.::. Synergeia Foundation, Inc. .::.

Progress Report as of June 2008

In July 2007, San Roque Power Corporation, Synergeia Foundation and the Municipal Governments of San Manuel and San Nicolas in Pangasinan and Itogon, Benguet entered into a partnership to enable 3,344 grade one students in 89 elementary schools to read, write and understand English1. These basic skills are critical in developing the comprehension, communication, and thinking capabilities of children.

The San Roque Education Governance Program builds the capacity of parents, school officials, teachers, local school board officials and community leaders to actively participate in improving the processes that will make children learn better. These processes include performance assessment of students, collaborative planning through summits, teacher training, organization of parent support groups, development of instructional materials, and reinvention of the local school board.

A signing ceremony was held at the SGV Board room led by San Roque President and CEO Mr. Riyukichi Kawaguchi and Synergeia Trustee, Mr. Washington SyCip. The partnership was made possible through the efforts of San Roque Vice President Mr. Tommy T. Valdez, who learned about Synergeia in an AIM forum.

Indeed, the assistance of San Roque to the communities of San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon has gone a long way. Even with less than a year of implementation, program interventions such as training of Grade One teachers, providing children’s workbooks and teachers’ manuals, training of parent-leaders, and empowering the Local School Board have contributed to much improved and better student performance by the end of school year 2007-2008.

1. Organizing the Green Berets

To engage different stakeholders in the program, a multi-sectoral Project Management Team (PMT) was
organized in each municipality in July. The PMT is headed by the Municipal Mayor and is comprised of the education stakeholders in the community – namely DepEd Supervisors, PTCA federation officers, grade one teacher-leaders, principal-leaders, and other municipal officials such as the Treasurer, Planning
Officer and Budget Officer.

A representative from San Roque Power Corporation, in the person of Ms. Mina Evanoso, IEC and Special Projects Coordinator, also sits as a member of the organized PMTs. Ms. Evanoso coordinates the initiatives of the three PMTs with support from Synergeia.

The main role of the PMT is to handle the implementation of a community-owned education reform program. It mobilizes and empowers constituents to be active partners in the project. It should not only have the capacity to lead but also the passion and dedication to ensure lasting reforms.

To support the PMTs in their new mission, Synergeia organized a joint PMT Training Workshop on July 23, 2007 at the San Roque Dam. The PMTs of San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon were joined by the PMTs of Natividad and Sta. Barbara, two municipalities in Pangasinan which are also implementing Synergeia reading programs3.

The goals of the workshop were the following: 1) to develop a common understanding and framework for an education governance program; 2) to define the extent of commitment to implement an education governance program; and 3) to formulate a work program indicating tasks, responsibilities and timelines.

The workshop opened with a presentation on how the children are performing in the target municipalities. Synergeia CEO Dr. Milwida M. Guevara presented the scores of Pangasinan children from the 2007 National Achievement Test (NAT). Even with 6 years of elementary schooling, students from Pangasinan have only developed 6 out of 10 learning competencies in English. Children from San Manuel achieved an average score of 63.67% in the English NAT, while San Nicolas and Itogon scored 62.75% and 66.05% respectively.

A closer look at the scores per municipality showed that apart from lack skills mastery, there is performance inequity among children in schools. Highest achievers can answer 9 out 10 questions correctly in English while lowest performers can only answer 3 out of 10 questions correctly. The biggest disparity can be seen in the San Manuel test results. At the open forum, mayors shared their shock at the test results. Mayor Salvador Perez of San Manuel expressed that this was the first time that the test results were explained to him. Up until that moment, he did not realize that there was a crisis in education in his municipality. Other participants in the workshop shared his sentiment. Mayor Alfonso Gamboa of E.B. Magalona, Negros Occidental shared that he was in the same position as Mayor Perez before he started the education reform program in his town. He said that children in Pangasinan are better off. At the time when Mayor Gamboa requested for the NAT results, children from his town were performing at 49.53%. This was a wake-up call for the whole community of E.B. Magalona.

