DEPED ORDER 31, S2020

INTERIM GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSMENT AND

GRADING IN LIGHT OF THE BASIC
EDUCATION LEARNING CONTINUITY PLAN

By:
BEN JOFIL B. DIEGO,LPT, MAEd

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 1. In its commitment to ensure teaching and learning continuity while looking after the health,
safety, and wellbeing of its learners, teachers, and personnel, the Department of Education
(DepEd) issued DepEd Order No. 012, s. 2020 titled Adoption of the Basic Education
Leaming Continuity Plan {BE-LCP) for School Year (SY) 2020- 2021 in light of the
COVID-19 Pandemic.

2. To supplement the said DO, the DepEd issues the Interim Policy Guidelines for Assessment
and Grading in Light of the Basic Education Leaming Continuity Plan (Enclosure No. 1) to
provide guidance on the assessment of student learning and on the grading scheme to be adopted
this school year.

3. As DepEd pursues learning continuity, it is imperative for schools to take stock of assessment
and grading practices that will most meaningfully support learner development and respond to
varied contexts at this time.

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4. The policy is grounded on the following principles:

a. Assessment should be holistic and authentic in capturing the attainment of the most
essential learning competencies;
b. Assessment is integral for understanding student learning and development;
c. A variety of assessment strategies is necessary, with formative assessment taking
priority to inform teaching and promote growth and mastery;
d. Assessment and feedback should be a shared responsibility among teachers,
learners, and their families; and
e. Assessment and grading should have a positive impact on learning.

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5. This policy shall be implemented in all public elementary and secondary schools nationwide for
SY 2020-2021. While DO No. 8, s. 2015 titled Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the
K to 12 Basic Education Program is still in effect, provisions inconsistent with these new guidelines
are suspended for this school year.
6. Private schools, technical and vocational institutions, and higher education institutions, including state
and local universities and colleges offering the K to 12 Basic Education Program are encouraged to
implement these interim policy guidelines as well. Private schools and institutions are permitted to
modify these policy guidelines according to their philosophy, vision, and mission, with the approval
of their respective DepEd regional office.
7. Additional information to help implement effective assessment practices that are in line with the
principles of this policy can be found in the Classroom Assessment Resource Book (Enclosure No. 2).
8. For inquiries, please contact the Bureau of Learning Delivery, 4th Floor, Bonifacio Building,
Department of Education Central Office, DepEd Complex, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City through email at
[email protected] or at telephone numbers (02) 8637 -4346 and (02) 8637-4347.
9. Immediate dissemination of and strict compliance with this Order is directed.

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I. Rationale

1. The continuing threat of COVID-19 in the country and the world brings about
unprecedented challenges to basic education. As schools prepare for SY 2020– 2021, teachers
and parents must adapt to alternative learning modalities to ensure that learners achieve
essential curricular goals. This will require creative and innovative ways of designing optimal
learning experiences and assessing learning progress effectively under adverse circumstances.

2. As stated in DepEd Order (DO) No. 8, s. 2015, the Policy Guidelines in Classroom
Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program, assessment should be used to inform
and improve classroom practices and promote learning outcomes. However, in distance or
blended learning environments, it is necessary to utilize alternative tools and strategies
for assessing and supporting learning, while avoiding creating undue pressure on the
teachers, learners and their families.

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II. Scope

3. This DepEd Order provides for the Interim Policy Guidelines for Assessment and
Grading in light of the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE- LCP) that will be
implemented by public elementary and secondary schools nationwide this SY 2020–2021.

4. Private schools, technical and vocational institutions, and higher education

institutions including state and local universities and colleges offering the K to 12 Basic
Education Program are encouraged to implement these interim policy guidelines as well.
Private schools and institutions are permitted to modify these policy guidelines according to
their Philosophy, Vision, and Mission, with the approval of their respective DepEd Regional Office.

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III. Definition of Terms

5. For the purposes of this policy, the following terms are defined as follows:

a. Classroom Assessment is an ongoing process of identifying, gathering, organizing,

and interpreting quantitative and qualitative information about what learners know and can do.

b. Formative Assessment is a process that involves teachers using evidence about

what learners know and can do to inform and improve their teaching. This process, through the
teacher’s immediate feedback, enables students to take responsibility for their own
learning and identify areas where they do well and where they need help.

c. Summative Assessment is an assessment that is usually administered toward the end

of a learning period to measure the extent to which the learners have mastered the essential
learning competencies, the results of which are recorded and are used to report the learner’s
achievement.
 d. Grading is the way of reporting assessment data by assigning a value to the results as
a record of students' ability, achievement, or progress (Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development, 2020).

