CHAPTER 2

ASSESS
School Improvement Plan (SIP) contains three phases of
implementation—Assess, Plan, and Act—it is considered to be a
continuous improvement cycle. SIP is also known to be implemented
over a three-year period, during which the School Planning Team will
oversee ongoing changes.

The ASSESS, which is the first phase of implementation, was

addressed in this chapter. The school and the School Planning Team
(SPT) prepared the SIP after finishing all of the preliminary tasks,
including information gathering through surveys, early enrollment,
and child mapping, and assessing the most urgent or alarming
indicators under the headings of access, equity, resilience and well-
being, and governance

School’s Current Situation

The School-Community Data Template has been completed by
the SPT with all the necessary data. The completed template was used
to assess the current state of the school.

The Dacanlao Gregorio Agoncillo Elementary School, which has

the school identification number 107292, is located alongside the
national road leading to Balayan. The division office is 33 miles away
while the district office is 5 km away. Dacanlao Gregorio Agoncillo
National High School and Batangas Provincial Science High School are
the two nearby secondary schools. Private elementary and secondary
schools, as well as state elementary schools, are not close by. The
school is easily accessible by any mode of transportation because it is
situated next to a road. Its overall land area is 10,000 square feet. m.
This was named after Don Gregorio Agoncillo and was donated by his
family.
ACCESS

DGAES ENROLLMENT FOR THREE YEARS

Fig. 1 MALE FEMALE TOTAL

2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
SY 2020-2021 SY2021-2022 SY 2022-2023

In school year 2020-2021, 1947 pupils were enrolled in school

composed of 952 males and 995 females. In 2021-2022 there were
2050 enrollees composed of 1013 males and 1037 females. In the
current SY 2022-2023, 2084 pupils are enrolled composed of 1027
males and 1057 females which was higher than the previous. It is
noted that in the past three years, the enrolment increased
consistently. Favorably, all learners transition to the next key stage of
learning. This brought an alarming situation on which additional
classrooms are needed. On the other hand, to sustain enrollment
number, planned activities were carried out such as early enrollment,
child-mapping, home visitation, and parent orientation.

EQUITY- Services for the underprivileged are part of this pillar.

Since the school offers specialized curricula for Learners’ with
Disabilities (LWD) and Learners’ with Special Educational Needs
(LSEN), the institution noticeably reported a total of 23 learners, of
which 18 were male and 5 were female. With these figures, the school
gave this factor a lot of thought because different learning difficulties
caused parents to be uncertain about how to care for their children at
home or outside of school. The same goes for teachers, who should
develop and capacitate their methods for dealing with students who
have various disabilities.
QUALITY- With regards to learners’ performance, 100%
promotion rate was achieved. The school, on the other hand, designed
a diagnostic test/assessment to carefully gather data on reading and
numeracy, which is vital in this year's (SY 2022-2023) raising
academic advancement as the couple of years have had no formal
schooling.

Notwithstanding the challenges the school encountered due to

the extraordinary Covid-19 pandemic, the organization uses a
distance learning technique called modular distance learning. There is
little to no personal interaction between teachers and students when
using this method. However, to enrich the educational experience,
other instructional modalities have been included with the
department's assistance. Through the use of numerous online
platforms, including Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, the
teachers conduct online distance learning. It also covered how other
social media sites like Facebook, Messenger, YouTube, and others
were used. Yet, efforts seemed pointless because other people had no
online access at all or had a bad internet connection.

However, despite best efforts to replace accessible distant

learning experiences, data is mounting that suggests school closure
has actually led to learning losses. Teachers saw the effects of the
pandemic on students' performance in literacy and numeracy, two
crucial areas of learning, when the face-to-face (F2F) learning mode
was implemented.

Grade Level Numerate Non-numerate

Grade 1 220 39
Grade 2 271 27
Grade 3 217 20
K -3 86
Grade 4 346 40
Grade 5 264 38
Grade 6 212 44
G4-6 122
Total 1530 208
Table 1. Localized Numeracy Assessment Tool Consolidated Report

According to the Localized Numeracy Assessment Tool, a

diagnostic examination the school developed, 10% of the institution's
total enrollment is non-numerate. This is made up of total of 208
learners, 86 learners from K-3 and 122 learners from Grades 4-6.

