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

Progress Report as of June 2008

In 2007, Sec. Victor Ramos, Synergeia Foundation and the Municipal Government of Natividad entered into a partnership to enable 650 grade one students in 18 elementary schools in Villanueva to read, write and understand simple English. These skills are critical in developing the comprehension, communication, and thinking capabilities of children

The Natividad Reading Proficiency Program also 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.

In a signing ceremony held at the SGV Board room between Secretary Victor Ramos and Mr. Washington SyCip, trustee of Synergeia, the former announced an early Christmas present that he would be supporting the program in Natividad, Pangasinan for three years.

Indeed, the assistance of Sec. Ramos to the community of Natividad has gone a long way. Within less than a year of implementation, program interventions such as training of Grades One teachers, the provision of children’s workbooks and teachers’ manuals, the training of parent-leaders, and training of the Local School Board have contributed to an increased level of grade one students with reading levels of second and third readers by 5% and 6% respectively by March 2008.

1. Organizing the Green Berets

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

The Natividad PMT joined PMTs from San Manuel, San Nicolas, Itogon and Sta. Barbara1 in a joint training workshop with Synergeia. The training was held at the San Roque Corporate Social Responsibility Office in San Manuel, Pangasinan. Mr. Tom Valdez, Vice President of San Roque Power opened the activity. To allow participants to have a better understanding of how their children were performing in schools, Dr. Milwida Guevara presented the performance of Pangasinan children in the National Achievement Tests. Even with 6 years of elementary schooling, students from Pangasinan have only developed 6 out of 10 learning competencies. However, the good news is, children from Natividad do better than their peers from San Manuel and San Nicolas2. While graduating students from Natividad perform better than their peers, it was agreed that 73.2% is still below “pasang awa”3. The goal is to help students achieve reading proficiency of at least 85% when they graduate from elementary school.

Mayor Alfonso Gamboa of EB Negros Occidental was invited by Synergeia to share his town’s best practices in improving the quality of education in public schools. Just like Natividad, they were shocked to find out that children from their municipality were graduating with poor reading skills (49.53 percent proficiency) in 2001. With support from the whole community – parents, barangay and even the Sangguniang Kabataan, the town was able to raise its average achievement test scores to 62 percent in three years.

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

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

The Natividad PMT identified four major reasons why children are not performing well in school. They then suggested programs and strategies to address these concerns.

At the end of the workshop, the Natividad PMT shared that they not only learned new strategies and ideas but also developed a deeper appreciation of their role in improving the quality of education in their municipality.

2. Finding out Where we Are

To have a better understanding of reading needs of pupils, an assessment test was administered to grade one children from 18 elementary schools in Natividad.

The DOLCH test is a list of 220 words frequently found in books that children read. These words are usually learned in the first and second grade and they serve as a good base for beginning reading. It is a test that is used to estimate a primary student’s reading level.

Word Recognition Accuracy        Level
0-75                                                  Pre-Primer
76-120                                              Primer
121-170                                           1st Reader
171-210                                           2nd Reader
211 and above                                3rd Reader

The results revealed that 44% of their grade one students have attained the reading level appropriate for grade one students i.e. 1st Reader, while six percent could read at the pace of a second grader. However, it was quite alarming to discover that 22% and 28% of the grade one population are at the pre-primer and primer reading levels respectively. This meant that half of the Grade 1 student population (pre-primer and primer percentages were summed up) were reading at the level of kindergarten students.

In spite of the presented data, the PMT shared that they appreciated the conduct of assessment as this gave them a clearer picture of their children’s performance. They were not disheartened by the results. Instead, they were challenged to do better for the coming school year.

3. Moving the Community to Action

Moving community members to action started with 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 children perform in school. More importantly, stakeholders are given the opportunity to suggest ways 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 Natividad PMT held an education summit. Mayor Alejandra Supnet gave the State of Education Address, presenting that while students from Natividad could read at 73.2% (based on NAT scores in 2007) this score was still below mastery level.

