Factor Analysis Of The Eradication Of LAPG In Grade Three In Public Schools
Introduction
LAPG (Language Assessment for Primary Grades) is administered to gr. 3 pupils in all public schools. This assessment is composed of 2 parts: Listening and Reading. It consists of 3 languages: English, Filipino and Mother Tongue. It tests their abilities or achievement in the 3 languages. It also measures student’s progress and capabilities towards predetermined objectives. This study aims to analyze the eradication of LAPG in Gr. 3. The Department of Education (DepEd) through the National Education Testing and Research Center (NETRC) shall administer the National Achievement Test (NAT) and Language Assessment for Primary grades (LAPG) nationwide, as contained in the enclosure of DepEd Order No. 19, s. 2014 entitled in the school calendar for school year 2014-2015. The assessment NAT in grade three was changed to LAPG in all grade three levels in the year 2016.
Education has been the primary focus of different governments for centuries. Governments work hard to make sure that their universities, colleges, and basic education centers continue to provide a mechanism that can make its citizens intellectually capable, so as to contribute to the national economy (Hardcastle, 2010). Department of Education records showed that elementary and high school level students have a declining achievement l of based on the National Achievement Tests (NAT) results from 2005 to 2010.
According to the report in the Phil Star Headlines, The Department of Education (DepEd) bared the declining achievement rates in the past years of elementary and high school students nationwide. NAT results of high school students from 2005 to 2010 posted an MPS of 49. 26 percent to 47. 40 percent in 2008-2009 showed that the mean percentage score (MPS) of students dropped from the school year 2007-2008, and down to 46. 30 percent in 2009 to 2010. (Rainier Allan Ronda, May 26, 2011, Phil Star Headlines). Based on the records from the 2015 NAT results in grade three, the four bottom schools are Guadalupe Elementary School, Alaska Elementary School, Labangon Bliss Elementary School and, Zapatera Elementary School. DepEd may have recorded the percentage of the increase and decrease of performances from different schools yet investigating and knowing the causes of the declining achievement rate from each school has not yet been studied at length. They also haven’t explained the reason why LAPG was eradicated from all public schools. Even Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said that the DepEd and CHED should take a closer look at the statistics from which it should present the truly sad state of neglect of education in the country.
Despite the memorandum mentioned about the NO READ, NO MOVE POLICY, the student’s reading disabilities, and its remediation were still left unresolved. Numerous students can still be promoted to the next grade level even with low reading skills thus reflecting poor performance in school. Educators are still persistent in dealing with this problem and continuously searching for other aids to ease the problem to develop pupil’s progress in school (Cielito Zamora Memorial Elementary School, 2014). In this study, collaborative inquiry like unstructured interview will be use to elicit responses from the participants so that matters and issues raised will be analyzed. With the help of their responses and answers we can analyze the cause of the eradication of LAPG in grade three. We could also answer the following questions such as: What are the causes of the eradication of LAPG in grade three in public schools? ; What are the factors that affect the eradication of LAPG in grade three in public schools? , and What kind of assessment would they use in order to measure the student’s reading, listening and comprehension skill?
Theoretical Background of the Study/ Conceptual Framework
The Department of Education is administering LAPG in order to assess students' learning, achievement and performance in each school; trying to see if there is improvement in the quality of the basic education. LAPG is designed to determine the students’ academic levels, strengths and weaknesses. In order for students to learn, teachers need to assess the students to determine whether they understand the lesson or if the goals of education are being met. It affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding. The children’s success both in school and throughout life depends on their Reading skill. It is necessary that they know how to read and comprehend what is written in order to give a correct answer. The Department of Education (DepEd) is accepting the challenge in addressing the problem in reading difficulties occurring in most public schools in the alignment with DepEd Memo No. 67 Sec 10 s. 2014; NO READ, NO MOVE POLICY which is hereby made mandatory for all children enrolled in grade 1 and grade 2. According to Alicia Miller, Language Development Coordinator at Whitby, there are so many factors that influence language learning of students: Motivation, Support at home, Prior Linguistic Knowledge, Learning Environment, Teaching Strategies, Comprehensible Input, Student Personality, Age and Comfort in their country of residence.
As far as the examination system in Pakistan is concerned, it is not bad but it has some limitations. So there are also some factors, which are affecting student ‘s performance in examination. It appears that present system of examination in Pakistan is not testing real understanding and intellectual growth of the student. This study is attributed on Julian B. Rotter’s Social-learning Theory of Personality. It explains that people believe that they have control over the outcome of events, as opposed to external forces beyond their control. A person’s “loci” are conceptualized as Internal (a belief that one’s life can be controlled) or External (a belief that life is controlled by outside factors which they cannot influence, or that chance or fate controls their lives), (Rotter 2016). Locus of control refers to the extent to which people feel that they have control over the events that influence their lives, (Cherry, 2016). People with a strong internal locus of control believe that they are responsible with the outcomes of events in their lives while individuals with strong external locus of control tend to believe that the outcomes of events that happened in their lives is due to the outside factors. M. Farouk Radwan says that internal locus of control is a personal trait that every successful person has. A person who has internal locus of control will never say something like “I failed because the exam was hard” but instead he will ask himself “what was the wrong thing I did”? The person who has external locus of control believes that the whole world is plotting against him, that luck exists and that life is unfair. The person who has external locus of control always blames outside factors like god’s will, bad economy or luck of luck. Internal factor refers to the child’s abilities and capabilities which includes his ability to read, his attendance in school and his performance in every subject taught while External refers to the outer factors that affect a child’s performance that includes the teacher’s strategies used in teaching, the population of students in each section and the type of family where the child belongs. This study also anchored on student academic gain and learning performance. Thus, student academic and learning performance is affected by numerous factors including gender, age, teaching faculty, students schooling, father/guardian’s social economic status, residential area of students, medium of instructions in school, daily study habit. Many researchers conducted detailed studies about the factors contributing student performance at different study levels. Graetz (1995) suggested” A student educational success contingent heavily on social status of student’s parent/ guardians in the society. Considine and Zappala (2002) noticed the same that parents’ income or social status positively affects the students test score in examination.