STUGGLING AND NON-READER CONSOLIDATED

REPORT
Fig. 2

250

200

150

100

50

0
KINDER GRADE 1 GRADE 2 GRADE 3

Struggling Reader Non-Reader Total

In contrast, as seen in Figure 2, five hundred fifty-five (555)

pupils are characterized as struggling or non-readers. It included 235
Kinder learners, 109 Grade 1 learners, 143 Grade 2 learners, and 68
Grade 3 learners. It was also shown that 15% of both struggling
readers and non-readers are non-numerate.

The School Planning Team (SPT) found these issues concerning

since they have a significant impact on students' academic
achievement and their ability to respond to real-world situations.

Meanwhile, the Electronic Self- Assessment Test (e-SAT), which

encourages reflection on the many professional work objectives, was
completed by 60 DGAES teachers. Teaching staff and administrators
will be directed by the results of the self-evaluation about the Result-
based Management System (RPMS) indicators to improve and which
areas need coaching and mentoring through LAC Sessions and In-
service trainings.

Despite hardships faced, DGAES triumphantly demonstrated

the diversity of intelligences of its close-knit clienteles, as well as the
physical characteristics of the school and the manner in which it
carried out numerous DepEd procedures and programs. The honors
and recognitions the school has received clearly demonstrate the level
of competition among teachers and learners. The SPED and regular
learners achieved success since they were able to be recognized at the
division level, qualifying them for Southern Tagalog CALABARRZON
Athletic Association (STCAA). The excellence of creative storytellers
has also been proved as our learners bagged awards during Division
Sulong-Dunong Online Competition and Municipal Vlogging Contest
and hailed champion during the Calacatchara Festival. The school has
received numerous awards which demonstrated to be a performing
school. The following awards were received: Gawad Siklab YES-O Best
Implementer, National Finalist and Best Project Video, Best
Performing School- 2nd Place Gawad Balisong, Best Performing School-
1st Place Congressional District Level, Best Youth Formation Program-
3rd Place- Congressional District Level and Best DRRM Implementer.
The school has repeatedly established that its physical aspect stood
tall and strong for Calaca district representation in Brigada Eskwela.
DGAES also won competitions for teachers as the school
representative won Outstanding Elementary Teacher District Level.
RESILIENCE AND WELL-BEING

Grade Level Wasted Severely Total

Wasted
LSEN 9 4 13
Kinder 21 15 36
Grade 1 185 113 298
Grade 2 28 5 33
Grade 3 22 5 27
Grade 4 19 13 32
Grade 5 28 11 39
Grade 6 32 12 44
TOTAL 344 178 522
Table 2. Learner’s Basic Health and Nutrition Consolidated Report

According to the SF8 Learner's Basic Health and Nutrition

Report, 522 or 24.7% of 2084 learners were determined to be
undernourished and especially characterized as severely wasted and
wasted. According to this, 34% or 174 of the total undernourished
learners were identified as struggling and non-readers, as well as non-
numerate pupils. It can be stated that pupils' health is closely related
to their academic success. They will be the subjects of the School-
Based Feeding Program in which 35% of canteen share will also aid to
support the program and help a lot in improving their nutritional
status.

Alternative safety precautions should take precedence because

pandemics and other natural disasters have caused learners to lack
emergency readiness and response skills. If these situations were to
occur, the effects on their general physical, emotional, mental, and
psychological health would be significant.
ENABLINGG MECHANISM- Shared governance is influenced by active
leadership and active participation of the school community.

Statistics shows that despite notable results in numerous

different areas, DGAES maintains its positive ties with stakeholders.
The achievement of the school's LEVEL 3-Advance Status in School-
based Management last year serves as a crucial piece of supporting
documentation. This is due to strong backing from the Local
Government Unit (LGU), barangay officials, alumni, donors, and even
the private sector.

Being a large school with the highest enrollment in the district,

the school receives the majority of its funding for school improvement
from the MOOE, which contributed Php 1,575,419.51. The SBFP
fund, which contributed Php 710,640, the LGU, which contributed
Php3, 576,704.00, the canteen fund, which provided Php 144967.08,
and donations totaling Php 418,091.00 follow closely behind.

The child protection policy is implemented in schools as well.

