Nation's Report Card Home

About the Assessment: Participation Rates

The schools and students participating in NAEP assessments are selected to be representative of all schools nationally and of public schools at the state level. Samples of schools and students are drawn from participating states and from the District of Columbia and Department of Defense schools. While results for students assessed in Alaska, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, and Vermont contributed to the results for the nation at grades 4 and 8, sample sizes were not large enough to report results for these states/jurisdictions separately. The results from the assessed students are combined to provide accurate estimates of the overall performance of students in the nation and in individual states and other jurisdictions. Results are not collected at the state level for grade 12. Because each school that participated in the assessment, and each student assessed, represents a portion of the population of interest, the results are weighted to account for the disproportionate representation of the selected sample. Read more technical information about weighting adjustments made at the school and student level.

National participation

To ensure unbiased samples, NAEP requires that participation rates for original school samples be 70 percent or higher to report national results separately for public and private schools. In instances where participation rates meet the 70 percent criteria but fall below 85 percent, a nonresponse bias analysis is conducted to determine if the responding school sample is not representative of the population, thereby introducing the potential for nonresponse bias.

Before substituting new schools for originally sampled schools that declined to participate, the weighted national school participation rates for the 2009 science assessment were 97 percent for fourth grade (100 percent for public schools, 73 percent for private schools), 97 percent for eighth grade (100 percent for public schools and 72 percent for private schools), and 83 percent for twelfth grade (86 percent for public schools and 52 percent for private schools). Weighted student participation rates were 95 percent at fourth grade, 93 percent at eighth grade, and 80 percent at twelfth grade. The nonresponse bias analysis for private schools at grades 4 and 8 showed that, while the original responding school sample may not have been fully representative, the potential bias was reduced by including substitute schools and by adjusting the sampling weights to account for school nonresponse.

State and district participation

Standards established by the National Assessment Governing Board require that school participation rates for the original state samples need to be at least 85 percent for results to be reported. In 2009, there were 47 states and jurisdictions, along with 17 districts, participating in the science assessment at grades 4 and 8 that met this participation rate requirement.

The tables below provide participation rates before substitution.

Learn more about the sampling design.

National and State
District
School and student participation rates in NAEP science at grade 4, by state/jurisdiction: 2009
  School participation Student participation
State/jurisdiction Student-
weighted
percent
School-
weighted
percent
Number of
schools
participating
Student-
weighted
percent
Number of
students
assessed
     Nation 97 91 9,330 95 156,500
       Public 100 100 8,780 95 151,500
       Private 73 68 370 96 2,800
Alabama  100 100 130 95 2,700
Alaska
Arizona  100 100 140 96 3,100
Arkansas 100 100 140 95 2,800
California 100 100 310 95 7,400
Colorado 100 100 150 95 2,700
Connecticut  100 100 130 94 2,700
Delaware 100 100 100 94 2,800
Florida  100 100 180 94 4,700
Georgia  100 100 170 96 4,000
Hawaii 100 100 140 95 2,800
Idaho  100 100 160 95 3,000
Illinois 100 100 220 95 4,100
Indiana  100 100 140 94 2,700
Iowa 100 100 180 95 2,800
Kansas
Kentucky 100 100 190 95 3,800
Louisiana  100 100 150 94 2,900
Maine  100 100 200 93 2,600
Maryland 99 99 200 95 3,500
Massachusetts  97 99 210 94 3,700
Michigan 100 100 190 94 3,400
Minnesota 100 99 170 95 3,300
Mississippi  100 100 130 95 2,800
Missouri 100 100 160 96 2,700
Montana 100 98 240 94 2,700
Nebraska
Nevada 100 100 130 95 3,000
New Hampshire 99 99 160 93 2,700
New Jersey 100 100 140 93 2,800
New Mexico 100 100 160 94 2,800
New York 100 100 180 93 4,000
North Carolina 100 100 190 95 4,500
North Dakota 100 100 240 96 2,000
Ohio 100 100 210 94 3,500
Oklahoma 100 100 180 96 2,800
Oregon 100 100 180 94 2,900
Pennsylvania 100 100 190 94 3,600
Rhode Island 100 100 150 95 2,500
South Carolina 100 100 130 95 2,900
South Dakota 100 100 290 96 2,700
Tennessee  100 100 140 94 2,900
Texas  100 100 270 95 6,300
Utah 100 100 150 94 3,300
Vermont 
Virginia 100 100 130 95 2,900
Washington 100 100 160 94 3,100
West Virginia  100 100 200 94 2,800
Wisconsin 99 99 240 96 3,800
Wyoming  100 100 160 95 2,000
Other jurisdictions          
     BIE1
     District of Columbia
     DoDEA2 99 98 110 93 2,100
— Not available. The state/jurisdiction did not participate at the state level.
1 Bureau of Indian Education.
2 Department of Defense Education Activity (overseas and domestic schools).
NOTE: The number of schools is rounded to the nearest ten. The number of students is rounded to the nearest hundred. The national totals for schools include Department of Defense Education Activity (overseas and domestic schools) and Bureau of Indian Education schools, which are not included in either the public or private totals. The national totals for students include students in these schools. Columns of percentages have different denominators. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2009 Science Assessment.