Hindawi

Education Research International

Volume 2020, Article ID 8877712, 8
pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8877712

Research Article
Evaluating the Academic Performance of K-12 Students in the
Philippines: A Standardized Evaluation Approach

Porferio M. Almerino Jr. ,1 Lanndon A. Ocampo ,2,3 Dharyll Prince M. Abellana

,2
Jana Gloria F. Almerino ,4 Irene O. Mamites ,5 Lilibeth C. Pinili
,6
Janine Joy L. Tenerife ,6 Regina E. Sitoy ,7 Limuel J. Abelgas
,7
and Emerson D. Peteros 1
1
Mathematics and Science Area, College of Education, Cebu Technological University, Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St.,
Cebu City 6000, Philippines
2
Department of Industrial Engineering, Cebu Technological University, Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St.,
Cebu City 6000, Philippines
3
Graduate School, Cebu Technological University, Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St., Cebu City 6000, Philippines
4
Human Resource Management Office, Cebu Technological University, Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St., Cebu City
6000, Philippines
5
Professional Education Area, College of Education, Cebu Technological University, Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St.,
Cebu City 6000, Philippines
6
Special Education Area, College of Education, Cebu Technological University, Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St.,
Cebu City 6000, Philippines
7
Social Studies, Values Education, English & Filipino Area, College of Education, Cebu Technological University,
Corner M.J. Cuenco Ave. & R. Palma St., Cebu City 6000, Philippines

Correspondence should be addressed to Lanndon A. Ocampo; lanndonocampo@gmail.com

Received 11 March 2020; Revised 17 August 2020; Accepted 29 September 2020; Published 19 October
2020

Academic Editor: Haoran Xie

Copyright © 2020 Porferio M. Almerino et al. *is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.

