DepEd refuses to release complete results
For the third straight year, the national average mean percentage score (MPS) in the Grade 6 test of the National Achievement Test (NAT) continued its downward trajectory at 37.44, the weakest performance ever in the history of the standardized examination of the Department of Education (DepEd).
These 2018 NAT results were contained in Regional Memorandum No. 157, series 2019, of the Department of Education Cordillera Administrative Region (DepEd CAR) office which also showed that the score in 2017 was 39.95, marking the first time the performance in the test breached the 40 MPS mark.
Meanwhile, the Grade 10 MPS of 44.59 improved by 0.51 over the score in 2017 at 44.08.
This means that the Grade 6 takers in the 2018 NAT got less than four correct answers out of every 10 items, while the Grade 10 takers averaged over four correct answers out of 10 items. Both scores fall under the “low mastery” level in the NAT.
The descriptive equivalent of NAT scores are as follows: 35 below, very low mastery; 36-65, low mastery; 66-85, average mastery; 86-95, moving towards mastery; 96-100, mastered.
Prior to 2016, the Grade 6 takers had reached the “average mastery” level as the average MPS in 2013, 2014 and 2015 were 69.54, 71.82 and 70.88, respectively. On the other hand, Grade 10 was steady at the “low mastery” range with 51.41 MPS in 2013, 53.77 in 2014 and 49.48 in 2015.
In 2016, however, the Grade 6 MPS plummeted to 42.03 or by a gap of 28.85, while the Grade 10 registered a performance of 43.93 or a difference of 5.55 MPS from the 2015 performance.
Two DepEd officials claim the decline in the NAT scores could be due to the framing of the questions in line with the K-12 program’s emphasis on 21st Century Skills learning.
In a letter to this correspondent reacting to the article “Cheating in National Test Bared by DepEd,” which was published in this paper on Sept. 9, 2018, then Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Lorna Dig Dino said the change in the design of the NAT whereby it specifically tested the 21st Century Skills as opposed to “previous assessment framework which was profoundly competency-based” was among the factors that “most probably contributed to the low MPS.”
In the questioned article, a public high school teacher alleged that the yawning gaps between the Grade 6 average MPS of 2016 and 2017 and those of previous NATs were a confirmation of the massive fraud, which used to attend the examinations in the past.
The source also explained that the 2016 and 2017 NATs were administered at the start of the following school year instead of at the end of the current school year, which in the case of the Grade 6 NAT meant that the takers were in high school and, therefore, cut off from what she called a “system of assistance available to them in their elementary schools.”
In the above-stated email to this correspondent, Dino expressed the DepEd’s vehement denial that the losses in the 2016 and 2017 NATs were solid proofs of the alleged dishonesty previously attending the tests.
She said that DepEd policies intended to combat cheating and curb irregularities in the conduct of tests. She added that sections 10 and 13 of DepEd Order 55, series of 2016, were being strictly implemented, and that isolated cases of irregularities were being dealt with swiftly once reported.
Dino said that among the factors that “most probably contributed to the low MPS” was the shift in the design of the 2017 NAT whereby it specifically tested the 21st Century skills, namely problem-solving, information literacy and critical thinking of the students, as opposed to the “previous assessment framework which was profoundly competency-based, meaning to say, is based on the Basic Education Curriculum.”
“While the current NAT is progressive in nature wherein the items measure varying levels of skills, the previous NAT were based on curriculum content,” the official said in the letter.
In the same vein, the memorandum of Bureau of Education Assessment Director Nelia Benito — releasing the results of the 2017 NAT to the regional offices — dated Sept. 21, 2018, had mentioned the difference of the 2017 NAT with the previous editions of the examinations.
“The 2017 NAT result is a baseline assessment data measuring the 21st Century skills. Hence, comparing the results to the previous NAT results is inappropriate,” the memorandum had said.
Octavio Cabasag, head of the DepEd Region 2 Curriculum and Learning Management Division, who had provided a copy of the memorandum to this correspondent, had stated that the memorandum specifically refers to the 2017 NAT because the previous NATs gauged the competency of the takers in the subject areas.
However, the DepEd school calendars for school years 2012-2013 to 2016-2017 stated that the NAT would assess the attainment of 21st Century skills, which meant that even if the calendars were not followed as far as the content of the NAT was concerned, the skills were being taught before 2017.
Meanwhile, in 2018, the CAR again performed over the national average with its Grade 10 MPS of 47.66 surpassing the national average of 44.59 and with its MPS of 39.92 in Grade 6 topping the 37.44 national average.
Because of the relatively smaller MPS losses it incurred in the 2016, the Cordillera was catapulted to the top spot from no. 13 in Grade 6 and to second place from no. 10 in Grade 10 repeating the feats the following year.
It could not yet be known if the region retained the ranking in 2018 because the DepEd national office refuses to release the entire national results data.
This reporter’s request for the data following the Freedom of Information manual of the agency was acknowledged on June 18, 2019 but when he called the Bureau of Educational Assessment on September 12, a certain Tam told him that document has already been prepared but is pending signing by Undersecretaries Diosdado San Antonio and Undersecreaty Nepomuceno Maluluan.
Regional Memorandum No. 157, series of 2019, was posted in the DepEd-Cordillera website on May 27, 2019 which means that the document was already readily available at the time of the request.
Apart from Cordillera, no other DepEd regional office posted its NAT results online. The DepEd national office never posts NAT results and has yet to issue any official statement on the 2018 results and previous results for that matter.**By Estanislao C. Albano, Jr.
