Assessment

Data and Analysis:

The pre-test and the post test that were used to assess students had the same exact
questions on it. The post test was taken from four of the questions on the summative
assessment used at the end of the unit. It was important to use the same types of questions in
both the pre and post test to gauge the students growth and to see whether or not to change
the way the information is presented the next time it is taught.

The pre- test that was given to the students had four questions on it that asked to

identify whether each bond was ionic or covalent and to balance one equation. The pre-test
was scored out of a possible four points. The pre-test was given before the students were given
any information on bonding or balancing equations. Students were not told the score they
received on the pre-test nor was it recorded in the grade book. The data collected from the pretest was used strictly to see whether or not students were demonstrating growth on the
concepts of bonding and balancing equations.

The post test that was given to students came from the summative assessment. The

summative assessment asked students a variety of questions from the whole unit. However,
the grade given to the students was only based on a small section of the summative
assessment, which covered the same four questions as the pre-test. The post test just like the
pre-test was scored out of four points. Since the post test was a part of the summative
assessment it was entered in the grade book.

Below are the graphs used to analyze the pre and post test data.
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4
3
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Pre Test

Post Test

Gain Score

Boys vs. Girls

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Pre-Test

Post Test
Boys

Gain Score

Girls

After analyzing the two graphs there are a few conclusions that can be drawn. As a

whole class a majority of the students showed a significant gain score in the end. There were a
few students who had negative gain scores, which prompted me to review both their pre and
post test. Each individual question was looked at to gauge where the students seemed to be
struggling. All of the students who had a negative gain score understood the question
pertaining to balancing equations since they all got that question correct. However, when
looking at the questions pertaining to bonding it was clear that they did not understand the
difference between covalent and ionic bonds. The students receiving negative gain scores
showed that even though by attempting to correct the misunderstandings about the

differences between ionic and covalent bonds, they were not corrected. Due to these students
negative gain scores, it helped show that the next time this lesson is taught the focus needs to
placed on the differences between ionic and covalent bonds.

When comparing the students pre and post test scores it is easy to see that a majority of

them show growth. Their post test scores are representing a larger portion of the graph then
the pre-test score. By seeing a majority of students increase their scores on the post test tells
me that they did in fact grow and learn something from this unit. Not only did their post test
scores show that they were learning something but also by grading their worksheets there was
drastic improvement. The first few worksheets that were collected and graded had very low
scores on them but towards the end of the unit the worksheet scores improved to much higher
scores. The higher scores on the worksheets showed that students were learning and that was
backed up by students scoring well on the post test/summative assessment. So, overall
students were showing improvement not only in their classroom assignments but also in their
summative assessment.

Another interesting aspect to these graphs is that when the boys and girls average pre

and post test scores were compared. The pre-test score average for both the boys and girls are
close. The girls average pre-test score was 1.15 and the boys was 1.09. Both of those numbers
are close to each other and is what should be expected since the students have barely any prior
knowledge of these concepts. However, when you compare the average post test scores is
where the bar graphs separate. The average post test score for the girls was 2.31 and the
average for the boys was 2.82. The numbers arent that different but they have a big enough
difference to show it in the graph. In this class there were only 11 boys and all of them scored

well on their post test. There were 16 girls in this class and they as a whole didnt show as much
growth between their pre and post tests as the boys did. This shows that the boys showed
more growth between their pre and post test scores than the girls did. The final average
compared between the boys and the girls was the gain scores. The girls average gain score was
1.16 and the boys was 1.73. These two numbers also have a large distance between them This
is due to the fact that three of the girls had a negative gain score. By the three girls and none of
the boys receiving a negative gain score it was a major contributor as to why there was such a
large difference between the average gain score for the girls and boys.

Overall, taking all of the data students did show growth in one aspect or another. Not all

of the students showed significant growth but a majority of them showed a small amount of
growth. As for the three students that received a negative gain score, it could be said that they
still showed growth maybe not on the concepts being used in the post assessment. Those three
students received at least a B or better on their summative assessment as whole as well as
being able to explain to the other students how to complete various problems. That shows that
they also grew just not fully on the concepts that were being looked at in the post test. All of
the students regardless of their gain score showed through various assessments that they were
growing, learning and more importantly seeing how chemistry can be fun.

The next time the pre and post test are given, it would be changed so that they

encompassed more of what was talked about through out the whole entire unit. There be more
questions so the growth scores can truly be representative of how much the students had
improved through out the unit. The pre and post test given to students during this particular
unit only had four questions and three out of the four dealt directly with whether or not a

compound was ionic or covalent. Next time, students would be asked to draw and ionic and
covalent bond, be able to identify whether or not the compound is an ionic or covalent bond,
and a few more questions requiring students to balance equations. By having a more
comprehensive set of questions students will be able to show whether or not they were
growing. The pre and post test used in this unit showed whether students had grown or not but
next time, the pre and post test to encompass more of the entire unit instead of two quick
snapshots of it. However, the other assessments given through out this unit were set up to
gauge whether students were understanding the material and where they needed the concepts
to be taught in a different way. By constantly gauging students understanding of the concepts,
it was easy to see what that the students were struggling with covalent bonding. For the next
lesson, students created a Venn diagram of the difference between ionic and covalent bonding.
Not only did that lesson allow them to compare the two different types of bonding next to each
other it allowed them to further drive in the concept of covalent bonding. Overall, the pre and
post assessments can be revised to better show student growth, however, the other
assessments used through out this unit helped to see whether or not the students were
grasping the concepts being taught.

Pre and post tests can be a vital tool in the classroom. Pre-test allows for the teacher to

gauge the prior knowledge that the students have on a particular topic. If the pre-test shows
that a majority of students have prior knowledge on a subject, then the teacher can go and
change her lessons and make them more challenging for the students. A post test allows for the
teacher to see what concepts the students are still struggling with as well as the concepts they
really mastered. If a majority of the students are struggling with a concept that teacher can

then go back and reteach the concept so all of the students can master it. Pre and post test are
vital when it comes to teaching because it allows for the teacher to make the necessary
changes.