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IV. Policy Statement

6. The DepEd is committed to ensure educational continuity in this time of crisis while
looking after the health, safety, and well-being of all its learners, teachers, and personnel.
Schools must adopt assessment and grading practices that can most meaningfully support
student development and respond to varied contexts at this time.

7. This policy is grounded on the following principles:

a. Assessment should be holistic and authentic in capturing the attainment of most

essential learning competencies;
b. Assessment is integral for understanding student learning and development;
c. A variety of assessment strategies is necessary, with formative assessment taking
priority to inform teaching and promote growth and mastery;
d. Assessment and feedback should be a shared responsibility among teachers, learners,
and their families; and
e. Assessment and grading should have a positive impact on learning.

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8. Teachers, school leaders, learners, and parents must commit to uphold the integrity of learning
and instruction in the context of distance education. The main desired outcomes of this policy are:

a. To ensure that all learners are fairly assessed and graded in the continuation of
education during this health crisis; and
b. To emphasize that learning standards shall be attained, with the provision of
reasonable leniency and considerations for possible difficulties met by the learner.

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V. Procedures

9. Distance learning 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.

10. To address these challenges, learners, teachers, and parents/guardians each have
significant roles and responsibilities:

a. Teachers. For this school year, particular focus will be given to the following:
i. Designing the assessment to allow for flexibility in multiple modalities;
ii. Communicating to learners and parents/guardians the design and standards for

grading the assessment;

iii. Setting up mechanisms to monitor and record progress remotely;

iv. Giving timely, constructive, and relevant feedback; and

v. Facilitating remediation for learners who need further guidance.

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 b. Learners. Learners are expected to be proactive in updating their teacher of their
situation, progress and challenges encountered. A non-mandatory Self-Monitoring Tool
(see Annex E) may be accomplished independently or with the assistance of their
parent/guardian, if necessary. It is NOT required to accomplish the self-monitoring tool,
but its usage is highly recommended to keep track of learners’ academic progress.

c. Parents and guardians. DepEd aims to develop independent learners who can study
and work on the assessments on their own. However, in this school year’s
implementation of distance learning modalities, parents and guardians will play a crucial
role in guiding their children in adapting to the changes of distance learning processes.

Thus, only when necessary, parents/guardians are requested to assist in the

assessment process by:

i. Communicating with the teacher to give updates on their child’s situation,

progress,
and challenges encountered; and
ii. Guiding their children in accomplishing the assessment tasks and/or monitoring
tools designed by their teacher.
VI. Planning the Assessment

11. Teachers need to be creative and flexible in assessing student learning, while still
adhering to the principles of quality assessment practice. With safety, health, and well-being
foremost in mind, assessment decisions must be made in the best interest of all learners, ensuring
that all assessment activities:

a. align with the most essential learning competencies;

b. are reliable, valid and transparent;
c. are fair, inclusive and equitable;
d. are practical and manageable for both learners and teachers;
e. give learners a range of ways to demonstrate their learning; and
f. provide timely and accurate information as basis for feedback.

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12. In distance learning modalities, teachers shall design assessments bearing the assumption that the
learners will asynchronously take them and have open access to various sources.

13. When deciding on which assessment methods to use, it is important to consider the following
questions:

a. What is the purpose of the assessment?

b. What will be assessed?
c. Which method would best allow learners to demonstrate what they have learned, considering
their learning modality?
d. Which method would make it easy to gather evidence of learners’ progress over time?
e. Will the assessment be completed individually or in groups?
f. Will the assessment be taken at the same time or submitted within a specific period?
g. How will class size affect the way the assessment will be conducted?
h. How can technology help?

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14. In order to inform teaching and promote growth and mastery, formative assessment strategies
should:

a. establish clear learning targets and success criteria;

b. elicit useful evidence of learning;
c. provide timely and effective feedback;
d. engage learners in assessing and improving each other’s work; and
e. increase ownership of their own learning (adapted from Wiliam & Leahy, 2015).

Annex A provides a matrix of sample techniques for each formative assessment strategy.
Teachers are highly encouraged to adapt these techniques where appropriate, and to explore other
alternatives that are feasible in their respective contexts.

15. Formative assessment is about getting better, so it should be specific, frequent,

repetitive, and free from the restrictions of grading (Christodolou, 2016). It should target skills that
are necessary to the attainment of learning competencies as measured in summative assessments.