With growing technological advancements, demands for the industry with skilled and equipped workforce are proportionately
rising. While this match between curricular offerings in academia and needs in the industry has been addressed in many
countries across the globe through initiatives such as the K-12 educational system, some countries like the Philippines have only
started its adoption. In the Philippines’ early adoption of the K-12 educational system, several concerns have been
raised regarding its implementation, mainly, the mismatch between coursework offered in Philippine K-12 educational
institutions with industry demands. With such outcomes, it is necessary to determine the status of the K-12 educational system
in the Philippines. *is paper attempts to shed light on such concerns by evaluating the performance of the K-12 students using a
standardized approach. *e Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults, a standardized test for measuring the academic competence of
adults, is used in this study to measure scholastic abilities. *e descriptive analyses made in this paper may aid in the
development of more robust strategy frameworks for positioning the current K-12 educational system to global and industry
demands. Moreover, the results obtained in this study would aid stakeholders in overseeing strategies that would address
current gaps in the K-12 educational system of the country.
2Education Research Education Research 2
1. Introduction A case study in Cebu (Philippines), one of the major
metropolitan areas in the country, is performed. *ree major
Before the transition to the K-12 educational curriculum,
the basic education in the Philippines consists of ten (10)
years of study: six (6) years in elementary education and
four (4) years in secondary education [1]. However, with
the col- lective movement of other countries towards
globalization, the Philippines has undertaken major
educational reforms that transition and shift its 10-year
basic education into the K-12 curriculum [1]. K-12 is an
educational program in the United States (US) from
kindergarten to grade 12 that in- dicates the range of
years of supported primary and sec- ondary education
[2]. It has been adopted by many educational
institutions across the globe such as Afghanistan [3],
Australia [4], Canada [5], China [6], South Korea [7],
and Turkey [8]. Several goals have been set by the
gov- ernment associated with the implementation of the
K-12 curriculum as follows: (i) increase students’
preparation for higher education, (ii) equip students’
with eligibility for entering domestic and overseas higher
educational institu- tions, and (iii) facilitate students’
immediate employability upon graduation [9].
Despite the promising goals set by the Philippine
gov- ernment, several issues have spurred with the
reform’s implementation. For instance, Rivera [10] and
Barrot [11] found misalignments between established
learning pedagogies
with the expected outcomes of the K-12 curriculum
guidelines of the Philippines. Likewise, Trance and Trance
[12] revealed a mismatch between the perceptions of
teachers and students with the set expectations of the K-
12 curriculum in the country. Moreover, Relucio and
Palaoag [13] found an overall negative response between
multiple K-12 curriculum stakeholders (e.g., teachers,
students, and parents) regarding the implementation of
the K-12 curriculum in the Philippines. *ese drawbacks
suggest the streamlining of the K-12 curriculum in the Phil-
ippines by reviewing its current guidelines.
Despite the need to streamline the K-12 curriculum
guidelines in the Philippines, the task has been difficult due
to the limited number of studies in the literature regarding
its status. While few in numbers, most of the works in the
literature focused on identifying misalignments of learning
outcomes and perception of stakeholders. However, none
of the works provided insights about the performance
of the K-12 students. Relevant works in the literature (e.g.,
[14–16]) maintain that students’ performance provides
a direct method of measuring the successful
implementation of an educational program. With a
limited number of studies focusing on measuring
student performance of K-12 stu- dents in the country, a
significant gap in the current liter- ature remains
unaddressed. Moreover, with the limited attention
provided by scholars in the literature regarding the K-12
transition in the country, formulating more robust
strategies and initiatives may become a significant
imped- iment for stakeholders in the country. To address
this gap, this paper provides an assessment of the K-12
curriculum’s status in the country by evaluating the
academic perfor- mance of recent K-12 graduates in the
Philippines.
 3Education Research Education Research 3
cities in Cebu are considered, namely, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu
City, and Mandaue City due to their relatively high number
of K-12 students. *e Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults
(SATA) is used as the standardized instrument for the
as- sessment. SATA is a standardized test that measures
the scholastic competence of persons from the ages
of 16 through 70 [17]. *e SATA’s aptitude and
achievement components can provide an aptitude-
achievement dis- crepancy analysis [17]. In this paper,
the SATA is used to measure the scholastic abilities of K-
12 students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (STEM), Ac- countancy Business and
Management (ABM), Humanities and Social Sciences
(HUMSS), General Academic Strand (GAS), and Technical,
Vocational, Livelihood (TVL), using six subtests: (i)
nonverbal reasoning (NV), (ii) quantitative reasoning (QR),
(iii) reading vocabulary (RV), (iv) reading comprehension
(RC), (v) mathematical capacity (MC), and (vi) mathematical
applications (MA).
*e results will enable the determination of a potential
gap of the students’ performance in each subtest. Such
findings would serve as performance indicators for
stake- holders regarding the status of the K-12 curriculum
through the competencies of recent K-12 graduates.
Moreover, the results would help shed light on the
formulation of strategies needed in the alignment of the
students’ competencies to- wards the expected
outcomes of the K-12 program. With minimal
information regarding the performance of Filipino K-12
graduates in the literature, the study would be sig-
nificant as it is the first to conduct a performance
evaluation of K-12 students using SATA in the Philippines.
As such, the paper may be used as a benchmark for the
formulation of policies and initiatives regarding the K-12
curriculum in the country. *is paper is organized as
follows: Section 2 presents comprehensive literature
that comprises relevant works of the K-12 educational
system. Section 3 presents the methodology. Section 4
discusses the results obtained in the study as well as
their managerial implications. Finally, Section 5
presents the conclusions arrived in the paper as well as
the potential future directions.

