Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Pre-test/ Post-test

Checking for Learning

Agawam High School
Miss. Powell

Agawam High School Students Pre/Post Test Score Results

100
90
Pre Test and Post Test Scores

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z AA BB CC DD EE
Students

Pre-Test Post-Test

Average Pre-Test Score Average Post-Test Score

39.5 77.5
 KEY:
Low- Improvement is less than 10 points
Moderate- Improvement is between 10-20 points
High- Improvement is greater than 20 points

There were multiple absences for students during the unit. Student X and student DD had
moderate improvement. Everyone else had high improvement between the pre and post-test.
Conclusion
There are many factors that affect the scores for a pre/post-test. For the alcohol, tobacco
and other drug unit, 31 students took the pre-test and the post-test. The pre-test was taken on
the first day of the unit. No information was given to them prior, that connected with the pre-
test. They had to take it and try their best answering as many questions as possible. Students
who are ELLs did not get the chance to revise their scores on the pre-test because it was based
off initial knowledge of the students rather than taught content. The post-test was held before
the last day of the unit, so students had to study and review on their own and in class the other
drugs part of the unit. Students who are ELLs will get a chance to revise their scores on the short
answer questions but for official results of improvement the post test scores were entered in
before this accommodation. By this time, students had learned all the words and definitions that
were needed for the post-test. Students were given multiple forms of study material on google
classroom and as the teacher would teach they would mention the importance of phrases
because of the connection to the exam. The goal of this checking for learning assessment was to
show that the educator had installed new intellect into the student’s cognitive domain.
A bar graph was created to show visual proof of the improvements made. All 31 students
scores improved tremendously. Their pre-test and post-test scores were then compared to
determine if the students had a low, moderate, or high improvement rate. 0 of the 31 students
had a low improvement. 2 of the 31 students had moderate improvement. Finally, 29 out of the
31 students had high improvement. Factors that could have played a role in the moderate
improvement for this group of students would be attention, 504 and IEP plans, ELLs and pre-
test scores. All students scored relatively low on the pre-test. When the students were taking
the pre-test, some of the ELL students expressed that they did not understand what a certain
sentence was asking or what a certain word was. If I was to administer the test again I would
work on rephrasing my short answer questions to a simpler format. For example, during the
media and advertisement portion of the exam all the ELL students got the question “what is
really being advertised?” wrong. The students answered with alcohol. Although they are correct
they were supposed to touch on the fact that alcohol was being marketed as a positive thing
and it was trying to promote the alcohol in the Spring. If I was to ask this question again I would
tell them to identify what the advertisement is promoting. To accommodate for these students
I asked Mrs. Barrows what she usually does for the students and she said for fill in the blanks
she adds word banks and for short answer she gives the students their grade and if they did
bad, they are allowed to go to someone to get extra help on the phrases and to get a chance to
redo their exams for a higher grade. Students were also asked to review on their own and to
study on their own. A review worksheet was provided as well as all the Power Points and notes.
Students were given class time to review before the post-test. From observation, I have noticed
when students do not see something as mandatory, they do not always do it. I have done
review before in the classroom where I noticed students were not working as hard as they
could on the review which could result in a lot of students having lower grades or low
improvements. Since students did not do well on all the other drug material on the post-test I
created an extra homework assignment to solidify understanding. I also asked that when they
were doing review, they look at the other drugs section first to create higher understanding on
the topic. On the post-test I could tell what students studied the other drugs portion of the
topic and what students did not. Students who did, got all the other drugs questions correct.
Students who did not, took a good guess, or were answering the short answer questions using
tobacco and alcohol related material. If students were not completely paying attention during
the unit lessons or while taking the test, they could have picked the wrong answer accidentally.
In class a student brought up the fact that someone who is below the age of 18 could have a .02
BAC when driving. Mrs. Barrows brought this into further discussion and explanation. On the
test, multiple students answered the question “It is illegal for adults to drive when they have
what BAC?” with .02. They were not fully paying attention to the question, so they answered it
with an incorrect answer. If I was to administer the test again, because of the confusion, I
would put a form of both questions on the exam for students to use their associative skills and
cipher out the correct answer. During review I could also emphasize the difference repetitively,
so students had the understanding and correct knowledge. Factors that affect high
improvement scores are attendance, attention, pre-test scores and understanding. Attendance
plays a role because if the students were at every lesson, they participated in every
presentation and were able to obtain every piece of information that would be on the post-test
they would score high. Students M, O and R were at every lesson taught for the unit which
showed in their post test scores. They were the only three students to score over a 90%. They
also scored relatively high compared to other students on the pre-test, so they did not have as
much room of improvement. All three students handed in all their other work on time and any
individual assignment they had, they scored a 100. During the end of the role play scenario
class, I watched all three students follow my instructions exactly and work on the other drugs
portion of the unit for review. The three students were the only three who got every question
to the other drugs unit on the post-test correct. You could tell they also took the time out to
review the material on google classroom because they were answering questions with direct
quotes from my Power Points. Attention plays a role in high improvement because if the
student is listening to everything the educator says, watches all the presentation slides, and
participates during every activity completing the worksheets needed, they are allowing their
cognitive domain to increase exponentially. If a student scored very low on the pre-test, they
automatically have more room for improvement. The reasons for scoring low could be because
they never heard of the words or definitions that were on the pre-test, or because they did not
want to try on the pre-test since it did not count against their grade. An example of this would
be Student B. He stated out loud that he was not going to fill the pre-test out well because he
had yet to learn the material and he knew it did not count against him. He ended up getting a
29% on the pre-test but then, got a 75% on the post-test. The average scores of the pre-test
and post-test were taken as well. The pre-test average score was 39.5% and the average post
test score was 77.5%. This means that there was high improvement in the class overall. All 31
students scores improved which means the tobacco, alcohol and other drugs unit that was
taught, provided increased learning experiences. As an educator, using reflective practice, if I
were to administer the pre-test and post-test again, I would provide a word bank on the fill in
the blank portions, I would create more multiple-choice questions, and I would simplify the
word in the short answer questions. I would also make sure I had time to teach the other drugs
portion of the lesson before administering the post-test, so students had a chance at scoring
higher on the post-test. I believe students did not do as well because a lot of the students learn
through teacher taught lessons rather then individual assignments and activities. As an
educator, if I was full time, I would also want to administer more quiz’s or tests throughout the
unit, so students would have to study harder and more often. They would also get feedback
from the quizzes and tests to help them study for the post-test. Questions could also have been
taken from the post-test for the other exams and quizzes so that students would know the
answer for the post-test if they studied using their exam and quiz results.