As the local chief executive (LCE), Mayor Gamboa shared that he felt that the local government unit (LGU) must take the lead in pushing for improvements in the quality of education in its schools. He worked closely with DepEd and they conducted a thorough survey of schools, teachers and pupils. By involving other sectors in the community, such as parents, Sangguniang Kabataan and barangays, E.B. Magalona was able to raise resources to train teachers, produce workbooks and lesson plans, and conduct feeding programs and remedial reading programs. Mayor Gamboa was happy to share that his town was able to raise average achievement test scores to 62% in three years.

Former Nueva Vizcaya Governor Rodolfo Agbayani, another Synergeia champion LCE, also shared his province’s experience in improving the quality of education in its day care centers and public schools. By engaging parents and barangay officials, the province was able to raise reading scores from 62% to 78%.

After a brief open forum, participants discussed as a PMT the issues in education which concern them the most and how they will work together toward addressing these issues.

Many issues were presented but the three San Roque towns were in agreement on four main concerns:

Lack of instructional materials such as textbooks and workbooks.
Poor nutrition of students.
Lack of support and understanding of the problem by parents.
Lack of commitment and the negative attitude of teachers.

Each municipality shared their suggested programs and strategies to address these concerns.

At the end of the workshop, the PMTs shared and not only learned new strategies and approaches in improving the delivery of basic education but they also developed a deeper appreciation of their roles in improving the quality of education in their municipalities.

2. Moving the Community to Action

Moving community members to action started by giving them power through information. People act based on what they know about an issue. Convening an education summit gives urgency to the goal of arresting the deterioration in the quality of basic education. Through a summit, parents and other community members learn how their children perform in school. More importantly, stakeholders are given the opportunity to suggest ways on how inadequacies can be addressed and how they can be involved in the program.

To involve more members of the community in the program, the municipalities of San Nicolas and Itogon conducted an education summit. During the education summit, the mayors presented the performance of their children in the NAT as well as other education indicators such as drop out rates, textbook ratio and conditions of school facilities. This was the opportunity for parents and the greater community to learn about how schools are doing in their towns.

After the State of Education Address, parents were divided into workshop groups wherein they answered and discussed their answers based on the following questions: (1) what are your dreams for your children; (2) what factors prevent you from achieving these dreams; and (3) what they will do to help their children become better learners. The workshop introduced participants to the technology of metacards, which allowed all members of the group to participate in the discussion. Through this exercise, parents and teachers learned how to listen to each other. They also realized the value of their inputs and ideas.

Inputs from the summit were compiled by the PMTs and integrated in the Reading program. Among the must-dos from the summit: training for teachers, workshop for parents, feeding program and building libraries for schools.

There have been some difficulties in scheduling the education summit for the municipality of San Manuel. This was mainly due to a misunderstanding between Mayor Perez and the DepEd supervisors, which affected the program. The issue was eventually ironed-out, with the help of Mr. Tommy Valdez. San Manuel has decided to schedule its summit in the coming school year in June 2008.

3. Learning Instruments for Students and Teachers

As raised during the PMT training, limited access to instructional and reading materials is one of the factors why children in the San Roque sites do not do well in reading exams. To address this issue, the Reading Program provided each student with his/her own workbook.

The workbooks complement Grade I textbooks in Reading and cover lessons for the entire school year (2nd-4th grading period, since 1st grading is devoted to the Early Childhood Education Curriculum of DepEd). These are intended to reinforce learning inside the classroom. By providing students with work exercises on their day-to-day lessons, they are able to develop and improve their mastery of the subject. The exercises enable them to interpret lessons learned, make inferences and apply these to new situations. Exercises provide opportunities in the development of creativity. Pupils are encouraged to make drawings, compose songs, and recite poems using new sounds and words.