2. Literature Review
2.1.OverviewofBasicEducation inthePhilippines. Before the
transition to the K-12 educational curriculum, the basic
education in the Philippines consists of ten (10) years
of study: six (6) years in elementary education and four
(4) years in secondary education [1]. *e mismatch between
the Philippines’ basic education system with other
countries adopting at least 12 years of basic education is
attributed to several political, social, and economic
pressures that affect the Philippine atmosphere since
the Spanish colonization and, later, the American
occupation [1]. *is review does not go in depth with this
topic for brevity; instead, the readers are referred to Adarlo
and Jackson [1] for a comprehensive discussion. Every
year, the Department of Education (DepEd), the
country’s agency on basic education, produces key statistics
on the performance and internal efficiency of the basic
education sector [18]. *e agency reports that the overall
performance of representative participants in the
 4Education Research Education Research 4
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA, basic education graduates (without further training) are
2018) significantly fell behind from its neighboring ASEAN con-
countries in terms of reading, mathematical, and sidered underqualified for many overseas jobs. Moreover,
scientific with
literacy [19]. In fact, in all three categories, the Philippines only a few years in basic education, graduates are often
ranked last among the participating countries, such under
as the legal working age (18 years old) and become ineligible in
Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, *ailand, and Indonesia [19]. jobs both domestic and overseas. With many issues sur-
Previous studies such as Adarlo and Jackson [1], Mullis et al. rounding the 10-year basic education curriculum of
[20], Martin et al. [21], Mullis et al. [22], and Martin et al. the
[23] have also shown the same trend for the country in that country, the government is urged to develop policies
it and
scored an overall performance that is significantly below initiatives to address such concerns. In 2013, a major reform
the known as the “K-12 program” was enacted into law in
international average in the 1999 and 2003 Trends in the
In- country with the expectation to help overcome these
ternational Mathematics and Science Study. issues
Several issues have also been known in association with [1, 9, 24].
the low performance of the Philippines’ basic education
system, such as a significant proportion of out-of-school
children [18]. Albert [18] maintains that the issue of out-of- 2.2. 6e Transition to the K-12 System in the Philippines.
school children in the Philippines is associated with psy- *e “K-12 program” is a comprehensive reform of the
chological, health, and economic factors. As such, the paper Philippines’ basic education [1, 9, 19]. *rough this reform,
reports that a significant 36% and 44.1% of students the Philippines is making efforts to catch up with global
reported
a “lack of personal interest” as a reason for not
attending
school in primary and secondary levels, respectively.
Like-
wise, a glaring 34.7% and 12.4% of students reported
“illness
or disability” as a reason for not attending school in primary
and secondary levels, respectively. Moreover, 14.1% and
29.4% reported “high cost of education” as a reason for not
attending school in primary and secondary levels,
respec-
tively. With basic education’s significant role in securing a
more prepared workforce, findings in the literature
imply
that the Philippine government would need to develop
a
holistic strategy in addressing the declining proportion
of
school attendance in the country.
Aside from the issue of out-of-school children in the
country, concerns such as incompatibility with the
movement
towards globalization have posed a challenge for the
basic
education curriculum of the country. An analysis by Okabe
[9]
reveals that the 10-year basic education system posed
several
pedagogical and socioeconomic problems. For one,
congested
curricula (i.e., cramming courses into their curricula) are
exhibited by many schools due to the pressure of
fulfilling
mandatory educational requirements. Likewise, due to
the
lower number of years in basic education as compared
to
countries having at least 12 years of basic education,
Filipino
 5Education Research Education Research 5
standards [9]. With changes in the structure, curricula, and schools in the Philippines. *ey found that the program
philosophy of the education system, vast improvements improved the skills and knowledge of
