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怡朗亚典耀圣母学校 Atria Park District, Pison Avenue,

San Rafael, Mandurriao, Iloilo City
ATENEO DE ILOILO Tel. No.: (033) 333-3189/90; Telefax : (033) 321-1788
Santa Maria Catholic School Website: adi.edu.ph

OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL

Evaluation Report
School Year 2018-2019 to 2020-2021
By Dr. Herman Lagon, IBEd Principal

INTRODUCTION

This report is divided into three themes that the Office of the Principal was tasked to carry out in
the past three years, covering Curriculum and Instruction, Formation, Senior High School, and
Learning Support. These themes are:
• institutional integration,
• professional development, and
• innovations.
It is worthy to note that all the accounts here are products of the collective inputs, efforts,
cooperation, and support of the top and mid-level administrators, teachers, formators, and staff of
Ateneo de Iloilo-SMCS in response to internal and external challenges and in reference to the
PAASCU recommendations to and five-year Institutional Plan of the school.
This report will conclude with the areas that the Office of the Principal, in particular, and the school
in general, may need to improve on vis-à-vis the challenges that the community will face in the next
3-6 years.

INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRATION

Leadership Transition

In 2017, all the three units of the school still had their respective administrators and separate
protocols. In consultation with the stakeholders of the school, we were able to clarify and streamline
the administrative functions of offices. Thus, in 2020, all the mid-level and top-level administrators
and their academic and formation programs have already integrated responsibilities and functions,
with the exemption of Senior High School (SHS) that is still in its transition phase.

The Academic Council, which was originally comprised of academic administrators, was expanded
and now covers the formation MLAs and TLAs, with the belief that academics and formation are
intertwined. It meets every month to plan for and discuss pressing issues and strengthen the
decision-making process, communication, and relationship among administrators and their
respective programs and colleagues. These regular conversations start with the reading of articles on
Ignatian leadership, sharing of insights, and kumustahans before the main business starts.
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In the recent years, institutional, program, and committee tasks and assignments were also being
delegated to administrators, faculty, and staff giving them more agency, shared responsibility, and
accountability. This includes organizing community and unit activities, holding professional learning
community (PLC) encounters, formulating proposed protocols, and presiding over meetings and
deliberations.

Process Enhancement

The Student Handbook, released in 2019, has put together all the institutional rules, policies, and
protocols of the school covering all units. The document now features, among others, the integrated
grading, honor, and award system and criteria; formation, laboratory, and library policies and
processes; and the data and child protection policies. It is set to be evaluated and revised in 2022.

Moreover, forms related to curriculum, instruction, and formation were also labelled and
standardized. In coordination with the concerned offices, the following processes were also
improved and institutionalized: parent-teacher conferences, book evaluation, special enrollment
procedure, program/supplies budgeting system, classroom observations, hiring and firing protocol,
ranking and promotion, parents/students orientations to school offerings, career guidance
development program, institutional meetings and kumustahans, special examinations, admission
protocol, community conferences, and articulations. The module-making and student-school-
internet use protocols are currently being finalized.

This office—partnering with the admin, learning support, learning innovation, and IT teams—has
actively maximized the email, social media, calendar app, and text blast platforms. Our email system
now includes the email list of all our stakeholders, including the parents and guardians. Using the
adi.edu.ph platform, we have managed to organize our email list per class, grade level, unit, and
institution. Our one-stop info@adi.edu.ph mail center, FB Messenger feature, and the Google
calendar service have also helped in the dissemination and clarification of school schedules,
activities, and policies. Real-time updates are also made accessible by the school’s activated
Facebook page @AteneodeIloiloSMCS and website at www.adi.edu.ph.

Programs and Activities

The Integrated Summer Program (ISP) kicked off last summer of 2019. It put together and
streamlined 11 interest/skills-based, club/formation, and academic remediation/enrichment
summer activities in school, setting up agreed-upon payments, deliverables, matrices, and standards.
ISP was able to set about 16 offerings this 2020; but due to the pandemic, only the Chinese
Remedial offering was allowed to push through.

On the other hand, there has been a more conscious effort in holding regular community masses,
retreats, guidance sessions, (virtual and face-to-face) kumustahans, faculty colloquia, advocacies,
pasundayags, celebrations, sportsfests, summits, and house systems.