The Committee on Child Protection, which serves as the pillars of
defense and mediators between two opponents, automates the process
of addressing the needs of children when abuses occur. Conflicts
between parents, students, and teachers, whether they be verbal or
violent, are settled by constant communication and meetings with all
parties concerned. In order to diffuse the situation and clarify the
minds and feelings of the affected students, instructors, or parents,
guidance and counseling are enhanced as well. There is no record of
violence (physical, verbal or cyber) of abuse for the past years during
pandemic and up to the present time.

Meanwhile, due to congestion of learners inside the classroom

caused by consistent increasing enrollment rate from the past three
years, the administration made it into consideration.

Furthermore, student-led monitoring and hazard mapping were

eye-opening in terms of pandemic residues. Facilities such as the
front of the newly constructed Mayor Nas Ona Building, the crack and
falling debris from Recto Building, and dangling electrical wirings
around Recto Building were tagged hazardous due to the school's
inability to effect repair and maintenance schemes on a timely basis.

Priority Improvement Areas

The data obtained through the use of mandatory annexes and

templates highlighted gray areas that may impair school performance,
particularly the learning outcomes of learners. With gap analysis, the
school can identify areas for improvement that should be emphasized
for Years 1, 2, and 3. Prioritization is a decision-making process that
is heavily influenced by four factors: strategic relevance, urgency,
magnitude, and feasibility. The top nine PIAs of the school, centered
on the DepEd’s Intermediate Outcomes (IOs) are presented below.

Strategic
Improvement Urge Magnit Feasib
Importan
Areas ncy ude ility
ce Aver Interpret
age ation

EQUITY

2.High 5 5 4 5 4.75 Very

Number of High
Learners Priority
without
Medical
Assessment

QUALITY

3.Low Literacy
Rate in
5 5 4 5 4.75 Very
English (K-3)
High
Priority
4.Low 5 5 4 5 4.75 Very
Numeracy rate High
of pupils from Priority
K-6

RESILIENCE AND WELL-BEING

5. Presence of
Undernourish
4.75 Very
5 5 5 4
ed Learners
High
Priority

6. Hazard risk Very

areas High
5 5 5 4 4.75
Priority

ENABLING MECHANISM

7.Shortage of
Classroom 5 4 4 3 4 High
Priority

The School Planning Team (SPT) completed the Planning

Worksheet (Annex5), which includes the overall objectives, root
reasons, and implementation year. This section necessitates critical
decision making in terms of devising potential solutions to the PIAs.
The SPT went over the processes and sought to figure out what went
wrong along the way.

To learn why storm clouds appeared at a specific stage, the SPT

performed a survey and afterwards a Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
among its respondents to determine the Voice of the Customer (VOC)
in order to facilitate the Root Cause Analysis. This is an important
step because the SPT has the opportunity to hear and see the feelings
of learners and stakeholders directly. The Project Team will design a
suitable intervention after identifying the root causes of the
difficulties.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of control over specific variables,

some core reasons were not addressed. In this particular, careful
analysis on the root causes by selecting an area of focus per PIA is
recommended. The why-why diagram was used to reveal the
fundamental reasons of the problem, over which the school has
greater influence and resources to implement targeted remedies.

The following were the PIAs: Sustainability of Enrollment: It

was recorded that there is consistent increase on enrollment yearly,
hence, numerous and series of activities were laid out to sustain the
enrollment of the institution. : High Number of Learners with
Disabilities without Medical Assessment: School funds for
educational materials are not sufficient; Low Literacy Rate in
English: 50% of school enrollment from K-3 are struggling readers
due to learner’s attachment to gadgets: Low Level of Numeracy rate
of pupils from K-6: 10% of the school enrollment are non-numerates:
Presence of Undernourished Learners: 512 learners are below
normal on their Nutritional status. Hazard Risk Areas: Existence of
hazard and risk areas: Shortage of Classroom: Increasing of
enrollment rate which resulted to classroom congestion.

The assessment phase is the most difficult because it

determines the school's future plans and projects. If not done
correctly, the school may be unable to determine the true root
problems. If the underlying reasons are not effectively addressed, the
problems remain over time because fixes or interventions do not
address the PIAs.