with the previous 10-year basic education are anticipated.
*e key points addressed by the policy are preparation
for higher education, eligibility for entering domestic
and overseas higher educational institutions, and
immediate employ- ability upon graduation [9]. In the
current literature, few scholars have worked on
determining the status of the K-12 implementation in the
Philippines. For instance, Rivera [10] provided an in-depth
assessment of the K-12 curriculum in the Philippines by
identifying the misalignment of teaching pedagogies. *e
study finds that a thorough review of the curriculum’s
content is needed for the development of more robust
pedagogies. Trance and Trance [12] examined various
accounts of teachers and students to gain an understanding
of how they approach the K-12 curriculum. *e study found
a mismatch between the perception of students and
teachers with the set of expectations of the program.
A similar finding was revealed by Barrot (2018) re-
garding the new English curriculum in that it is misaligned
with the traditional language teaching and learning
prin- ciples. As such, Barrot (2018) maintains that the new
K-12 curriculum needs to improve its specificity, internal
co- herence, and integration of some essential principles of
21st- century learning and language teaching. Moreover,
Relucio and Palaoag [13] found using a sentiment analysis
of social media posts from students that the K-12
curriculum has received an overall negative response
from students. *e study by Relucio and Palaoag [13]
may lead towards an- swering why resistance from
multiple stakeholders (e.g., students, parents, and
teachers) surfaces during its imple- mentation. While
the goals of the reform are promising, findings in the
literature suggest that the government and policymakers
need to streamline further and review the K-12 curriculum
if the successful implementation is targeted in a reasonable
time frame.
In the current literature, several learning initiatives
have been proposed to enhance the learning of students
across the globe. For instance, Krouska et al. [25]
studied how new technological advances, such as social
networks, integrate with pedagogical processes and
learning styles. A more in-depth review of social
networks-based learning systems is provided by Krouska et
al. [26]. Troussas et al. [27] explored the roles of
collaboration and fuzzy-modeled personalization for
mobile game-based learning in education. Likewise,
Troussas et al. [28] studied how adaptive grain-size
delivery of the learning ma- terial helps render
students achieve learning outcomes. Moreover,
Krouska et al. [29] evaluated several learning
management systems (e.g., Schoology, Moodle, and
ATutor).
*ey provided a comparative analysis to determine how they
facilitate the development of e-learning environments
with
social features. *ese works in the literature offer useful
insights into the development of learning initiatives
during the K-12 transition in the Philippines. In the
Philippine context, few papers have explored the role of
new technology, such as e-learning, in facilitating the
success of the K-12 curriculum. For instance, Nuncio et al.
[30] conducted an e-learning outreach program for public
 6Education Research Education Research 6
the participants, as well as developed a strong positive analysis of the average score of el- ementary students in
attitude towards e-learning outreach program. the Philippines to determine if learning
On the contrary, Espiritu and Budhrani [31] revealed in
an analysis of the challenges of the K-12 curriculum using
multiple stakeholders’ perspectives that learning
initiatives (e.g., e-learning) have not been very
effective in its current setup about facilitating the
successful implementation of K-12 in the country. A similar
result was found by Castillo [32] in studying ICT integration
in Philippine public schools. Due to contra- dictory
results in the current literature with regard to the role of
new learning initiatives in facilitating successful K-12
imple- mentation, it would be difficult for both scholars
and stake- holders to evaluate the overall performance of
the program in the country. Moreover, road mapping of
future strategies may also be compromised due to the lack
of compelling evidence regarding the performance of the
K-12 curriculum in the country. Such a gap in the
literature can be addressed by giving attention to the
development and use of frameworks that can evaluate the
status and performance of the K-12 curriculum in the
country.

