Assessment Data and Analysis:

Breaking Barriers Essay: Period 1, PreAP English 7

The pre and post-test assessments for this unit were somewhat nontraditional. Since this whole unit is about writing a personal narrative, I
wanted to find a way to assess students on how they were successfully
including all the elements of a personal narrative essay. I decided that the
best way to pre-test these students was to have them complete an essay
outline on the template I provided to them, and then assess that outline
based off of the Breaking Barriers essay rubric (found in the materials page).
From there I could figure out what their score would be in the standards
based grading system. For the post-test I decided to do something similar; to
get their post-test scores I took each students final essay copy and graded it
based off of the same rubric that I used for the pre-test. In this way both my
pre and post tests were parallel to one another, and they were graded based
off of the same criteria. I believe this was the best course of action because
it could truly show me if students are understanding how to write, put
together and make sense of personal narrative writing.
In the standards based grading system students can only score up to
four points total; getting a four means a students got between a 90-100%,
getting a three means a student got between an 80-89%, getting a two
means a student got between a 70-79%, getting a one means a student got
between a 50-69%, and anything below 50% becomes an IE.
The following table depicts my first period students pre and post test results.
The sub-groups I am looking at are students who are typically proficient in
reading and writing (no learning disabilities) and students who are at a lower
level of reading and writing than everyone else because of a learning
disability. The lower level students are either on IEPs or 504s.
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

PreAssessment
3
4
4
2
2
1
4
2
4
3
2
3
3

PostAssessment
4
3
4
4
3
2
4
1
4
4
4
4
4

Gain
1
0
0
2
1
1
0
0
0
1
2
1
1

Proficient/Low
Level
Proficient
Proficient
Proficient
Low Level
Proficient
Low Level
Proficient
Low Level
Proficient
Proficient
Low Level
Proficient
Proficient

Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student
Student

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

4
1
2
2
3
IE
4
3
4
IE
1
3
3

4
2
3
3
4
1
4
4
4
IE
1
4
4

0
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
1

Proficient
Low Level
Low Level
Low Level
Proficient
Proficient
Proficient
Proficient
Proficient
Low Level
Proficient
Proficient
Proficient

Average Gain Score: 1.5

Average Proficient Student Gain Score: 1
Average Low Level Student Gain Score: 1
The pre-test reflected that students, for the most part, knew how to
successfully map out the basic elements needed to complete a personal
narrative. Students who are proficient in reading and writing, had an easier
time with this pre-test than the lower levels students, which I expected. The
lower level students all scored between a one or a two on their pre-test and
only went up by about one point on the post-test. Most proficient students
got between a three or a four on the pre-test with a few outliers, like Student
24, and most of these students also went up by about one point on their
post-test.
I was delighted to see that all individual students had a gain score of at
least one. But, I did find it interesting that there were quite a few students
who had a gain score of zero. To me, that means that they already had a
background in working with personal narratives or they really took the time
to think through their essay outline and they most likely got a little bit of help
or feedback on it. I also found it interesting that Student 2 went down from
having a four on the pre-test to having a three on the post-test. That shows
me that maybe they did not try quite as hard on the final essay as they did
on their outline.
Even though for the most part this unit seemed successful I was
disappointed that some students did not improve their score or did not even
complete the assignment. Overall most students scored better on the posttest than the pre-test but there were several students who stayed exactly the
same. This made me disappointed because even if they are getting good
scores it shows that no growth occurred throughout this unit, so what did
they truly learn?

With other students I can clearly see where I needed to fill in the gaps
in their knowledge or where I just needed to sit down and walk them through
an assignment. Unfortunately, during work time students are constantly
asking for my help, which means that sometimes I cannot make it around to
everyone in the class and some students scores go down because they
never got the help they needed. If I could change what I did, I would give
them more structured work time and would give myself only a set amount of
time with each student to ensure that I at least talk with everyone in the
class for a few minutes.