General Objectives

Following the identification of the PIAs, the next step is the

formation of general objectives, which are statements that clearly
indicate what the school hopes to achieve over a specific time period.
Since the aim exceeds the baseline, the SPT is guided in its
intervention. The table below provides an overview of the SPT's general
objectives.

PLANNING WORKSHEET FOR EQUITY

DEPED PRIORITY
LEARNING GENERAL
INTERMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT
STAGE OBJECTIVE/S
OUTCOMES AREA
SIO#2.1. All High Number of To decrease the
school-age Learners’ with number of LWD’s
children and Disability (LWD’s) without medical
youth, and without Medical assessment from
adults in Assessment 7 to 0 by the end
situations of of SY 2022-2023.
disadvantage are
participating in
inclusive basic
learning
opportunities
and receiving
appropriate
quality
education
PLANNING WORKSHEET FOR QUALITY
DEPED PRIORITY
LEARNING GENERAL
INTERMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT
STAGE OBJECTIVE/S
OUTCOMES AREA
K-3 SIO#3.1. Low English Literacy To increase the
Learners attain rate in K-3 number of
Stage 1 (K-3) numerates in Key
learning Stage 1 (K-3) from
standards of 10.83% to 41% in
fundamental SY 2022-2023
numeracy skills
K-3 SIO#3.1. Low level literacy rate To decrease the
Learners attain in K-3 number of
Stage 1 (K-3) struggling and
learning non-readers in
standards of Key Stage 1 (K-3)
fundamental from 555 or 50 %
reading skills to 0% in SY 2022-
2023

4-6 SIO#3.2. Low level of numeracy To increase the

Learners attain in Key Stage 2 (Grade number of
Stage 2 (Grades 4-6). numerates from
4-6) learning 12.4% to 59% for
standards in the SY 2022-
required literacy 2023.
and numeracy
skills and apply
21st century
skills to various
real-life
situations
PLANNING WORKSHEET IN RESILIENCY AND WELL-BEING
DEPED PRIORITY
LEARNING GENERAL
INTERMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT
STAGE OBJECTIVE/S
OUTCOMES AREA
K-6 SIO#4.1. Presence of To decrease the
Learners are Undernourished number of
served by a Learners undernourished
department that learners from 522
adheres to a or 27% to 0% in
rights-based
education SY 2022-2023.
framework at all
levels
K-6 SIO#4.2. Hazard risk areas in To lessen hazard
Learners are the school premises risk areas in the
safe and school premises
protected, and by the end of SY
can protect 2022-2023.
themselves, from
risks and
impacts from
natural and
human induced
hazards
PLANNING WORKSHEET IN ENABLING MECHANISM-GOVERNANCE
DEPED PRIORITY
LEARNING GENERAL
INTERMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT
STAGE OBJECTIVE/S
OUTCOMES AREA
EM#3. Shortage of Classroom To acquire three
Ideal Learning (3) 2-storey
environment and buildings for
adequate learners’
learning classroom before
resources for the end of SY
learners is 2024-2025
improved.

PLANNING WORKSHEET
The SPT developed the Planning Worksheet to provide complete
detail on the PIAs of the school that must be addressed. The PIA is
carefully examined because it must be connected with the Learning
Stage and Intermediate Objectives.

The Planning Worksheet also outlines the objectives for

addressing the PIAs, the main reasons, and the time range for
completion.

See attached ANNEX 5 Planning Worksheet for the complete details.

The Planning Worksheet contained the PIAs. Paired with the
identified PIAs, the SPT gave corresponding general objectives. The
general objectives were statements of what to achieve. The SPT
ensured that general objectives they had given were SMART and
indeed responsive to PIAs. General objectives were: To lessen the use
of barangay certification in SY 2022-2023 by 25% and 35% in SY
2024-2025 and 40% in SY 2024-2025; To promote understanding and
providing educational needs of each learner with disability; To
increase the number of numerates to 94% in 2022-2023, 98% in
2023-2024 and 100% in 2024-2025; To lessen the number of
struggling readers to 10% in 2022-2023, 8% in 2023-2024 and 7% in
2024-2025; To increase the number of teacher-researchers to 8%
2022-2023, 13% in 2023-2024 and 22% in 2024-2025; To intensify
activities on promoting gender and development education, programs,
and advocacies from 20% to 100%; To improve sanitation facilities on
the first year of implementation and intensify the practice on health
and hygiene yearly. To improve learner’s level of understanding on the
hazards and potential risk within school. To reduce the number of
severely wasted and wasted learners by 9% in SY 2022-2023, 8% in
SY 2023-2024 and 7.7 % in SY 2024-2025.