In response to the call for animating a “faith that does justice,” this office, in partnership with the
different formation programs and subject areas, has also deliberately crusaded to emphasize
integrated social awareness-related activities covering issues on Martial Law, EDSA Revolution,
voters’ education, care for the common home (Laudato si), anti-EJK, historical revisionism, human
rights, indigenous peoples, and psychological wellness, among others. Correspondingly, aside from
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the usual trainings and projects, the outreach and skills enhancement training component of clubs
and organizations is now given more emphasis—even amidst the pandemic—by the newly-instituted
Student Development Office (SDO).

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Budget Alignment

The erstwhile unit-based budgeting on professional development was integrated and aligned with the
school’s Faculty and Staff Development (FSD) Program in 2019. The more-rationalized FSD budget
has increased to PhP3 million a year. It mainly covers professional training and development of the
faculty and staff in response to the recommendations of the Philippine Accrediting Association of
Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAASCU), the needs identified and expressed in the
Performance Appraisal Instrument (PAI), and the key result areas targeted by the Midterm
Institutional Plan and Yearend Evaluation of teachers, formators, and administrators. It also
includes budget for the following programs:
a. IIgnITE: Inculturation of Ignatian Identity in Teaching Experience Program
b. InSet: In-Service Training
c. On-FIRE: On-going Formation and Ignatian Renewal for Educators Program
d. Supervision Program
e. MAGIS: Mid-Level Administrators Growth in Service Program
f. SALT: School Administration and Leadership Training Program
g. Research and Development Program
h. Professional Development Assistance

Training and Workshops

Regularly, in-school and off-school workshops, training, leadership and skills-enhancement

sessions—sponsored by book companies/private organizations or by the school–were being offered
to the faculty and staff. In most occasions, specific seminars were assigned to select people as per
consultation with their corresponding coordinators and based on the pre-identified need. Most
training-workshops outside school were done online and virtual this school year.

Meanwhile, the in-school seminars and workshops held, so far, included visible thinking, whole-
child approach, knowledge creation, data protection, classroom management, test construction,
lesson study, thinking routines, test of understanding, performance task making, child protection,
learning plan making, club moderatorship, homeroom advisory, action research, technology
integration, and psycho-emotional wellness, and handling children with special needs. Technically, all
members of the teaching faculty earned enough Continued Professional Development (CPD) points
by 2019.

Regular IIgnITE for probationary teachers and staff were held for two weeks every summer—
except in 2020 when it was conducted in just three days due to health and safety concerns. The
community was also regularly updated with the important literature and information related to the
teaching-learning process and Ignatian spirituality via email and through the program heads.
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Ignatian Leadership

As part of leader development and succession planning of the school, emerging leaders have been
identified and trained with the external experts and the ones currently leading different programs.
Skills enhancement have been conducted following the FSD Program.

Since 2018, OnFIRE trainings have been conducted yearly, providing emerging leaders with
immersive experience in peer observation and coaching. These sessions were facilitated in by former
principal and supervision veteran Mrs. Aurora de la Cruz in coordination with top-level, senior mid-
level, and former top-level administrators as mentors. Despite the cancellation of its 2020 version,
the program has already produced 34 completers. On the other hand, the MAGIS/SALT Program
on clinical supervision and mentoring for the 24 MLAs and the TLAs was organized last December,
2019 with veteran school accreditor and school BOT member Dr. Cynthia Arcadio as facilitator. A
follow-up of which was set November, 2020 but was cancelled due to quarantine issues. Very
recently, attendance of administrators and senior faculty to the yearly Jesuit Basic Education
Commission (JBEC) and Jesuit Chinese-Filipino Apostolate (JCFA) meetings also increased.

The office has also organized a pool of Learning by Refraction faculty-trainers whose task is to
cascade the IPP “way of proceeding” to our teachers, whenever needed or called. These seven (7)
Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) experts of ours were sent to the Learning by Refraction
Training-Workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand last September, 2018, and IPP Trainers Training-
Workshop last October, 2019, in Baguio City. Another IPP Formators Training is supposed to
happen this October, 2020 in Baguio City, but was cancelled due to the “new normal.” Five (5)
academic administrators are now enrolled in the six-year Adaptive Design Learning (ADL) 2021
course facilitated by the Ateneo SALT (Science and Art of Learning and Teaching) Institute.