2.3. Measuring Educational Performance. In relevant do-

mains, the implementation of policies, strategies, and other
initiatives are evaluated using performance evaluation
methods. Similarly, in education, the effectiveness of in-
troduced programs is reviewed in the same way. For
in- stance, Tam [33] proposed an indicator system for
evaluating academic performance from a quality
management per- spective. Such proposal is consistent
with the findings of Johnes and Taylor [34], which
implies that educational institutions be evaluated using
the information on (i) the outputs aimed to be produced,
(ii) inputs needed to produce the outputs, (iii) quantitative
measurements of each input and output, and (iv)
technical relationship between inputs and outputs. In
the current literature, another method for measuring
effectiveness in education is by determining the
effectiveness score, which is the difference between
actual and predicted graduation rates [35]. Horn et al. [35]
showed the method’s validity by examining the
measurement properties of effectiveness scores derived
from regression residuals. Moreover, Srisakda et al. [36]
developed an in- dicator system of learner’s key
competencies. Such an in- dicator system
measures students’ communication, thinking,
problem-solving, applying life skills, and tech- nological
application capabilities.
While indicator systems have been useful in some
ap- plications, Man et al. [37] argued that indicator
systems
conceal gaps in the quality of education. Although the study
was constrained to the Malaysian basic educational system,
the paper showed that basic education indicators do
not always translate into excellent performance in
international assessments such as Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). *us, using
other techniques may be useful in different applications.
Another method adopted in the current literature
concerns the use of de- scriptive analysis techniques. For
example, Junio-Sabio et al. [38] used a descriptive
 7Education Research Education Research 7
outcomes per grade level increased. Moreover, some initiatives, this paper provides lenses on the status of the K-
studies use inferential statistical techniques such as 12 implementation in
hypothesis tests in making comparisons between
different factors. For in- stance, Bonsu [39] used a
combination of the analysis and variance and t-test for
comparing the performance of private and public secondary
schools in Ghana.
Aside from indicator systems, descriptive analysis,
and inferential techniques, skills/abilities tests are also
prevalent in the basic education literature for measuring
the academic performance of students. For instance,
Bietenbeck et al. [16] measured the literacy and
numeracy of basic education students in East Africa.
*e literacy test assessed four competencies in the
order of increasing difficulty: (1) rec- ognition of letters,
(2) recognition of words, (3) reading a paragraph, and
(4) reading a short story. Similarly, the numeracy test
assessed (1) counting, (2) recognition of numbers, (3)
rank ordering of numbers, (4) addition, (5) subtraction,
and (6) multiplication [16]. Tseng et al. [15] developed
a standardized seventh-grade English (L2) reading-
literacy sample task and collected student work and
feedback from participating teachers and students.
*e reading task was scenario-based and required that
students search for missing pets [15].
A study by Badger and Mellanby [14] developed
VES- PARCH, an online group test of verbal and spatial
reasoning, to measure basic ability (or fluid intelligence)
among basic education students in the UK. *e study
finds that com- parison of VESPARCH scores with
school attainment measures allows identification of
those students who are underachieving academically
relative to their potential [14]. In this regard, Badger and
Mellanby [14] maintained that VESPARCH could be used
alongside current school tests to ensure targeted
teaching and encouragement for every student. In the
US, the American College Test (ACT) and Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT) scores have been part of the admission
requirements for many undergraduate educa- tional
programs [40–42]. In summary, the scholastic per-
formance of students in basic education programs is
assessed using several dimensions: indicator systems,
comparative tests (descriptive and inferential), and
standardized tests, among others.

3. Methodology
3.1. Case Background. In 2013, the Philippines
underwent a major reform in its education system through
the implementation of the K-12 curriculum. Such an
implementation extends the ten years of basic education
in the country to 12 years. *e De- partment of
Education (DepEd) in the Philippines revealed that the new
curriculum includes one year of mandatory kindergarten,
six years of elementary education, four years of junior high
school (grades 7 to 10), and two years of senior high school
(grades 11 to
12). With spurring concerns such as misalignment of
expectation and learning outcomes, mismatch in
perceptions of stakeholders, and negative response of
multiple stakeholders regarding the K-12 curriculum, the
Philippine government and policymakers are faced with
the challenge of streamlining its current guidelines. To
facilitate the development of existing policies and
 8Education Research Education Research 8
the country by evaluating the students’ performance the track types exhibit some intersections which possibly
using a standardized test. *e scholastic abilities test for manifest
adults (SATA) is used. *e SATA is a standardized instrument
that measures the cognitive and psychological factors
thought to underlie academic competence as well as rate
the skills closely associated with ac- ademic
accomplishment. As such, it is well accepted in the lit-
erature that the reliability of the test is observed at 0.80–
0.90 on average (see [17]). *e study is conducted in Cebu
(Philippines) being one of the most highly urbanized areas
in the country and having an increasing number of
enrollments annually. Public schools offering senior (grade
12) high school programs are se- lected from three major
cities in Cebu (Philippines)—Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, and
Mandaue City. A stratified random sam- pling approach is
performed on five strands of the K-12 program: (1) Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), (2)
Accountancy and Business Management (ABM), (3) Hu-
manities and Social Science (HUMSS), (4) Technical,
Vocational, Livelihood (TVL), and (5) General Academic
Strand (GAS). As a result, a total of 384 respondents were
selected for evaluation. *e total number of samples is
composed of 38, 41, 48, 70, and 76, from STEM, ABM,
HUMSS, TVL, and GAS, respectively.

