2019 DEPED GUIDELINES ON CLASSROOM

ASSESSMENT

Classroom Assessment is an integral part of curriculum implementation. It allows the

teachers to track and measure learners’ progress and to adjust instruction
accordingly. Classroom assessment  informs the learners, as well as their parents and
guardians, of their progress.

April 01, 2015

DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015

DEPED GUIDELINES ON CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT FOR THE K

TO 12 BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM
To:
Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries
Bureau Directors
Directors of Services, Centers and Heads of Units
Regional Directors
Schools Division Superintendents Heads, Public Elementary and SecondarySchools All
Others Concerned

In line with the implementation of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (Republic
Act No. 10533), the Department of Education  is adopting the enclosed Policy Guidelines
on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program.

Effective School Year (SY) 2015-2016, the Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment
for the K to 12 Basic Education Program shall be implemented in public elementary and
secondary schools nationwide.

Non-DepEd schools are urged to implement these policy guidelines as well. Non-DepEd
schools are permitted to modify these policy guidelines according to their  school’s
Philosophy, Vision, and Mission  with the approval of the appropriate DepEd Regional
Office.

Special programs may further issue supplementary guidelines in relation to the

program’s specific assessment concerns.

These guidelines will remain in force and in effect for the duration of the program, unless
sooner repealed, amended, or rescinded. All existing Orders and Memoranda that are
inconsistent with this Order are rescinded.

Immediate dissemination of and strict compliance with this Order is directed.

 BR. ARMIN A. LUISTRO FSC
Secretary

POLICY GUIDELINES ON CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT FOR THE K TO 12 BASIC

EDUCATION PROGRAM (BEP)

THEORETICAL BASIS

Classroom Assessment is a joint process that involves both teachers and learners. It is an
integral part of teaching and learning. Teachers provide appropriate assessment when they aim
to holistically measure learners’ current and developing abilities while enabling them to take
responsibility in the process. This view recognizes the diversity of learners inside the classroom,
the need for multiple ways of measuring their varying abilities and learning potentials, and the
role of learners as co-participants in the assessment process.

At the heart of this assessment framework is the recognition and deliberate consideration of the
learners’ zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978). Appropriate assessment is committed
to ensure learners’ success in moving from guided to independent display of knowledge,
understanding, and skills, and to enable them to transfer this successfully in future situations.
From this point of view, assessment facilitates the development of learners’ higher-order
thinking and 21st-century skills.

This view of assessment, therefore, acknowledges the unity of instruction and assessment.
Assessment is part of day-to-day lessons and extends the day-to-day classroom activities that
are already in place in the K to 12 curriculum.

WHAT IS CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT?

Assessment is a process that is used to keep track of learners’ progress in relation to learning
standards and in the development of 21st-century skills; to promote self-reflection and personal
accountability among students about their own learning; and to provide bases for the profiling of
student performance on the learning competencies and standards of the curriculum. Various
kinds of assessments shall be used appropriately for different learners who come from diverse
contexts, such as cultural background and life experiences.

Classroom Assessment is an ongoing process of identifying, gathering, organizing, and

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

Teachers should employ classroom assessment methods that are consistent with curriculum
standards. It is important for teachers to always inform learners about the objectives of the
lesson so that the latter will aim to meet or even exceed the standards. The teacher provides
immediate feedback to students about their learning progress. Classroom assessment also
measures the achievement of competencies by the learners.

There are two types of classroom assessment, namely, formative and summative.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Formative assessment may be seen as assessment for learning so teachers can make
adjustments in their instruction. It is also assessment as learning wherein students reflect on
their own progress. According to the UNESCO Program on Teaching and Learning for a
Sustainable Future (UNESCO-TLSF), formative assessment refers to the ongoing forms of
assessment that are closely linked to the learning process. It is characteristically informal and is
intended to help students identify strengths and weaknesses in order to learn from the
assessment experience.

Formative assessment may be given at any time during the teaching and learning process. It is
also a way to check the effectiveness of instruction.

