 sample PSUs for each assessment by metropolitan status (metropolitan/non-metropolitan), census region, and certainty/metropolitan status.

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