Based on the DOLCH test scores, it was clear that much work was needed in decreasing the levels of pre-primer and primer readers. Moving them to achieve reading and comprehension levels suited for their grade level or even at an advanced level should be immediately addressed. Mayor Supnet stressed that as long as parents, the community and the school work together, this year’s batch of grade one pupils can be at par or even better than the previous batch.

After the State of Education Address, parents were divided into workshop groups where they answered and discussed their answers to 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 use of meta cards, 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 input and ideas.

Inputs from the summit were compiled by the Natividad PMT and integrated in the Reading program. Among the must-do’s from the summit: training for teachers, workshop for parents, feeding program and building libraries for schools.

4. Re-discovering the Joys of Teaching

To build their capability in Reading instruction, 23 teachers and principals from Natividad joined 84 teachers and principals from San Manuel and San Nicolas in a joint two-day training, entitled, “The Joys of Teaching: A Review and A Fellowship”. The training provides teachers with a muchneeded refresher course on the basics of reading as well as introduces them to effective modes of instruction. The training was held on September 21 and 22, 2007 at the San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan. The Synergeia training module served as basis for the training. It is designed to:

Influence teachers to help their children enjoy reading by developing skills in story-telling 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

Noteable resource persons from the University of Pangasinan (UPang), a Synergeia partner-university, 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 on 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 to children. Afterwards, teachers had their chance to show what they have learned through a return-demonstration. It is no surprise that teachers are talented performers – they told stories in varying tones and with much gusto, some even did a simple skit / drama. Afterwards, they enjoyed the arts and crafts session and learned how to integrate this activity as an enrichment approach to their storytelling/story reading sessions.

After the sessions with Museo Pambata, UPang trainers took over. Participants were divided by municipality so that trainers can 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 – this was an enjoyable activity for teachers as they were able to act out as students in a class.

UPang trainers noted that teachers from Natividad were very enthusiastic to learn and were well-prepared for the training. 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 were fun and everyone expressed deep appreciation for the new methodologies they learned from the activity

5. Learning Instruments for Students and Teachers

Limited access to instructional and reading materials was identified by the PMT as one of the factors why children in Natividad do not do well in reading exams. To address this issue, the Reading Program provided each student with his 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 them to new situations. Exercises provide opportunities for 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’ Manual, 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 656 workbooks in Reading and 38 teachers’ manuals were distributed to all grade one students, grade one teachers and school principals in Natividad.

6. Reinventing the Local School Board

A unique feature of program is its goal to transform an institution organic to local governments that has the means to make a difference in education. This is the Local School Boards (LSB). The program believes that the LSB is the best vehicle for introducing and continuing improvements in the education system, applying the principles of multi-sectoral partnerships, greater participation of citizens, and a progressive perspective.

Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City, whose LSB Reinvention Program is the Synegeria model, has taken to heart the mission of empowering other LGUs to use their LSB as a catalyst to provide children with greater opportunities to complete elementary education.

On February 29, 2008, Mayor Robredo conducted the 1st Reinventing School Boards workshop held in Pangasinan. The local school boards of San Manuel, San Nicolas, Sta. Barbara and Itogon joined the Natividad school board in this workshop.

Mayor Robredo started his presentations with a confession---that 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. Thus, their journey started in improving their learning performance.

The LSB reinvention process requires attitudes that are beyond the box. “What the law does not prohibit, it allows”, this is the Robredo paradigm. He encouraged local officials and the LSB to increase the number and diversity of the LSB membership to take advantage of many experts present in the community. His second thrust is to expand the functions of LSBs 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 do the reengineering process, how to develop division of labor respecting the expertise of the different sectors, and, using the Naga City experience, how to make their budgets more responsive to the need of improving learning performance by shifting priorities to teacher training and development of instructional materials.

The practices and lessons of Naga City that made most impact to LSB officials of Villanueva were:

That education is a SHARED RESPONSIBILITY among parents, LGU and the community
That the quality of education is measured by output of pupils’ achievement test (and not inputs, i.e. number of chairs donated, number of classrooms built)
That the lack of awareness about the current state of public education among stakeholders is one of the biggest problems communities face

Participants to the training were guided through workshops to enable them to design next steps in the reinvention process.