3.2.ScholasticAbilitiesTestforAdults(SATA). *e Scholastic
Abilities Test for Adults (SATA) is a standardized instru-
ment that measures the cognitive and psychological factors
thought to underlie academic competence and the skills
closely associated with academic accomplishment [17].
In SATA, six subtests are measured, namely, nonverbal
rea- soning (NV), quantitative reasoning (QR), reading
vocab- ulary (RV), reading comprehension (RC),
mathematical capacity (MC), and mathematical
applications (MA). *e SATA measures the scholastic
competence of persons from the ages of 16 through 70
[17]. *e testing time takes 1-2 hours and can be
administered individually or in groups. Subtest raw
scores are then converted to estimated grade
equivalents, standard scores (M �10, SD �3), and
percen- tiles [17]. *us, the SATA’s aptitude and
achievement components can provide an aptitude-
achievement dis- crepancy analysis needed for LD
placement [17]. *e SATA standard scores, composite
quotients, and descriptions are summarized in Table 1.

4. Results and Discussion

With regard to the trend in the literature in measuring
college- level readiness of students, the competencies of
the respondents were tested using the SATA questionnaire
with six subtests: (i) nonverbal reasoning (NV), (ii)
quantitative reasoning (QR), (iii) reading vocabulary (RV),
(iv) reading comprehension (RC), (v) mathematical
capacity (MC), and (vi) mathematical applications (MA). As
can be seen from the results shown in Table 1, no clear
dominance in every competency can be at- tributed to a
single SHS track. For instance, the STEM track dominates
the NV and MC competencies, whereas the ABM track
dominates the MA. Such results may imply the existence of
an interaction between the track type and SATA subtest. As
can be observed from Figure 1, the standardized scores of
 9Education Research Education Research 9
the presence of an interaction between the two factors
(i.e., track type and SATA subtest) being considered.
Moreover, it can also be observed from Figure 1 that the
scores presented in Table 1 are divided into three parts
based on Table 2. As such, the divisions’ group scores are
above average, on average, and below average.
Results show that respondents under STEM
programs have above average competency in terms of
NV, RV, and MC. Such a result is expected with STEM
students due to the nature of the disciplines composing
it, such as science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics, which is largely dependent on mathematical
competency, nonverbal ability, and problem-solving.
Similarly, respondents under ABM programs exhibit
above-average scores in RV, MC, and MA due to the fields
that are primarily intertwined towards business.
Following such results, it is interesting to point out how the
ABM programs outperformed the STEM programs in terms
of MA since STEM programs are also expected to obtain
above-average performance in such a subtest due to their
intensive exposure to problem-solving activities.
Drawing inference in the context of the case scenario,
several factors could be linked to such results. First,
due to the attractiveness of the STEM track in terms of
employment opportunities, it has become a melting pot of
students with possibly widely varying scholastic abilities:
(i) those pre- dicted to fit the learning pace of STEM
programs and (ii) those predicted to lag behind the
learning pace of STEM programs. Subsequently, the
lack of implementation of appropriate standards in
application acceptance has played a critical role in
magnifying such drawbacks. Such differences in their
capabilities may have caused the observed mean of the
STEM group to deviate from its expected mean. About such
results, a more considerable variance is obtained by the
STEM group in contrast to the ABM group, as shown
in Table 1. Such an outcome could be a manifestation
of a suboptimal clustering exhibited by the STEM group,
im- plying that the STEM group is not as homogenous
as any other group in the K-12 clusters.
A general trend can be observed from the results
shown in Table 2 and Figure 1. First, the ABM and
STEM programs are on top of all the other programs in the
overall test. Second, the GAS and HUMSS programs
obtained average scores in most of the tests except for
reading comprehension, whereas the TVL got below-
average scores in most of the subsets. Despite the
possible interaction between the track type and SATA
subtest, it can be observed from the results that the
interaction limits into select track types only. For in-
stance, only the ABM and STEM programs have
appeared to interact. *e HUMSS, GAS, and TVL ex- hibit
an interaction as well; however, they do not appear to
interact with STEM. Such results show possible
significant group differences between the track types,
which would imply that some track types have higher
academic performance than their counterparts. Such
findings should be addressed as they might be pointing to
several other drawbacks in the current K-12 pro- grams.
Since the inhomogeneity of the STEM track may have
caused its score to lag behind its expected
1Education Research Education Research 1
Table 1: SATA standardized table. performance, a possible implication could be that the
Standard scores Composite quotients Description current K-12 STEM programs may not prepare the
students adequately for entering university-level STEM
17–20 >130 Very superior (VS)
programs such as the physical sciences, technology,
15–16 121–130 Superior (S)
13–14 111–120 Above average (AA) engineering, and mathematics. Similar arguments could also
8–12 90–110 Average (A) be applied to other programs as well.
6–7 80–89 Below average (BA) Moreover, it can be inferred from Table 3 that among all
4–5 70–79 Poor (P) K-12 tracks, only the STEM and ABM students obtained
1–3 <70 Very poor (VP) at least an average score in all subtests. However, all
Note: this table summarizes the standardized scores, composite quotients, the other K-12 tracks obtained scores that are below
and description of the scores obtained from the respondents. average. In other words, despite the reforms made in the K-
12 curriculum, many students may still be unprepared for
higher education and obtaining overseas jobs, among
16 others. Such concerns may become critical failure
14 factors of the K-12 curriculum’s implementation in the
12 country. To address such drawbacks, the government must
10 develop initiatives in reevaluating the cur- rent K-12
8
6
programs, for instance, developing learning out- comes
4 that facilitate the basic competencies of students before
2 choosing a track. In other words, before a student chooses a
0
NV QR RV RC MC
track, schools should already ensure that students have
MA satisfied the basic competencies. Similarly, thorough
studies in devel- oping criteria needed to regroup the
programs into highly
GAS ABM LCL significant clusters should also be conducted. In this
average
way,
STEM TVL UCL
average students may be able to choose tracks that are more
HUMSS
repre-
sentative of their skills, talents, and interests. Likewise,
the
Figure 1: Mean interactions plot. *e horizontal axis corresponds *e cell entries correspond to the linguistic equivalent of the scores
to each subtest of the SATA. *e vertical axis corresponds to the ob- tained by each strand in each subtest. *e entries represent in
average score obtained in each axis. Each line plot corresponds to shorthand the following descriptions: very superior (VS), superior (S),
each strand of the K-12 program in the Philippines. As a whole, above average (AA), average (A), below average (BA), poor (P), and very
the poor (VP).
plot presents the interactions of the average score obtained by
each
K-12 strand in each subtest.