At the same time, all grade one teachers received a Teachers’ anual, which complements the student workbooks. The manuals provide teachers with a ready reference for their daily lessons. It provides enough inputs for the teacher to fully discuss the different topics programmed for the entire school year, while incorporating value formation as well as fun and enjoyment in the learning process. The lessons include activities such as games, poem/rhyme recitation, group
singing and storytelling.

A total of 3,694 workbooks in Reading and 222 teachers’ manuals were distributed to all grade
one students, grade one teachers and school principals in San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon.

4. Re-discovering the Joys of Teaching

To build their capability in Reading instruction, 84 teachers and principals from San Manuel and San Nicolas and 62 teachers and principals from Itogon participated in a two-day training entitled, “The Joys of Teaching: A Review and A Fellowship”.

The training provided teachers with a much-needed refresher course on the basics of reading as well as introduced them to effective modes of instruction. The training for teachers and principals of San Manuel and San Nicolas was held jointly with teachers and principals from Natividad on September 21 and 22, 2007 at the San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan.

Initially, arrangements were made to hold the teachers’ training for Itogon in the municipality. However, since teachers will be coming from far-flung barangays, the need for accommodations arose. Given that there was no suitable and cost-effective lodging in Itogon, it was decided that the training will be held in San Roque Dam where the teachers could be adequately accommodated. The Itogon training was held separately on October 12 and 13.

The Synergeia training module served as basis for the teacher training. It is designed to:

Influence teachers to help their children enjoy reading by developing skills in storytelling and story-reading
Help teachers say the sounds well particularly those where they have “regional limitations”, e.g. /e/, /i/, /a/, /o/, /u/
Develop among teachers the skills that will enable their students to decode words
Help teachers to understand and use the “Fuller method” in saying words.
Introduce teachers to a variety of strategies to develop comprehension
Encourage teachers to be creative to develop thinking skills and integrate arts, music,
movement, poetry, songs, values, into the reading program

Notable resource persons from the University of Pangasinan (UPang), a Synergeia partneruniversity,
were the peer-trainers for the workshop. Dr. Ofelia Rayos, Vice- President for Academic Affairs, Dr.
Tito Rocaberte and Ms. Doris Tuano, took time out from their busy schedules to conduct the training for
teachers.

The two-day workshop was devoted to the following topics:

Importance of and Theories in Reading
Methods for Decoding words
Structural Analysis of Words
Learning the Vowels and Consonants
The Fuller Method in Teaching Reading
Developing Comprehension
The Four-Pronged Approach in Teaching Reading
Enrichment Activities
Synergeia’s Benchmarks in Writing, Listening and Speaking

The whole morning session of the first day was devoted to story reading. Facilitators from Museo Pambata mentored teachers on how to be effective storytellers. Afterwards, teachers had their chance to show what they learned through a return-demonstration. It came to no surprise that teachers were talented performers – they told stories in varying tones and with much gusto. Some even did a simple skit / drama. Afterwards, they enjoyed doing an arts-and-crafts session and learned how to integrate this activity as an enrichment to their storytelling/story reading sessions.

After the sessions with Museo Pambata, UPang trainers took over. Participants were divided by municipality to better manage the sessions. UPang resource persons led teachers in the pronunciation drills and grammar exercises. They demonstrated how lessons can be taught more effectively which resulted in an enjoyable activity for teachers as they were able to act out as students in a class.

UPang trainers noted that the teachers were very enthusiastic to learn and were wellprepared. During the construction of teaching devices and demonstration classes, they showed creativity, resourcefulness and knowledge of the material. Many of the participants said they felt happy, overwhelmed and thankful about the training, from which they gained a lot of information. Most agreed that the training, particularly the workshop exercises, was fun. They expressed deep appreciation for the new methodologies they learned from the activity

5. Learning from Other Partners

Every year, Synergeia provides all its partners and stakeholders with a venue to learn from each other. It invites representatives from its partner-organizations to its Annual Retreat, which is essentially its answer to the traditional planning session. Here, partners assess their respective programs, share experiences, draw lessons, and produce best practices.

