USAID/Philippines’ Strengthening Information for Education Policy, Planning and Management in the Philippines Phase II (PhilEd Data II) project provides technical assistance to DepEd in making better use of data to support its reforms, policies and plans for the basic education sector.

ACTIVITIES
The first phase of the project analyzed the existing databases of assessment results; piloted and analyzed the results of a national sample-based EGRA; developed reporting formats for national assessment results; and supported the development of new national assessments aligned with the curricular reforms of DepEd.

The second phase of the project has four components. First, a sample-based EGRA will be conducted in four mother tongue languages: Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, and Maguindanaon. PhilEd Data II will build DepEd’s capacity in rigorously validating and making use of early grade reading assessments in these selected languages. This will be accompanied by a survey that collects data on classroom practices, language use of teachers and students in four regions, and attitudes of teachers regarding Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) and early grade reading instruction. PhilEd Data II will also strengthen DepEd’s capacity to manage the Tangerine application, an open source data collection system, as well as process and analyze the datasets.

Finally, the project will continue to build on two data management tools developed with DepEd for nationwide implementation. BERCs provide a tool for accountability and make data available for decision-making. It contains learner performance indicators derived from DepEd’s Electronic Basic Education Information System (EBEIS). Also, the EMIS Toolbox transforms data into useful analytics and comparison. The EMIS Toolbox serves as the platform to automate the production of standardized BERCs. Integrating the Toolbox as a backend utility within the EBEIS enables users from across the Philippines to access their BERCs and run customized analysis of their EBEIS and National Achievement Test (NAT) data using the EMIS Toolbox interface.

GOAL
To support the Department of Education (DepEd) in strengthening its production and use of data for policy, planning and management of the basic education sector

PROJECT COMPONENTS

• Conduct a sample-based Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in four mother tongue languages
• Survey of instructional practices and language use
• Build DepEd capacity to use the Tangerine system
• Support nationwide implementation of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) Toolbox and Basic Education Report Cards (BERC)