Big quantity of barangay certification submitted in enrollment

procedure and requirement and massive number of transferred -out
were deficiencies that were noted under ACCESS. Insufficient
knowledge about child’s needs for the types of their disabilities was
recorded under EQUITY. The following gaps existed under QUALITY: a
large number of struggling readers, a low proportion of teachers
engaging in action research, and poor performance in mathematics as
indicated by the Numeracy Assessment Tool. Meanwhile, the following
shortcomings were noted under RESILIENCE: poor awareness of
gender and development, education, program, and advocacy.
Inadequate water supply for sanitation and hygiene practices. The
lack of classrooms and restrooms, as well as the failure to reach 100%
stakeholder participation, were recorded under GOVERNANCE. The
gaps identified as needing improvement were areas that should be
addressed in the SIP planning.
To help and choose which of the improvement areas should be
prioritized, the SPT used the rubrics to identify PIA. The areas that
scored and were understood to be of Very High Importance were
reflected as Priority Improvement Areas as a consequence of the 5-
point scale rating. the following were the PIAs: Enrollment
procedure: 31 learners submit Barangay certification on enrollment
process: Learners with Special Education Needs: Schoolfunds for
educational materials are not sufficient; Low English and Filipino
Literacy: 25% of school enrollment from grades 1-6 are struggling
readers due to learner’s attachment to gadgets: Low Level of
Numeracy: 10% of the school enrollment are non-numerates: Action
Research: only 8% of the faculty are teacher-researchers. Water
facility: shortage of water pumps to practice hygiene and sanitation:
Learners Safety: Existence of hazard and risk areas: Awareness on
Gender and Development programs and advocacies: Lack of
training and seminar to parents, teachers and learners: Severely
Wasted and Wasted children:291 learners are below normal on their
Nutritional status.

Root Causes
The planning worksheet also included the underlying reasons of
each PIA. Root cause is the most fundamental reason for any
process's issues. Consequently, root cause analysis was carried out
by the project teams, which effectively revealed the true reason of
the issue. To analyze the focus region/s, a problem analysis tool
called why-why diagram was employed. The primary reason for the
issues at the school was revealed through the root cause analysis.
These are the following causes : existence of numerous number of
barangay certification on enrolment caused by low level of
awareness of parents on the process of birth certificate registration,
insufficient knowledge on child’s needs for different types of
disabilities due to lack of fund for educational materials. existence
of massive number of struggling readers due to attachment on the
use of mobile gadgets, low performance in Mathematics as shown
on Numeracy Assessment tool, teachers focus on other things and
visualize action research as additional workload, shortage of water
pumps for consistent practice of activities related to sanitation and
hygiene, insufficient knowledge on gender and development,
education, program and advocacies due to lack of training,
seminar, workshop and information dissemination, existences of
hazard-risk areas in school premises that lead to accident and
increasing number of severely wasted and wasted learners due to
unaware benefits of nutritious foods.
Targets
Targets were then identified after root causes had been found.
Each objective statement's timing, whether it occurs in Year 1,
Year 2, or Year 3 of the SIP cycle, was determined by the SPT.
Listed below were specific target goals:

 To attain 100% of birth certificate of unregistered pupils for the

school year 2022-2023 to 204-2025.
 To promote understanding and providing educational needs of
each learner with disability.
 To increase the number of numerates from 90% to 100% in 3
years.
 To attain O % number of struggling readers from 25% for the SY
2022-2023 to 2024-2025
 To increase the number of teacher-researchers from 8% to 30%
 To improve sanitation facilities to intensify the practice on
health and hygiene.
 To maintain the safety of learners free from hazard and
potential risk
 To reduce the number of severely wasted and wasted children
from 24.7 % to 0% in 3 years.
The Planning Worksheet was created to draw attention to the
most important areas that require development. Each targeted
issue's underlying causes were noted. Also, this displayed the
broad goals to be accomplished throughout the chosen academic
year in numeric form.