PMT members from San Roque beneficiary-sites were invited but due to scheduling difficulties, only San Nicolas was able to send a representative.

The theme for this year’s (2008) retreat held on February 11-13 was “The Complete Synergist”. It is a fitting description of the ever-growing family of Synergeia friends and partners - clearly a force that performs and assists in performance – through coaching and peer-teaching, empowering and self-modeling, collaboration and partnerships, and advocacy and collective action. Such is the same spirit that moves the Education Governance program in the San Roque sites.

About 130 participants were divided into smaller groups during the workshops. There lessons and best practices were discussed on: (1) engaging the community, (2) making data meaningful, and (3) telling our stories (advocacy).

The three issues in education that affected participants the most were poor academic performances of children, lack of community involvement/support for education, and inadequacy of school infrastructure. Each partner shared his/her experience in addressing these concerns.

Synergeia has been working since 2005 in producing a standard reading assessment tool which can be used to gauge performance levels of students in Synergeia municipalities. It has created a report card system that not just looks at proficiency level of students, but teacher performance, parent involvement and Local School Board performance as well. The Synergeia report card was presented during the Retreat and below are suggestions made by participants to enhance the content, the conduct and the quality of the tool:

Conduct informal reading inventories to assess students’ progress and evaluate degrees by which students meet learning objectives (vis-à-vis yearly assessment only);
Create a tool to facilitate collaboration and communication among faculty on
matters of teaching and curriculum; and
Use tables and graphs when presenting data on student performance to parents.

The evenings were spent for fellowship and games. Participants were divided according to regions and the Luzon group was the noisiest. They took the Charades game to heart and were overjoyed to win the crown for Mr. and Ms. Synergeia 2008. The fellowship also revealed that many Synergeia partners were excellent dancers as they were unstoppable on the dance floor!

Lorna Bue from DepEd San Nicolas found the retreat a most fulfilling experience. Lessons from other communities helped them appreciate the difficulties and the rewards of participatory governance of education, and inspired them to do better.

6. Reinventing the Local School Board

A unique feature of the Education Governance Program is its goal to transform an institution organic to local governments which has the means to make a difference in education. This is the Local School Board (LSB). The program believes that the LSB is the best vehicle for introducing and continuing improvements in the education system, applying the principles of multisectoral partnerships, greater participation of citizens, and presenting a progressive perspective.
.
Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City, whose LSB Reinvention Program is the Synergeia model, has taken to heart the mission of empowering other LGUs to use their LSB as a catalyst in providing children with greater opportunities to complete elementary education.

On February 29, 2008, Mayor Robredo conducted the 1st Reinventing Local School Boards workshop in Pangasinan. The Local School Boards of San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon were joined by those of Sta. Barbara and Natividad.

Mayor Robredo started his presentation with a confession in his initial term of office: he paid lip service to the role of the Local School Board. The budget was a done deal between him and the superintendent. His exposure to Synergeia gave him a shock. Filipino children and those from his city lagged behind in achievement scores. This realization spurred his city’s journey to improve their learning performance.

The LSB reinvention process requires attitudes that are beyond the box. “What the law does not prohibit, it allows”, goes the Robredo paradigm. Mayor Robredo encouraged local officials and the LSB to increase the number and diversity of the LSB membership to take advantage of as many experts present in the community. His second thrust is to expand the
functions of the LSB beyond budgeting to include policy formulation, implementation of a
performance incentive system for schools, and transparent recruitment system for locally funded
teachers. The third thrust is to improve the process of budgeting, procurement project planning and
implementation towards a system that is collaborative and transparent. Mayor Robredo cited
significant increases in the children’s test scores in Naga as a valid proof that LSB reinvention
works.
The LSBs were also provided details on how to reengineer the process, developing the division of labor with respect to the expertise of the different sectors, and using the Naga City experience in transforming the LSB budgets into being more responsive to the need of improving learning performances by shifting priorities to teacher training and the development of instructional materials.