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 16. To evaluate student learning at particular points in each quarter, summative assessments shall
continue in the form of written works and performance tasks.

a. Written works shall be administered to assess essential knowledge and understandings through
quizzes and long/unit tests. Items should be distributed across the Cognitive Process Dimensions
(DepEd, 2015,p. 4) using a combination of selected-response and constructed- response formats
so that all are adequately covered.

b. Performance tasks refer to assessment tasks that “allow learners to show what they know and
are able to do in diverse ways. They may create or innovate products or do performance-based
tasks [including] skill demonstrations, group presentations, oral work, multimedia presentations,
and research projects. It is important to note that written outputs may also be considered as
performance tasks” (DepEd, 2015, pp. 7–8). Annex B provides a list of sample summative
assessments that fall under performance task for the purpose of this policy.

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 17. Performance tasks must be designed to provide opportunities for learners to apply what they are
learning to real-life situations. In addition, teachers should take into consideration the following:

a. Each task must be accompanied with clear directions and appropriate scoring tools (i.e.
checklists, rubrics, rating scale, etc.) to help learners demonstrate their learning (see Annex C
for sample scoring tools).

b. Teachers are advised to collaboratively design and implement performance tasks that integrate two
or more competencies within or across subject areas. Complex tasks may be broken down into
shorter tasks to be completed over longer periods of time (see Annex D for sample integrative
assessment tasks).

c. Learners must be given flexibility in the accomplishment of the performance tasks to consider
time and resources available to them.

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 Nonetheless, all learners within a class should be assessed on the same competencies using the same
scoring tool.

d. Teachers must exercise their professional judgment in carrying out summative assessments,
providing enough opportunities for learners to practice and to redo their work whenever necessary,
so that they can reach their learning targets with the least amount of pressure.

18. Teachers should set realistic expectations and use their professional judgment to find a good
balance between what is effective and what is feasible to accomplish remotely.

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B. Conducting Assessment Remotely

19. Communicating the assessment task. In communicating the assessment task, teachers
must ensure that the following details are explained:

a. Objectives of the assessment task

b. Roles of learners and parents/guardians
c. Procedure and expected timeline
d. Standards and rubrics

The teacher must consult the learners and, when necessary, parents/guardians, to allow
room for adjustments/flexibilities needed, if any.

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20. Record of progress. The collection and recording of evidences of learning is integral for monitoring
student learning and development. Listed below are some sample strategies for this purpose:

a. Self-Monitoring Tool (see Annex E; consider the needs of learners per key stage, e.g. early
grades need assistance from parents, while older learners are expected to accomplish self-
reflection tools on their own.)

b. Check-ins of teacher with learner (during assessment period)

c. Evidence of learning in the student's learning portfolio

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C. Feedback and Remediation

21.To benefit student learning, both formative and summative assessment must be
accompanied with timely, constructive, and meaningful feedback based on the learner’s record of
progress. In giving feedback, teachers need to maximize available communication options (e.g. writing
feedback on the output, texting feedback via SMS, and using online channels, among others). Annex F
provides a guide to help frame decisions on appropriate feedback to learners.

22. Consistent with DO No. 8, s. 2015, “teachers should ensure that learners receive
remediation when they earn raw scores which are consistently below expectation” in summative
assessments “by the fifth week of any quarter. This will prevent a student from failing in any learning
area at the end of the year.”
D. Grading and Promotion

The challenges brought to light by the coronavirus pandemic, specifically the implementation of
different distance learning delivery modalities, have sparked a larger conversation about the role
grades play in student learning, prompting education sectors to rethink traditional grading
schemes. The grading system implemented in this interim policy provides reasonable leniency to
learners who are put to a larger disadvantage by the pandemic, but at the same does not compromise
the integrity and principles of assessment and grading.

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 24. Written works and performance tasks shall be administered to assess the content and performance
standards that describe the knowledge, abilities and skills that learners are expected to demonstrate.
These tasks could be designed to include the following:

a. Student's Learning Portfolio that documents all the evidence of learning within the grading
period including self-reflections, self-evaluations of performance tasks guided by rubrics, and
self-selected best outputs in learning modules.

b. Minimum of four (4) written works and four (4) performance tasks within the quarter, preferably one
in two weeks integrating two or more competencies.

c. All competencies should be covered by the performance tasks (e.g. A performance task can be
used to assess Science, Math, and English altogether for certain topics).

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 25. For the current school year, quarterly assessments shall not be administered. However, days
allotted for quarterly assessments in DepEd Order 7, s. 2020 or the School Calendar and Activities for
School Year 2020-2021, may be used for the presentation of major performance for the quarter that
addresses the performance standard.

26. Quarterly Examinations were given a weight of 20% constantly in DO No. 8, s. 2015. Since it will no
longer be a part of the grading system for this school year, its previously determined weight was
distributed equally into Written Works and Performance Tasks, allotting an additional 10% to each
component. This maintains an emphasis on Performance Tasks for some learning areas.