Furthermore, all administrators, but three, are already graduates of the Workshop in Ignatian School
Leadership (WISL), an annual Ignatian leadership program of the Jesuit Basic Education
Commission (JBEC) that started in 2008. We hope for a 100% WISL graduation rate (and possibly
inviting senior faculty members) come 2022. Participation of administrators and emerging leaders
increased in JBEC through the Asia Pacific Initiative-API-Jesuit Education Consortium (API-JEC)
International Conference on Educational Frontiers last October, 2018 in Ateneo de Manila
University (ADMU) and the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP) National
Convention last September, 2019, in Iloilo Convention Center. In coordination with different
offices, we also sent administrators (August, 2018), formators (March, 2019), and librarians
(September, 2019) in Xavier and ADMU for benchmarking on technology integration, formation,
and library services, in that order. After 20-or-so years of waiting, the school has also produced two
CEAP certifiers and PAASCU accreditors in the past three (3) years.

It is worthy to note that the psycho-emotional and spiritual training of the faculty and staff rests on
the Human Resource Management and Development (HRMD) Office.

Outreach Component

The school was able to organize the Bridging Initiatives for Technology-based instruction
Conference (BITCon) on February 28-March 1, 2019 with participants coming from all over the
country. It gave 33 of our teachers and administrators the opportunity to present their best practices
and research papers and also hone their skills in organizing conventions at the national level. We
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also partnered with the organizers of the Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP) to host the
49th RAP National Conference in school on October 28-20, 2019. This allowed 12 of our teachers to
facilitate breakout sessions and 10 teachers from our partner-schools to attend the national meet for
free. If not for the pandemic, we were also supposed to host the Society for Technology in
Education Philippines (STEP) Convention last April, 2020, and the 5th International Ignatian
Student Leadership Forum (ISLF) this July, 2020.

In the past three years, this office has acknowledged and supported a number of our volunteer-
formators and teachers who facilitated one-day retreats of public school teachers and students under
the initiative of our volunteer formators. A number of our teachers who are now registered
Microsoft Education Ambassadors (MEAs) also held outreach trainings on technology integration
to teachers in Iloilo and Aklan. With this, the formation of a Faculty and Staff Outreach Program is
now being discussed by concerned TLAs to institutionalize the school’s initiative to share its
resources to other schools that need it the most. It is also a concrete venue for the Ateneo faculty
and staff to reach out to our fellow educators in the greater community.

INNOVATIONS

The Contextualized Blended Learning (CBL) Program

Our CBL Program is the school’s collective response to the challenges posed by COVID-19. It is
an innovation, collectively designed through series of consultations and research, that is full of
interesting features in itself. Amid the challenges of the pandemic, we were able to start crafting the
program as early as late March, 2020. A number of revisions were made after a series of surveys,
consultations, brainstorming, benchmarking, and modifications. It was rolled out in August, 2020
with relatively minor glitches/flaws that were immediately addressed. In fact, the initiative was
commended by the Department of Education (DepEd) of Iloilo City as a “model learning continuity
plan (LCP),” not just because it is “first of its kind” but also that it is “detailed and comprehensive.”

Some of CBL’s remarkable features are teacher-facilitated classes, independent-learning sessions,

video recording component, contextualized choice of video conferencing/learning management
system platforms, assessment-evaluation policy, health and safety protocols, special working
application (SWA) protocol, regular online colloquia, and LMS/VCA/self-care trainings among
teachers, parents, and students. The flexibility of CBL as an LCP may have been one of the reasons
why the school was able to achieve 96% enrollment (as opposed to the national record of 47% as of
September, 2020) amid the pandemic. This has also put faculty and staff loading distribution in
check.

Culture of Inquiry

This office has led in the crusade to cultivate the culture of inquiry in school. Three (3) Faculty and
Staff Research Conferences were organized by the Research and Review Committee (RRC) last
November, 2018, Mary, 2019, and September, 2019. It was followed up with a series of research
advising initiatives to help programs and individuals to go through the research process more
smoothly. This hoped to encourage stakeholders to share, appreciate, be aware of, and/or learn
from the studies of the different faculty, staff, and programs of the school. Some of the research
outputs are now with the RRC in preparation for the first Magis Research Journal which we hope to
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publish in the near future. Aside from the yearly in-school SHS research conferences, a Regional
SHS Research Conference for students was organized last March 2019. It was the pandemic that
stopped the faculty and student conferences to continue in 2020.