Formative assessment involves teachers using evidence about what learners know and can do
to inform and improve their teaching. Teachers observe and guide learners in their tasks
through interaction and dialogue, thus gaining deeper insights into the learners’ progress,
strengths, weaknesses, and needs. The results of formative assessments will help teachers
make good instructional decisions so that their lessons are better suited to the learners’ abilities.
It is important for teachers to record formative assessment by documenting and tracking
learners’ progress using systematic ways that can easily provide insight into a student’s
learning. Such monitoring will allow teachers to understand their students and thus teach them
better. Formative assessment results, however, are not included in the computation of
summative assessment.

Formative assessment must also provide students with immediate feedback on how well they
are learning throughout the teaching-learning process. Recommendations on how they can
improve themselves should also be given by the teachers. Formative assessment enables
students to take responsibility for their own learning, and identify areas where they do well and
where they need help. As a result, students will appreciate and make their own decisions about
their progress.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Summative assessment, on the other hand, may be seen as assessment of learning, which
occurs at the end of a particular unit. This form of assessment usually occurs toward the end of
a period of learning in order to describe the standard reached by the learner. Often, this takes
place in order for appropriate decisions about future learning or job suitability to be made.
Judgments derived from summative assessment are usually for the benefit of people other than
the learner (UNESCO-TLSF).

Summative assessment measures whether learners have met the content and performance
standards. Teachers must use methods to measure student learning that have been deliberately
designed to assess how well students have learned and are able to apply their learning in
different contexts. The results of summative assessments are recorded and used to report on
the learners’ achievement. Primarily, the results of summative assessment are reported to the
learners and their parents/guardians. In addition, these are reported to principals/school heads,
teachers who will receive the child in the next grade level, and guidance teachers who should
help students cope with challenges they experience in school.

WHAT IS ASSESSED IN THE CLASSROOM?

Assessment in the classroom is aimed at helping students perform well in relation to the
learning standards. Learning standards comprise content standards, performance standards,
and learning competencies that are outlined in the curriculum.
A. Content Standards identify and set the essential knowledge and understanding that should
be learned. They cover a specified scope of sequential topics within each learning strand,
domain, theme, or component. Content standards answer the question, “What should the
learners know?”.

B. Performance Standards describe the abilities and skills that learners are expected to
demonstrate in relation to the content standards and integration of 21st-century skills. The
integration of knowledge, understanding, and skills is expressed through creation, innovation,
and adding value to products/ performance during independent work or in collaboration with
others. Performance standards answer the following questions:

 “What can learners do with what they know?”

 “How well must learners do their work?”
 “How well do learners use their learning or understanding in different situations?”
 “How do learners apply their learning or understanding in real-life contexts?”
 “What tools and measures should learners use to demonstrate what they know?”

C. Learning Competencies refer to the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes that
students need to demonstrate in every lesson and/or learning activity.

D. Concept Development
The learning standards in the curriculum reflect progressions of concept development.
The Cognitive Process Dimensions adapted from Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) may be a
good way to operationalize these progressions. It provides a scheme for classifying
educational goals, objectives, and standards. It also defines a broad range of cognitive
processes from basic to complex, as follows: Remembering, Understanding, Applying,
Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. Each dimension is described in Table 1.

Table 1. Adapted Cognitive Process Dimensions*

Cognitive Process
Descriptors
Dimensions
The learner can recall information and retrieve relevant knowledge
Remembering from long-term memory: identify, retrieve, recognize, duplicate, list,
memorize, repeat, reproduce
The learner can construct meaning from oral, written, and graphic
Understanding messages: interpret, exemplify, classify, summarize, infer, compare,
explain, paraphrase, discuss
The learner can use information to undertake a procedure in familiar
Applying situations or in a new way: execute, implement, demonstrate,
dramatize, interpret, solve, use, illustrate, convert, discover
The learner can distinguish between parts and determine how they
relate to one another, and to the overall structure and purpose:
Analyzing
differentiate, distinguish, compare, contrast, organize, outline,
attribute, deconstruct
The learner can make judgments and justify decisions: coordinate,
Evaluating measure, detect, defend, judge, argue, debate, critique, appraise,
evaluate
Creating The learner can put elements together to form a functional whole,
create a new product or point of view: generate, hypothesize, plan,
 design, develop, produce, construct, formulate, assemble, design,
devise
Adapted from Table 5.1 “The Cognitive Process Dimensions” (Anderson and Krathwohl
2001, pp. 67-68)