Local school board officials from the three towns agreed that there are many strengths of the LSB that need to be strengthened and reinvented. The LSB can:

Implement programs to improve public education.
Invest funds in improving public education.
Be more transparent in LSB expenditures.
Provide assistance to meet public school needs more effectively and efficiently.
Mobilize parents more effectively.
Serve as a vehicle for role definition and resource complementation.
Have members who are
passionate in improving public education.

Learning from the Naga experience, the LSBs of San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon committed to hold more regular meetings and increase representation of other sectors in the LSB. Their next steps in the reinvention process included:

Conducting a planning and budgeting process that is needs-based, more participative and aligned with the LGU’s budgeting cycle.
Conducting an educational campaign among stakeholders to improve real property tax collection.
Establishing proper monitoring and reporting systems on the use of LSB funds
Dialogues between DepEd and LGU on key issues such as teacher recruitment, hiring and placement.
Developing programs for parents (i.e. parenting seminars) and teachers (i.e. teacher training, values formation, etc).
Supporting amendments to the Local Government Code (100% retention of the Special Education Fund (SEF) collection by the municipality) in the long run.

Itogon Mayor Mario Godio represented the beneficiary towns of San Roque in expressing their commitment to reinvent their school boards and to sustain the education governance program.

7. What do these all lead to?

Before the end of the school year (2007-2008), the DOLCH and Reading Comprehension tests were administered again to check for improvements in reading proficiency. The English Comprehension Test administered to students is a measurement tool using a 30-item exam composed of thinking exercises and stories. Student comprehension is tested through questions on simple recall. The questions vary in difficulty wherein the children are asked to make inferences, generalize, interpret, and perceive cause-and-effect relationships.

The results of the post-tests revealed the following – for San Manuel, 4 out of 10 Grade 1 pupils could read at their level; twice the number of students who could read at their level based on the pre-test. The number of advanced readers (i.e. 2nd and 3rd readers) increased to almost three times the initial figure of independent readers (from 12.86% to 36.95%). Non-readers dropped dramatically from 16.51% to 2.25% while frustration readers decreased from 4 to 2 out of 10. Indeed, these are great marks of improvement and are worthy to celebrate!

San Nicolas’ readers on the other hand also performed well. The reading proficiency program was able to eliminate the number of non-readers to zero. Quite a feat since the pre-test revealed that 31% of the first graders were non-readers. Frustrated grade 1 readers went down to a little over half the number. Instructional readers went up by almost 11% (3 out of 10) while independent readers increased by almost seven times (i.e. from 6.38% to 41.91%) or 4 out of 10.

For Itogon’s post-test results, its students showed much improvement in the instructional and independent reading levels. The number of Grade 1 students who could read at their level shot-up to almost four times the value revealed during the pre-test phase. This means that almost five out of ten students can read at their expected level. Itogon’s independent readers multiplied by four times and from 7 out of 10 frustration readers, the number dropped to 3.

The year-end assessment test results celebrate the partnership of teachers, parents and the local governments of San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon, San Roque Power Corporation and Synergeia Foundation. In spite of the changes made by the reading program, a bit more work has to be made in increasing the levels of instructional readers in San Manuel and San Nicolas. Itogon has managed to arrive at an average range of reading performance. All three sites should continue enriching the learning of good and fast readers and provide additional interventions (i.e. remedial reading) for its students who are still reading below par.

8. Moving Forward

The program is entering its second year of implementation. We will work with the new batch of Grade 1 students as well as those in Grade 2, expanding the coverage to about 6,600 students in San Manuel, San Nicolas and Itogon.

Programs to improve mathematics proficiency of students will be integrated. Training of parent-leaders for both grades 1 and 2 will continue on the second year and will be sustained.