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FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF'THE REPUBLIC ) 
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OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
Second Regular Session 
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Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The Constitution, Article XIV, Section 2 (1) mandates that the State shall: 
SEC. 2 (1). Establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate, and 
integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and 
society. 
In order to effectively implement educational reforms, we need to be able to establish a 
system of evaluation that would accurately measure the performance of our students. In such 
program, we need the assistance of the local government units to be able to focus efforts on the 
students as grouped geographically thus removing the possible inefficiencies of coordinating a 
massive scale study and allow the generation of benchmark information from successful 
programs, which can be used by the less successful ones. 
By establishing a system of grant to fund efforts to determine the best performance 
evaluation for students, we would be able to secure the assistance of the academe in preparing 
the groundwork towards the formulation of a continuing national evaluation program that makes 
use of the current measures of performance. 
This bill seeks to mandate the Department of Education to work with the provincial 
governinelit towards the development of evaluation programs for o w  students. 


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FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
Second Regular Session 
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Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
AN ACT 
TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CLASSROOM LEARNING BY EMPOWERING 
HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS 
PROVINCES TO DEVELOP PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENTS THAT MEASURE 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “Jmproving Classroom 
Leaiiiing and Student Performance Act of 2008.” 
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A. PERFORMANCE-BASED 
ASSESSMENT- 
means 
assessments 
that 
evaluate 
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applications of knowledge to real-world tasks. Such assessments are designed to measure 
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higher order thinking and performance skills. 
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B. HIGHER ORDER THINKING AND PERFORMANCE SKILLS- means the abilities to-- 
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1. frame and solve problems; 
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2. find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information; 
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3. apply knowledge to new problems or situations; 
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4. develop and test complex ideas; and 
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SECTION 2. Definition. - In this Act, the term - 
5. communicate ideas or solutions proficiently in oral or written form. 
C. MULTIPLE MEASURES- means different sources of evidence of student learning in a 
subject or across subject areas. Such sources of evidence provide multiple opportunities 
to demonstrate achievement, are accessible to students at varying levels of proficiency, 
and utilize different methods for demonstrating achievement. 
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SECTION 3. Puvposes - The purposes of this Act are as follows: 
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A. To empower provincial units to develop assessment systems that- 
1. are aligned with student learning standards; 
2. provide multiple measures of student learning, including performance 
assessments that assess higher order thinking and performance skills; 
3. include local assessments that provide timely, diagnostic information about 
student learning; 
4. are consistent with nationally recognized professional standards for test 
construction and test use, including standards of fairness, reliability, and 
validity; 
5. employ principles of universal design and use appropriately designed 
assessments and accommodations for special populations and English 
language learners; and 
6. are used for purposes for which they are valid and reliable. 
B. To ensure that local assessments include common assessments developed for use at 
the school or district level, and classroom-based evidence obtained from curriculum- 
embedded assessments. Such assessments may be used in the provincial assessment 
system when they- 
1. assess student learning in light o€content standards, including higher order 
thinking and performance skills; 
2. meet technical requirements of validity and reliability; 
3. are fair and unbiased; 
4. include multiple sources of evidence about student learning; and 
5 .  can be used to demonstrate student progress toward and attainment of 
proficiency. 
SECTION 4. Program Established. - the Secretary shall award grants to State funded 
educational agencies that demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Secretary, based on peer review, 
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that the requirements of this Act will be met, to-- 
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A. enable provinces (or consortia of provinces) to collaborate with institutions of higher 
education, other research institutions, or other organizations to improve the quality, 
validity, and reliability of provincial and local academic assessments; 
B. enable provinces to develop the capacity of local education agencies to validly and 
reliably assess student academic achievement usirlg multiple sources of evidence, 
including school-based performance assessments; and 
C. enable provinces and local districts to develop the capacity of teachers and school 
leaders to develop, use, and reliably evaluate the results of locally-administered 
performance assessments. 
SECTION 5. Duration. - Each grant under this section shall be for a period of not mare 
than 5 years. 
SECTION 6. Technical Assistance. - Each province receiving a grant under this section 
shall allocate at least 5 percent of the grant for technical assistance. The province shall use that 
allocation to work with universities or other non-profit research organizations that have expertise 
in performance assessments for assistance in the development, implementation, evaluation and 
improvement of province and local performance assessment systems. The universities and non- 
profit research organizations shall use the amounts to develop tools provinces can use, such as 
various methods for weighting indicators used in the assessment and improvement system or 
means for evaluating assessments systems and the consequences of their use. 
SECTION 7. Allowable Uses. - A grant under this Act may be used for: 
A. developing, piloting, and validating performance assessments that are or will be 
incorporated into their assessment systems; 
B. training teachers and school leaders to score such assessments; and 
C. developing and testing systems for auditing or moderating the scoring process to 
ensure reliability and validity of such assessments. 
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SECTION 8. Subgrant. - The province may, pursuant to criteria established by the 
province, make subgrants to local educational agencies or schools to- 
A. develop and implement local performance assessments; and 
B. train teachers and school leaders to score and use such assessments for tracking 
student progress and for guiding curriculum and instruction. 
SECTION 9. Forinalive Assessments. - A province, local educational agency, or school 
may use hnds under this section to support the development and implementation of formative 
assessments that are performance-based and that enable schools to provide detailed feedback to 
students and teachers to enable them to improve their learning and teaching. 
SECTION 10. Other Uses. - A State may retain a portion of the grant amounts to- 
A. develop integrated State assessment systems that incorporate and weight multiple 
measures, including the results of periodic standardized tests and State or local 
performance assessments; 
B. collaborate with other States in sharing knowledge on the development and use of 
such systems and their assessment components; 
C. provide assistance to local educational agencies and schools in developing and 
implementing tlieir assessments; or 
D. evaluate the local assessments. 
SECTION 11. Requirenzents. - Any province that receives funds under this Act shall 
meet the following requirements: 
A. Ensure that high-quality professional development is available for educators to help 
develop and learn to use and score the assessments. 
B. Develop ineans to ensure that provincial and local assessments are aligned to learning 
standards, meet professional assessment standards, are unbiased, and valid for the 
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purposes for which they will be used, and are scored reliably. These means shall 
include mechanisms for training scorers and providing a process of expert review, 
auditing, or moderation to ensure the integrity of the scoring process. 
SECTION 12. Approprialions. - To carry out the provisions of this Act, such amount as 
hereby necessary is hereby authorized to be appropriated from the National Treasury. 
SECTION 13. Separabilily Clause. - If any provision or part hereof, is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, the remainder of the law or the provision not otherwise affected shall remain 
valid and subsisting. 
SECTION 14. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive 
order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or is inconsistent 
with the provision of this Act is hereby repealed, modified, or amended accordingly. 
SECTION 15. Efecectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its 
publication in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation. 
Approved, 
lapm082908 
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