Data gathering has also been the way to go as far as decision-making and professional development
are concerned. Our midyear and year end Student Evaluation for Teachers’ Instruction (SETI)
survey facilitated by the guidance program continues to give timely and relevant feedback to update
teachers and administrators of their performance in class in qualitative and quantitative terms. The
same formative instrument is now being analyzed for policy-making and institutional planning
purposes.

So far, we have likewise conducted surveys and research on the following areas in order to evaluate
practices and collect data to inform decisions: CBL Program, NCAE and Students’ Performance,
School Culture and Leadership, Professional Development Needs Analysis, Assessment of Online
Card Day Procedures, Comparative Performance of Students’ Academic Performance Across
Levels, Admission Clustering in the New Normal, and the Ateneo Training for Test Readiness in
Admission to College (ATTRAC) Program Assessment, among others. The Office of the
Principal—with the help of the RRC, the psychometrician, and the RCDT Officer—currently
conducts studies on Antecedents and Consequences of Need Supportive Learning: Multilevel Evidence of Self-
Determination Theory and Reinventing Education Amidst the Pandemic in partnership with Fr. Joseph Haw
SJ, and the Education University of Hongkong and Fr. Ari Dy SJ and Thames International School,
respectively. Several members of our teaching faculty were also supported and allowed to hold
quasi-experimental and case studies in school which resulted to a reflection on their practice and the
development of their instructional materials and strategies. Some of them have already presented
their studies and best practices in international, national, and regional conferences.

Clearly, however, a lot of things still need to be done in the area of research and inquiry especially
regarding skills training on conducting action research, lesson study, and data-driven PLC, and the
application of its results in classroom instruction, curriculum design, and formation.

Crisis Management

The last three years posed a number of serious challenges, namely: a bomb threat, earthquakes,
typhoons, dengue and chicken pox outbreaks, and the most recent of all, the COVID-19 pandemic.
We also had some isolated encounters with few critical parents, guardians, colleagues, students, and
the media along the way. Nonetheless, the school—with the prudent and astute administrators,
faculty, and staff on board—was able to go through it with ease, strong resolve, and zero legal case.
Although there are still protocols to polish to make our response to crisis more systematic, what has
happened and how we dealt with the past challenges is still worth mentioning.

Apparently, aside from our enhanced communication and information system that assists our
stakeholders in their school concerns, our good standing and relationship with DepEd, the now-
integrated Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the Ateneo Alumni Association (AAA), the local
government and tri-media may have also helped in smoothing out our processes inside and outside
of school. Note that the office has adopted a direct communication policy which allows anyone to
be able to contact the Office of the Principal, if deemed necessary, following an appointment
process. This was also supported by the initiative to formulate school brochures for easy access of
school FAQs.
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Technology Enhancement

Technology integration in our class instructions has been more defined especially this school year.
Though still a challenge, this has been something that we have fairly prepared for as we continue to
invest in learning innovations by investing in technology integration training and hardware-software
building in the different laboratories and libraries in school.

It was the collective efforts of the associate principals and the LITe, LS, and DOS teams that
spurred the purchase and use of three (3) additional IPad carts, the installation of 17 access points
for internet connectivity and the innovations-robotics laboratory, the upgrading of both hardware
and software of our three (3) Windows-based computer laboratories and one (1) IOS-based
MacLab, the introduction of the Ateneo Information System (AIS), the continued
connectivity/information system capacity building initiative, and the series of tech integration-
related trainings held in the span of three years. We also have secured and utilized 566 Seesaw, 20
Zoom, 25 WebEx Meet, 27 MS-365 (with MS Teams for faculty and 1,080 students), and
PressReader (platform for online magazines and newspapers) licenses. We also secured free Google
Suite for Education licenses and purchased the Phoenix Library system as part of our learning
support services. All these came in handy for our CBL Program this school year.

CHALLENGES AND AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Much is still to be done

The integration and standardization initiatives we experienced in the process happened due to the
contribution and desire of all the stakeholders to continue the mission of forming leaders—young
and old—who pursue excellence ignited by love and service. It is also in response to the
recommendations of our partner-institutions.

But the journey has never been seamless; it is never finished.

In hindsight, the office has missed its target in terms of reaching utmost and judicious use of our
rich learning spaces, libraries, and laboratory resources. We hope to continue to commit to
continuously improve our learning support system and equipment that is responsive to the needs of
the 21st century learners and educators. The present reality, it appears, demands for a school that is
committed to knowledge deepening/creation and learning innovations through technology.

