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I. Introduction of The Research

The document discusses the Philippine Department of Education's (DepEd) interim policy guidelines for assessment and grading in light of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key points include: 1) DepEd issued guidelines keeping the existing numerical grading system but removing periodic examinations, instead basing grades on classwork and performance tasks. 2) This sparked debate as stakeholders disagreed on the fairness and applicability of numerical grades during distance learning with limited teacher-student interaction. 3) The study aims to evaluate teachers' perceptions of implementing the interim grading policy through surveys to provide recommendations for improving the basic education grading system.

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Mary Joy Pagtakhan
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60 views

I. Introduction of The Research

The document discusses the Philippine Department of Education's (DepEd) interim policy guidelines for assessment and grading in light of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key points include: 1) DepEd issued guidelines keeping the existing numerical grading system but removing periodic examinations, instead basing grades on classwork and performance tasks. 2) This sparked debate as stakeholders disagreed on the fairness and applicability of numerical grades during distance learning with limited teacher-student interaction. 3) The study aims to evaluate teachers' perceptions of implementing the interim grading policy through surveys to provide recommendations for improving the basic education grading system.

Uploaded by

Mary Joy Pagtakhan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I.

Introduction of the Research

Evaluation of students’ learning is a very important component of the

education system, it can fulfill or destroy the purpose of education (Abdul Gafoor,

2015). In the Philippine Basic Education System, Classroom Assessment is an

integral part of curriculum implementation. It allows the teachers to track and

measure learner’s progress and to adjust instruction accordingly. Grading System is

constituted as the way of reporting assessment data by assigning a value to the

results as a record of students’ ability, achievement, or progress (DepEd Order No.

8, s. 2015).

However, the threat of COVID-19 in the country and the world brings

about unprecedented challenges to basic education. It poses challenges for

teachers and learners in the conduct of assessment, including limitations on

giving immediate feedback, and the need to account for different contexts in

designing, implementing, and grading assessment tasks.

Being true to its mission which is to ensure that no Filipino learner will be

left behind in terms of education as the country continues to grapple with the

COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Education released the Basic Education-


Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP). This serves as a guideline for the department on

how to deliver education in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring the

health, safety, and welfare of all learners, teachers, and personnel of the agency

(DepEd Order No. 12, s.2020).

To supplement the said Department Oder (DO), DepEd launched a grading

shift titled the Interim Policy Guidelines for Assessment and Grading in Light of

the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan to provide guidance on the

assessment of student learning and on the grading scheme to be adopted this

school year (DepEd Order No. 31, s.2020). The DO stated that the public schools will

not be holding periodical examinations for this school year. The existing numerical

grading system will still be observed and computing the grades of the learners

will be based on class standing (CS) composed of written works and performance

tasks (Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, 2020).

The DepEd officials stated the reasons for keeping the numerical grading

system are as follows: a. Shifting to non-numerical grading would affect the country’s

performance at the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); b. Its

possible implication of such a scheme to high-performing schools and students; c.

Grades will be needed by universities and colleges in granting scholarships to

students; d. DepEd does not also want to impose additional workload for teachers

during this time of coronavirus pandemic (Education Secretary Leonor Briones,

Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, 2020).

With regards to the dispensing of periodical examinations, the following are

the underlying rationale for “no periodical examination policy”: a. It will prevent

distance cheating; b. Written works and performance tasks are more inclusive and

authentic in
gauging the learning process and progress, unlike periodic exams which are based

on pen and paper examination (San Antonio, 2020).

However, the proposal of the Department of Education (DepEd) to do away

with the conduct of periodical tests this school year had mixed reactions from

stakeholders from the public and private education sectors. The Coordinating

Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) Managing Director Atty.

Joseph Noel Estrada stated that: a. Failure to take a major examination is usually

fatal to the students’ promotion to the next grade or graduation, thus, examination

results form a significant basis for their final grades; b. Quality education should

be allowed to thrive in innovation, not defeated by COVID-19 through

retrogression (Bonz Magsambol, 2020)

Furthermore, concerning the implementation of Numeric Grading System in

basic education levels amidst this pandemic issues, concerns, and disapprovals

piled up. It has also sparked a larger conversation about the role grades play in

student learning during this pandemic.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) of the Philippines recommended

to DepEd to develop a “pass or fail” mechanism for evaluation for the following

reasons: a. It’s a fairer metric of students' performance who will surely and

understandably get less from the inputs through distance learning modalities; b. the

numerical grading system obviously will not be applicable to distance learning,

particularly the most preferred modular system and the TV/radio-based instruction

modalities where teacher-student interaction is limited to clarificatory Q&As and the

exchange of old and new modules ( Raymond Basilio,2020).


Moreover, according to Margarita J. Lucero Galias, it’s hard to have a

fair system of grading when children have different learning circumstances,

different learning environments, and learning delivery modalities, different

resources, and types of assistance provided to them, and/or absence of

access to assistance. She added that teachers have no direct control over who

makes the outputs of the learners. Also, some children do not have parents

that could assist them. The other students as well will be experiencing different

situations at home, and for some students, it may be very challenging to focus

on studying. Furthermore, as both the teachers and students are yet

experimenting on the new learning modalities, teaching and learning from

home may not be easy and it is not reasonable to expect that teachers may

make the usual distinction required in the numerical grade system.

Currently, there are no statistical evaluations for the issues and concerns

that emerge in the implementation of the new grading system. This

undertaking is indeed an effort to bridge this gap by evaluating the

implementation of the aforementioned interim policy guidelines through the

perception of the selected teachers at Tanza National Trade School. The study

uses diffusion of innovation as a base-line theory to investigate factors that

may influence the adoption and use of the grading system. More specifically,

the objective of this research is to examine the determinants of grades and the

perceived problems in the adoption of the system. The findings of this study

would serve as inputs for redefining the grading system employed by the
public schools in the Philippine Basic Education System and for the

improvement in the implementation of the aforementioned Grading System.

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