Different government agencies utilize the national assessment results for policy making and decision-making. As the DO No. 55 s. 2016’s effectivity is about to expire this school year; it is imperative to determine the adequacy of the country’s assessment system and to review whether the aims of the national assessment of student learning are met after eight years of its implementation. Additionally, the examination of the current test design, test development process, and analyses of the national assessments supports the conclusions the DepEd hopes to draw from them (e.g., tracking learners’ progress and teacher quality and informing system reforms). To date, there has been no research conducted to meticulously examine DepEd’s system assessments.
In particular, the assessment framework, including the table of specifications or test blueprint being employed by DepEd, will be carefully examined and compared to those of other countries. The existing assessment datasets will be analyzed under the item response theory (or modern test theory) framework to determine whether the test items are of appropriate difficulty level and to what extent the test scores obtained from these national assessments are comparable from year to year. Furthermore, it seems that the datasets from these national assessments were not fully utilized to improve classroom instruction and learning outcomes. Investigating the hurdles in doing so warrants this study as well.
The results of this study will be relevant to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM2), particularly for Priority Area #6, to guide them on which next steps will need to be implemented to (1) have an adequate assessment system to track learners’ progress and inform system reforms and (2) improve the reporting and utilization of assessment results to improve learning outcomes.