To align the assessment process with the K to 12 curriculum, the adapted Cognitive
Process Dimensions may be used as guide not only in lesson development but also in
the formulation of assessment tasks and activities.

HOW ARE LEARNERS ASSESSED IN THE CLASSROOM?

Learners are assessed in the classroom through various processes and measures
appropriate to and congruent with learning competencies defined in the K to 12
curriculum. Some of these processes and measures may be used for both formative and
summative assessment, which have different goals. Learners may be assessed
individually or collaboratively.

INDIVIDUAL AND COLLABORATIVE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Individual formative assessment enables the learner to demonstrate independently what

has been learned or mastered through a range of activities such as check-up quizzes,
written exercises, performances, models, and even electronic presentations.

Collaborative formative assessment (peer assessment) allows students to support each

other’s learning. Discussions, role playing, games, and other group activities may also
be used as performance-based formative assessment wherein learners support and
extend each other’s learning.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE

LESSON

Formative assessment may be integrated in all parts of the lesson. Basically, every
lesson has three parts: before the lesson, the lesson proper, and after the lesson.
Formative assessment conducted in each part serves a different purpose.

BEFORE THE LESSON

Formative assessment conducted before the lesson informs the teacher about the
students’ understanding of a lesson/topic before direct instruction. It helps teachers
understand where the students stand in terms of conceptual understanding and
application. Formative assessment provides bases for making instructional decisions,
such as moving on to a new lesson or clarifying prerequisite understanding.
DURING THE LESSON PROPER

Formative assessment conducted during the lesson proper informs teachers of the
progress of the students in relation to the development of the learning competencies. It
also helps the teacher determine whether instructional strategies are effective. The
results of formative assessment given at this time may be compared with the results of
formative assessment given before the lesson to establish if conceptual understanding
and application have improved. On this basis, the teacher can make decisions on
whether to review, re-teach, remediate, or enrich lessons and, subsequently, when to
move on to the next lesson.

AFTER THE LESSON

Formative assessment conducted after the lesson assesses whether learning objectives
were achieved. It also allows the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction.
Students who require remediation and/or enrichment should be helped by the teacher
using appropriate teaching strategies.

Table 2 enumerates the purposes of formative assessments conducted before, during,

and after the lesson. It also shows examples of assessment methods. Teachers should
not limit the assessment methods they use to the examples provided in the table 2.

Table 2. Purposes of Formative Assessment

Parts of
Examples of
the For the Learner For the Teacher
Assessment Methods
Lesson
Agree/disagree activities
Know what s/he knows
Games
about the topic/lesson Get information about what
the learner already knows
Interviews
Understand the and can do about the new
purpose of the lesson lesson
Inventories/ checklists of
and how to do well in
skills (relevant to the topic
Before the lesson Share learning intentions and
in a learning area)
Lesson success criteria to the
Identify ideas or learners
KWL activities (what I
concepts s/he
know, what I want to
misunderstands Determine misconceptions
know, what I learned)
Identify barriers to Identify what hinders learning
Open-ended questions
learning
Practice exercises
Lesson Identify one’s strengths Provide immediate feedback Multimedia presentations
Proper and weaknesses to learners
Observations
Identify barriers to Identify what hinders learning
 Identify what facilitates
learning Other formative
learning performance tasks (simple
Identify learning gaps activities that can be
Identify factors that drawn from a specific
help him/her learn Track learner progress in topic or lesson)
comparison to formative
Know what s/he knows assessment results prior to Quizzes (recorded but not
and does not know the lesson proper graded)