According to Minnesota (2007) “the higher education performance is depending upon the academic performance of the graduate students. Durden and Ellis quoted Stanffolani and Britt, (2002) observed that “the measurements of previous educational outcomes are the most important indicators of student’s future achievements, this refers that as the higher previous appearance, better the student’s academic performance. Theresearcher focused on how the students’ performance in LAPG is affected with the different factors that cause them to get low performance during the test. Many researchers conducted detailed studies about these said factors. Among them are Crosnoe Johnson & Elder, 2004 that there are variables inside and outside school that affect student quality of academic achievement. These factors are as follow: student factors, family factors, school factors and peer. The environment and the personal characteristics of learners play an important role in their schooling and it causes great impact to their academic performance. The school, members of the families and communities play a vital role in providing the needed assistance for the betterment of their studies. This social assistance that comes from inside and outside of the school has crucial role for the accomplishment of performance goals of the students at school (Goddard, 2003). Besides from the social structure, parents’ involvement in their child’s education. Giving the necessary support, like helping them with the assignment and follow-up studies for the success of their child (Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995). The socio-economic status of the family where the child belong, contributes to the academic performance of the child. That, if the parents can provide the things needed by the child most likely he or she can perform better in school.
On the other hand, the low socioeconomic status has negative effective to their performance since the learners are deprived from the necessary things needed in his or her studies (Adams, 1996). Conceptual Framework Figure 1 illustrates that there are many internal and external factors that influence how a child pick up a lesson and causes him to fail as a result. The Internal factor is the child himself. It depends on the child’s ability to read, to be consistent in going to school and to get high scores in every activity and exams. The external factors are the people surrounding the child whether in school or at home like the strategy used by the teacher, the number of students in a section and the income the parents earn to buy foods and give the nutrition needed. How the teacher teaches and what kind of environment the child is experiencing plays a big impact to the child’s motivation to study and learn. If both factors fail, then it will result to the child’s low performance in school and failure in class and it will also affect the school’s LAPG rating to decline in which may be the cause why LAPG was eradicated in grade three in all public schools in the Philippines.
Research Methodology and Methods
This chapter discussed the methods and design, area of study, population of the study, sampling population, sampling technique, data collection tool and validity of questionnaires. This is an exploratory study where four schools are studied and interviewed their SMEA Coordinators using a questionnaire to collect the needed data. To satisfy the objectives of this research paper, a qualitative research was held. Qualitative research lies in exploring the opinion, attitude, behavior, and experience of a person as a social role, also a patient. The effectiveness of qualitative research is heavily based on the skills and abilities of the researchers because it comes from the researcher’s personal judgments and how they interpret the result. The researchers chose a survey research design to answer the questions and the purposes of the study. The survey research is one in which a group of Grade 3 pupils is studied by collecting and analyzing data from only a few Grade 3 pupils considered to be representative of the entire group. In other words, only a part of the population is studied, and findings from these are expected to be generalized to the entire population (Nworgu 1991: 68). McBurney(1994: 170) defines the survey assessing public opinion or individual characteristics by the use of questionnaire and sampling methods.
The study was conducted at the four low performing schools namely Guadalupe Elementary School, Alaska Elementary School, Labangon Bliss Elementary School and Zapatera Elementary School. The researchers focused on the results of their LAPG rating in 2015. In this study, the options, perceptions and attitude of learners of the four low performing schools were sought on the Grade 3 academics especially focusing on the three subjects namely English, Filipino and MTB. In this study, collaborative inquiry like unstructured interview was used to elicit responses from the participants so that matters and issues raised will be analyzed. With the help of their responses and answers we can analyze the cause of the eradication of LAPG in grade three. Exploratory method specifically Factor analysis was used in collecting data from the four low performing schools and comparing their 2015 results in NAT. It was conducted to determine the nature of the problem and help us to have a better understanding as to why their achievement rates have declined. The researchers asked data from the Division Office to get the 2015 NAT results and the ranking of schools in Cebu City. Based on the records from the 2015 NAT results in grade three, the four bottom schools are Guadalupe Elementary School, Alaska Elementary School, Labangon Bliss Elementary School and Zapatera Elementary School. In relation to the study, the researchers asked the SMEA coordinators of the four low performing schools to get some data regarding the factors that causes the decline in their performance such as the number of syllabic readers, number of students’ absences and tardiness, number of failures and drop outs, teacher-student ratio, parental support and teaching strategies used in teaching.