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 Table 1: Weight Distribution of the Summative Assessment
Components
per Learning Area for Grade 1 to Grade 10

Assessment Weights
Components L a n g u a g e s / A P / E sP Science/Math MAPEH/EPP/TLE

Written Works 40% 50% 30%

Performance Tasks 60% 50% 70%
 Table 2: Weight Distribution of the Summative Assessment
Components
for Senior High School

Technical/Vocational and
Academic Track Livelihood (TVL)/Sports/Arts and
Assessment Core Design Tracks
Components Subjects Work Immersion/Research/ Work Immersion/
All Other Business Enterprise Simulation/ All Other Research Exhibit/
Subjects Exhibit/Performance Subjects Performance

Written Works 40% 40% 50% 30%

Performance
Tasks 60% 60% 50% 70%
Table 3: Sampl e Computati on of Written Wo r k s and Performance Tasks in Languages/AP/ E s P
for G r ade 1 to G r ade 10 and S H S Core Subjects

Written Works (40%) Performance Tasks (60%) Initial Quarterly

1 2 3 4 Total PS WA 1 2 3 4 Total PS WA Grade Grade

Highest
Possible 20 25 20 20 85 100 40% 15 15 25 20 75 100 60% 100 100
Score
Lea rner
18 22 20 17 77 91 36.4% 12 13 19 15 56 75 45% 81 .4 88
A

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Table 4: Sam pl e Computati on of Wr itte n Wo r k s a n d Performance Tasks in Math/Science
for G r ade 1 to Grade 10

Written Works (50%) Performance Tasks (50%) Initial Quarterly

1 2 3 4 Total PS WA 1 2 3 4 Total PS WA Grade Grade

Highest
Possible 20 25 20 20 85 100 50% 15 15 25 20 75 100 50% 100 100
Score
Learner
18 22 20 17 77 91 45.5% 12 13 19 15 56 75 37.5% 83 89
A

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 Table 5: Sample Computation of Written Wor ks and Performance Tasks
in M AP E H / E P P / T L E for Grade 1 to Grade 10

Written Works (30%) Performance Tasks (70%) Initial Quarterly

1 2 3 4 Total PS WA 1 2 3 4 Total PS WA Grade Grade

Highest
Possible 20 25 20 20 85 100 30% 15 15 25 20 75 100 70% 100 100
Score
Learner
18 22 20 17 77 91 27.3% 12 13 19 15 56 75 52.5% 79.8 87
A

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 The transmutation table, which is Appendix B in DO No. 8, s. 2015, shall still be used in this grading
system. The guidelines on learner’s progress report, as well as on promotion and retention shall likewise
follow the provisions cited in the said policy.

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E. Role of Technology

Technology plays a substantial role in helping teachers in the development,

communication, implementation, and grading of assessment tasks. A matrix of sample tools organized
by low, medium, and high technology is provided in Annex G.

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VI. Monitoring and Evaluation

29. The School Heads shall be primarily responsible for supervising the implementation of this
policy in their schools, ensuring that the provisions are communicated to all concerned
stakeholders in the school community.

30. The Regional and Schools Division Offices shall jointly monitor the compliance of schools
with these guidelines. The Curriculum and Learning Management Division and Curriculum
Implementation Division shall diligently collaborate with each other in ensuring that the provisions of
this policy are complied with.

31. At the school level, the implementation of this policy shall be monitored and evaluated at
least once every quarter by the School Heads. The School Head shall prepare a quarterly report that
includes the challenges and issues encountered throughout the policy implementation. The said
reports shall be submitted to the Schools Division Office for collation and analysis. The SDOs will
then prepare a bi- annual analysis report for submission to the Regional Office.

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 32. Overall policy feedback from the Regional Offices shall be provided to the DepEd Central Office to
be used in evaluating the policy for continuous improvement of its design and implementation. It will
also be used in improving the design and systems of the Learning Continuity Plan which may be useful
should there be arising challenges in the future which are analogous to the COVID-19 pandemic.

33. Such information shall be addressed to the Office of the Director IV of the Bureau of Learning
Delivery, via telephone numbers (02) 8637-4346 and 8637- 4347 or email at [email protected].

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VII. Effectivity

34. This Order shall take effect immediately upon its approval and shall remain in force and in
effect for the duration of SY 2020-2021. This shall be registered with the Office of the National
Administrative Register (ONAR) at the University of the Philippines (UP) Law Center, UP Diliman,
Quezon City.

35. DO No. 8, s. 2015 (Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic
Education Program) is still in effect, but its provisions inconsistent with these guidelines are suspended
for the upcoming school year.
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