Monitor his / her own To make decisions on Recitations

progress whether to proceed with the
next lesson, reteach, or Simulation activities
provide for corrective
measures or reinforcements
Multimedia presentations

Observations

Other formative
Assess whether learning performance tasks (simple
Tell and recognize objectives have been met for activities that can be
whether s/he met a specified duration drawn from a specific
learning objectives and topic or lesson)
success criteria Remediate and/ or enrich
After
with appropriate strategies asQuizzes (recorded but not
Lesson
Seek support through needed graded)
remediation,
enrichment, or other Evaluate whether learning Recitations
strategies intentions and success
criteria have been met Simulation activities
exercises

Short quizzes

Written work
The information or feedback gathered from formative assessment will help teachers
ensure that all learners are supported while they are developing understanding and
competencies related to curriculum standards. These also prepare them for summative
assessments. Teachers should keep a record of formative assessment results to study
the patterns of learning demonstrated by students. However, this should not be used as
bases for grading.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

This form of assessment measures the different ways learners use and apply all relevant
knowledge, understanding, and skills. It must be spaced properly over the quarter. It is
usually conducted after a unit of work and/or at the end of an entire quarter to determine
how well learners can demonstrate content knowledge and competencies articulated in
the learning standards. Learners synthesize their knowledge, understanding, and skills
during summative assessments. The results of these assessments are used as bases for
computing grades.

INDIVIDUAL AND COLLABORATIVE SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Learners may be assessed individually through unit tests and quarterly assessment.
Collaboratively, learners may participate in group activities in which they cooperate to
produce evidence of their learning. The process of creating a learning project is given
more weight or importance than the product itself.

COMPONENTS OF SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Summative assessments are classified into three components, namely, Written Work
(WW), Performance Tasks (PT), and Quarterly Assessment (QA). These three will be the
bases for grading. The nature of the learning area defines the way these three
components are assessed.

WRITTEN WORK

The Written Work component ensures that students are able to express skills and
concepts in written form. Written Work, which may include long quizzes, and unit or long
tests, help strengthen test-taking skills among the learners. It is strongly recommended
that items in long quizzes/tests be distributed across the Cognitive Process Dimensions
so that all are adequately covered. Through these, learners are able to practice and
prepare for quarterly assessment and other standardized assessments. Other written
work may include essays, written reports, and other written output.

PERFORMANCE TASK

The Performance Task component allows 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. Performance-based tasks may include skills demonstration, group presentations,
oral work, multimedia presentations, and research projects. It is important to note that
written output may also be considered as performance tasks.

QUARTERLY ASSESSMENT

Quarterly Assessment measures student learning at the end of the quarter. These may
be in the form of objective tests, performance-based assessment, or a combination
thereof.
Table 3 shows the components of summative assessment, their purposes, and when
they are given. The lists of sample summative assessment tools per learning area are
found in Appendix A.

Table 3. Components of Summative Assessment

Components Purpose When Given
Assess learners’ understanding of concepts and
Written Work application of skills in written form At end of the
(WW) topic or unit
Prepare learners for quarterly assessments
Involve students in the learning process individually or
in collaboration with teammates over a period of time

Give students opportunities to demonstrate and

At end of a
integrate their knowledge, understanding, and skills
lesson focusing
about topics or lessons learned in a specific real-life
on a topic/skill
situation by performing and/or producing evidence of
Performance lesson
their learning
Tasks (PT)
Several times
Give students the freedom to express their learning in
during the
appropriate and diverse ways
quarter
Encourage student inquiry, integration of knowledge,
understanding, and skills in various contexts beyond
the assessment period
Quarterly
Synthesize all the learning skills, concepts, and values Once, at end of
Assessment
learned in an entire quarter the quarter
(QA)

There must be sufficient and appropriate instructional interventions to ensure that

learners are ready before summative assessments are given. The evidence produced
through summative assessment enables teachers to describe how well the students have
learned the standards/competencies for a given quarter. These are then reflected in the
class record. The grades of learners are presented in a report card to show the progress
of learners to parents and other stakeholders.