FAQs: Pretest/Posttest Design

How can I use pretest-posttest assessment data?

With a well designed pretest-posttest program, data can be used to follow a targeted group of students or track the overall growth of cohorts of students to assess the long term and/or short term impact of curriculum and programs. Outcomes Assessment – Example: track groups over time in relationship to a focused effort to improve an educational program. Compare entry scores, perhaps gathered as a new cohort assessment, with exit scores to determine how well students have improved overall. Compare the national norm percentiles of students and trainees entering your programs with those exiting the programs. Follow the growth in…

What is Pre & Post Testing?

Pre and post testing is a assessment model designed to examine the change in overall critical thinking skills or dispositions in a group of test takers. It’s reasonable to posttest as soon as a few weeks after a focused training program in critical thinking, but most often a posttest is gathered months or years after the pretest. One common example for university settings is a pretest at the beginning of a degree program and a posttest sometime toward the end of the program. For businesses, the pretest might be done before an employee training program is begun and a posttest…

How can I compare pretest to posttest scores in a small sample?

Examining the difference in scores from pretest scores to posttest in a small sample can be very challenging. It’s important to consider what can be validly determined. When the samples contain the same individuals and there are about 25 or more individuals in the sample one can use the test of significance call a matched pairs t-test. If there are fewer than 25, determining if there is evidence of a gain due to training is still possible by examining evidence of a change in scores by individual. For each student who took both the pretest and the posttest, calculate a…

When should pretest data be gathered?

At pretest students are generally motivated to engage testing with reasonable levels of effort, so pretest data can be gathered by testing entering students as early in the instructional program as possible, ideally in the first session if not prior to the first session. Pretesting the entire group of entering students is optimal. However, a representative sampling of individuals may be sufficient for aggregate pretest to posttest group comparison. Because a less than representative sampling can result in misleading aggregate data, permitting individuals to self-select into or out of pretesting (or posttesting) is not recommended. Contact Insight Assessment educational testing…

When should posttest data be gathered?

Posttest data should be gathered at a time when students have sufficiently completed an educational experience so as to have engaged and further developed their critical thinking, but not so late in their educational experience that they are not motivated to commit the cognitive energy to give their best effort on the posttest.Appropriate timing might be five weeks before the end of the academic year when comparing seniors and freshmen, three weeks before the end of the semester when comparing pretest and posttest scores in a 16 week course or two weeks before the end of the term when comparing…

How might students be motivated to give their best effort on a posttest?

A student’s lack of motivation to give their best on a post-test is one of the largest threats to the validity of the data gathered. If posttests cannot be gathered from all students, a robust representative sample can be used. However voluntary testing and convenience sampling are strongly discouraged. Motivating students to give their best effort can be accomplished by offering incentives such as extra points toward course grades, permission to include one’s scores in one’s employment portfolio, bookstore discount coupons, and the like. Contact Insight Assessment educational testing specialists to discuss ideas about how to motivate your students to…

How are pretest and posttest data analyzed?

Gathering pretest data from entering students enables matched pairs analyses of pretest and posttest data in which each individual’s posttest is compared with that same individual’s pretest. For this method of analysis to be successful, it must be possible to match pretest and posttest for the same individual. Hence a coding system of some kind is needed, e.g. ID number, investigator designated code number, or test-taker name. Matched-pairs analysis is not the only method of pretest to posttest analysis; contact Insight Assessment educational testing specialists to discuss the specific requirements of your project.Measuring changes in thinking

Do I need to use different forms of the CCTST to do a pretest and posttest?

No. It is not necessary to use different forms of the CCTST to pretest and posttest. Valid pretest/posttest designs can be implemented using just one of the forms. If you are not sure about how to do this, give us a phone call to talk about your project and its design. Students report remembering the questions because they are interesting, but not remembering how they answered the questions — because they have to reason out the answers each time.