Why have I not thought of this?

Upon reading I was able to gain some

insights from the DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 Policy Guidelines on Classroom
Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program, the author and the DepEd
secretary at that time Br. Armin A Luistro crafted the guidelines following the
theoretical bases of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978). The theory
focuses on the space between what a student can do with assistance from their
teachers and without one. In that way, teachers will be able to measure the
capabilities of the learner through different forms of assessment be it a group or
self-evaluation. Certain points of the guideline assessment bear resemblance to the
research Understanding the Peer Assisted Learning Model: Student Study Groups in
Challenging College Courses (Arendale, 2014). The research follows Peer Assisted
Learning (PAL) a program that helps support students to meet or exceed academic
expectations set by the instructors. The K-12 Guidelines and PAL utilize Lev
Vygotsky’s theory to establish their specific goals.

The K-12 classroom assessment program recognizes the learners’ importance

and establishes key distinctions of teaching methods to create a unified
environment. This in turn signifies the core relationships in the classroom between
teacher and learner, following the idea that unity is between assessment and
instruction. This type of classroom assessment follows a different path from the
traditional assessment of learning. Certain guidelines have been imposed to follow a
proper way of assessing the learner’s abilities and capabilities. Assessment in the
classroom is a process of locating, assembling, organizing, and analyzing both
quantitative and qualitative data information on what students already know able to
do. Assessment techniques in the classroom should be in line with academic
standards. It gauges competency acquisition by the students. One research study
shows that Later studies of teachers' practices revealed that they had minimal need
for statistical methods and most end-of-unit tests are designed to evaluate the
declarative understanding of concepts, details, guidelines, and ideas (Fleming &
Chambers, 1983). The adapted K–12 curriculum was used to match the assessment
procedure. Cognitive Process Dimensions may serve as a model for the development
of activities and tasks for assessment.

The key component is remembering, in which the student can obtain

pertinent knowledge and recall material from long-term memory. Identification,
retrieval, recognition, duplication, listing, memorization, repetition, and
reproduction. The next is understanding: in which the learner can interpret,
decipher, and create meaning from spoken, textual, and graphic messages, describe,
categorize, sum up, deduce, contrast, explain, paraphrase, and discuss. Analyzing:
Execute, implement, demonstrate, dramatize, interpret, solve, use, illustrate,
convert, and uncover are just a few examples of how a learner can put the
information to use in performing a technique in familiar or novel circumstances.
Applying: The student can utilize the following verbs to carry out a procedure:
execute, implement, demonstrate, dramatize, interpret, solve, use, illustrate,
convert, and discover. Evaluating: The student can judge and defend decisions using
the following skills: coordinate, measure, detect, defend, judge, argue, debate,
criticize, assess, and evaluate. The last is creating: The student can combine
components to form a useful whole and develop a new idea or product using the
following verbs: generate, hypothesize, plan, design, develop, produce, construct,
formulate, assemble, design, conceive. Using Bloom’s taxonomy in which it contains
six categories of cognitive skills ranging from lower-order skills that require less
cognitive processing to higher-order skills that require deeper learning and a greater
degree of cognitive processing. The taxonomy is beneficial in two key respects. The
taxonomy encourages instructors to consider learning objectives in terms of what
the learner can do as a result of the lesson by encouraging them to utilize behavioral
language. The most effective way to evaluate the skills and knowledge given will be
indicated by a learning objective stated using action verbs. The Internet is a great
resource for finding lists of action verbs that are suited for learning objectives at
each level of Bloom's taxonomy. The requirement for including learning objectives
that call for higher levels of cognitive skills that result in deeper learning and transfer
of information and skills to a broader variety of tasks and situations is highlighted by
secondly thinking about learning goals in light of Bloom's taxonomy.

The learners are assessed through a Formative assessment, as defined by the

UNESCO Program on Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future (UNESCO-TLSF),
which is a continuous method of evaluation that is intimately related to the learning
process, it is casual, it offers both students and teachers quick feedback, it aids in
preparing students for summative exams, and although it is documented, it is not
used as the foundation for grading. The same understanding can be said with Carl
Boston’s definition of Formative assessment which refers to this diagnostic
application of assessment to offer teachers and students feedback throughout the
instructional process. It contrasts with summative evaluation, which typically occurs
after a period of education and entails evaluating the knowledge that has been
acquired for example, by evaluating or rating an exam or essay (Boston, 2002). When
learners receive feedback as part of formative assessment, it aids them in identifying
any gaps between their intended objective and their existing knowledge,
understanding, or skill and directs them toward the activities required to reach the
goal (Ramaprasad, 1983; Sadler, 1989).

Another assessment used to assess the students is through the process of

summative assessment. Summative Assessment can be thought of as the evaluation
of learning that takes place after a particular unit. It typically happens around the
end of a study term to describe the standard attained by the student. conclusions
reached through summative evaluation frequently serve a purpose other than those
of the learner (UNESCO-TLSF). Summative evaluation results are documented and
taken into account when determining the final grade. Other definitions A summative
assessment is an evaluation of learning that takes place after the conclusion of a unit
of teaching or at a certain time. It assesses students' knowledge or abilities about
benchmarks or standards. In contrast to its counterpart, formative assessment,
which examines progress and serves as a diagnostic tool to assist particular children,
summative assessment assesses the mastery of learning. Summative evaluation
typically doesn't concentrate on a single person but rather measures how a
particular group reacts to an intervention.
 The kindergarten curriculum guide does not employ numerical grades;
instead, checklists, anecdotal records, and portfolios are used. Grades 1-12 follow
three specific criteria—Written Work, Performance Tasks, and Quarterly Assessment
—which are used to grade learners every three months. These components are given
various specific weights. All grades will be determined by the learners' summative
assessments' weighted raw scores. An individual learning area's passing grade is 60,
which is changed to 75 on the report card. It follows the same attendance checking
and observation of learners’ skills through classifications (Mostly Observer, Least
Observe, etc.).

In conclusion, the K-12 Classroom Assessment Program elevates the system

of learning not only for students but also for the teaching staff as well. Students will
be able to modify their learnings through the assessment task while teachers can
monitor the growth of each student and provide a specific task for them to improve.

REFERENCES:

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University

Press.

Arendale, D. R. (2014). Understanding the Peer Assistance Learning model:

Student study groups in challenging college courses.

Fleming, M., & Chambers, B. (1983). Teacher-made tests: Windows on the

classroom. In W. E. Hathaway (Ed.), Testing in the schools. New directions for testing
and measurement (No. 19, pp. 29-38). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Adams, N. E. (2015). Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives. Journal of

the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 103(3), 152.
Ramaprasad, A. (1983). On the definition of feedback. Behavioral Science, 28 (1): 4-
13.

Sadler, D.R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems.
Instructional Science, 18 (2): 119- 144.