Meanwhile, we still have an elbow room to improve in terms of IPP-inspired teaching innovations
and strategies which may include processing and formulating questions, efficient feedbacking, critical
and analytical thinking, facilitating discussions and reflections on social issues and advocacies,
mastery of the basics in coming up with well-crafted learning plans and good quality assessment,
knowledge deepening and creation, and values-laden and action/data-driven encounters that would
engage our students towards a more meaningful and relevant learning experience.

Through regular articulations and supervision championed by our associate principals, subject area
coordinators, and senior faculty, we have done much in making our curriculum and instruction more
sequential, developmental, standards/competencies-based, IPP-UBD based, and aligned with the
philosophy and core values of the school. Improvement can still be made, though, by strengthening
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our mentoring, coaching, and (pop-in, regular, clinical and peer) observation processes, most
especially that more than 40% of our teacher-formators are still relatively fresh from college. We
may also need to give more opportunities for the faculty and staff to purposively attend various
trainings and, more importantly, translate their learning to concrete improvement in practice.
Deliberate revisiting of our formation and evangelization roles and functions may also be something
that is worth exploring over as a community in the next years to come.

Furthermore, the Office of the Principal needs to offer better opportunities and venues to empower
more stakeholders (parents, guardians, students, and alumni included) and give rise to next
generation culture bearers in and of the school. One thing that the office has also missed is the
holding of the Ignatian Spirituality in Education Workshop (ISEW), Learning by Refraction training
series, and the introduction to the new Jesuit document in education entitled “A Living Tradition in
the 21st Century.” The program and cluster kumustahans may have helped address some concerns but
more venues for articulations are needed to cultivate that sense of community that is truly Ateneo—
transparent, collaborative, innovative, progressive, inclusive, caring, and daring.

On the other hand, our formation program has been our flagship feature in school. We may still
improve though in terms of regular articulation between and among programs and units to reach a
more efficient and proactive way of accompanying our students in their formation. The continued
effort for integration between and among academic and formation offices has been promising
evidence that our formators are right on track in our character, spiritual, and psycho-emotional
goals. Nonetheless, we may still consider challenging ourselves more in the strengthening of our
sports and discipline procedures and programs in the process.

We have a lot of programs (academic, formation, leadership succession, and other support systems)
in school that still need to be regularly and programmatically evaluated for purposes of continued
improvement and innovation. This would take a lot of effort, knowing the loads that we have, but
this is one thing that we must be ready to take if we want to advance our processes in school and
authentically offer the best Atenean education to our dear students.

The Value and Role of Integration

The three transition years of integration have paved the way for another term full of unchartered
territories. Note that we are currently preparing for the final evaluation of our five-year Institutional
(Strategic) Plan in route to the formulation of a two-year pandemic-responsive Transition Plan. Next
School Year 2021-2022, we are set to have our PAASCU pre-survey for our Senior High School and
Philippine Council of NGO Certification (PCNC) re-accreditation. In School Year 2022-2023, we
are also scheduled for a PAASCU re-accreditation for Grade School and Junior High School. If we
get a clean pass, then the school can already apply for the much-desired Level III PAASCU
Accreditation in School Year 2023-2024.

And so, having an integrated basic education leadership structure is a blessing in disguise in today’s
context. Aside from its operational benefits, it also structurally supports the presence of a unified
administration that views the K-12 program of the school in a comprehensive, sequential, and
developmental way. It promotes an integrated managerial mindset that has an overview of the “way
of proceeding” of the entire school and formation of the entire community. Likewise, it promotes
the sharing of human and material resources and facilities, streamlining processes and outlays.
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With all these in mind, the role of the Office of the Principal as the overseer and in charge of the
day-to-day operations in school, in collaboration with and mentored by the School President, is
challenging and vital. Aside from looking into product excellence (quality of students’ academic and
values formation), this office also needs to focus on human excellence (faculty and staff
development) and operational excellence which are equally important. Being one of the prime
healing, listening, innovating, sacrificing, and transformative leaders of the Ateneo community is a
tall order. Only the support of the competent and well-formed community, the presence of an
empowered and affirming management team, and the “grace of office” can ensure the continued
development and success of the Office of the IBEd School Principal. #