Conduct planning and budgeting that is: needs based and with greater participation from the community
Conduct an education campaign to improve real property tax collection and in doing so, raise more resources for education
Conduct dialogues between DepEd and the LGU on key issues such as teacher recruitment, hiring and placement
Develop programs to build the capabilities of parents (to support their children at home and become more productive citizens) and teachers (to be more effective instructors in the classroom.

Mayor Alejandra Supnet led the Natividad school board in expressing their commitment to support the Reading Proficiency program and to engage more members of the community in education reforms.

7. Transforming Parents to become Education Champions

Parents play an important role in the development of children, thus they are a key partner in the education program. The workshop for parent-leaders and teacher-leaders was “the first-ever” for Natividad. About 90 parent-leaders and teacher-leaders eagerly participated in the training held in January 2008.

The training aims to achieve the following: appreciate responsibilities of parents in fostering the learning of their children; discuss concrete measures to help their children and their school; and develop strategies to influence other parents to do specific measures to help their children, in their respective homes and as a group. Speakers discussed, among others, the following major topics:

How Parents Can Help their Children

Importance of parents in enhancing the learning of a child.
How can a parent help the child to learn more?
How can the parent collaborate with the teacher in making the child a better person and a better learner?
What are the practices that a parent should watch against?

Developing Good Habits and Values

Importance of nurturing values and developing good habits
What are good habits and values that parents want children to acquire?
How can a parent teach good habits and values to their child?

It was evident from the workshops that parents encountered similar difficulties in coping with the demands of their children in school. Lack of finances was the most commonly cited problem. The demands of work also prevented many parents from giving their kids as much attention. As a result, children are often unsupervised at home. They do not check if assignments are completed. Other parents confessed that they did not even know the name of the teachers of their children and only came to school on report card day. The parents thus resolved to do the following:

Spend at least 1 hourr everyday with their children to follow-up what they learned in school
Set time to study, play and watch TV
Be a model for their children to emulate
Spend quality time with children – ask about what happened in school, who are their friend and what are their difficulties in the classroom
Get to know their children’s teachers and ask about how they are doing in class
Be more supportive of and cooperative with the school

Although the training was conducted towards the end of the school year, parents and teachers expressed their commitments to improve the learning performance of their children and make them grow up to become good and productive citizens. They will start by making sure that children have some reading time even during their summer vacation.

8. What do these all lead to?

On March 2008, DOLCH and Reading Comprehension tests were administered again to pupils to check for improvements in reading proficiency. Mayor Supnet and the PMT were very pleased to learn about the significant drop in the number of non-readers, specifically in pre-primer levels, and the jump in the number of advanced readers among its grade one pupils.

After one year of the program, the number of pre-primer readers decreased by half i.e. 22% to 11%. First readers maintained a constant level of 44% while second readers went up by 5% from the previous 6%, making it 11% in total. A breakthrough was made when 6% of the first graders achieved a 3rd reader level. Truly amazing!

However, more work has to be focused on the primer readers as the level has not changed from the pre-test phase: three out of ten grade one students are still primer readers.

The English Comprehension Test administered to the Natividad first graders consisted of questions progressing in difficulties. Here, children are asked to make inferences, generalize, interpret and perceive cause-and-effect relationships. The student’s comprehension is measured through a 30-item test composed of thinking exercises and stories which are also simple to recall.

This particular test revealed that most of the first graders are above average readers. They can answer 6 out of 10 comprehension questions. Around 28% fall under the category of good readers while 11% are instructional readers.

The year-end assessment test results further forged the partnership among teachers, parents, the local government of Natividad, Synergeia and Secretary Victor Ramos. The challenge now for the Natividad community is to continue enriching the learning of good and fast readers (4 out of 10 grade one pupils) and provide additional interventions (i.e. remedial reading) for a third of its students who are still reading below par.

Moving Forward

The program is currently in its second year of implementation. We will work with the new batch of grade one students as well as students that are now in Grade 2, expanding program coverage to about 1,200 students in Natividad.

The big challenge for the second year is to enable 3 out of 10 non-readers to read. Moreover, the 11% of instructional readers have to be moved to higher reading and thinking skills to enable themselves in their learning and knowledge.