One way Mr. Miller could help students put forth their best effort on the unit preassessment is to offer incentives for showing work or explaining reasoning behind answers. On preassessments, there is going to be material the students are unfamiliar with, but students should be able to associate some prior knowledge to the question which is why incentives such as bonus point or candy, depending on the grade level, would be helpful.

If I were Mr. Miller, I would get the students to show all of their work and maybe put the page paragraph or page number by where they found their answer before submitting in their bubble sheets. This will help Mr. Miller with the students who just try t bubble anything. Also, I would offer incentives for the students who did a great job of following directions, and taking their time on the assessment.

Prior to the pretest, Mr. Miller needs to discuss with the class the importance of doing their best on the pretest. He needs to explain that he uses this data to help him determine how he plans the rest of the instructions found in the unit. After discussing the importance, then he needs to discuss the consequences of their performance on the pre-assessment. Students should know if they do well on the pre-test then they will shorten the amount of instructions needed for the unit. When they do poorly on the pre-test then this will require more instructional activities to ensure their understanding. He may even add that those students who score a certain percentage on the pre-test may be exempt for the post test. He definitely has to open their yest to the consequences of their actions.

Since using both pre and post data is critical, Mr. Miller could use the same questions, but present them in a different way for each test. For example, when giving the pretest, Mr. Miller could create a multiple choice answer bank, but on the post, the student would have the same question, but may need to answer it with a constructed response. By doing this, he will have two forms of documentation and varied assessment to show the students learning.