Table 2: Resulting standardized SATA scores per track and SATA

subtests.
K-12 track NV QR RV RC MC MA STEM
13 10 13 11 14 10
GAS 12 9 9 7 11
8
HUMSS 12 9 11 7 12 6
ABM 12 9 13 10 13
13
TVL 11 6 8 7 8 6
Note: the subtests are nonverbal reasoning (NV), quantitative
reasoning (QR), reading vocabulary (RV), reading comprehension (RC),
mathe- matical capacity (MC), and mathematical applications (MA).

Table 3: SATA interpretation of resulting standardized test scores.

Track NV QR RV RC MC MA
STEM AA A AA A AA A
GAS A A A BA A A
HUMSS A A A BA A BA
ABM A A AA A AA AA
TVL A BA A BA A BA
Note: the row labels correspond to the K-12 strand of the K-12 program in
the Philippines. *e column labels correspond to the subtests of the SATA.
 1Education Research Education Research 1
government and policymakers may introduce
different
learning outcomes for each K-12 track. In this way,
perfor-
mance indicators for each track may become more
facilitated.

5. Conclusion
*e introduction of the K-12 educational system in the
Philippines has induced mixed remarks in the country.
Several groups have strongly opposed the implementation
of the curriculum primarily due to diverse opinions
regarding the success of the curricular change.
*e competencies of the senior high school students in the
Philippine K-12 educational system has brought with it
several concerns, pri- marily, with their mismatch with the
expectation set for the program. As such, the challenges
encountered in the K-12 transition are crucial to be
addressed by developing strategies and initiatives in
aligning the competencies of the K-12 students with their
expected competencies. In this paper, SATA was
administered to measure the competencies of the K-12
students in (a) STEM, (b) ABM, (c) HUMSS, (d) GAS, and (e)
TVL, under six subtests of (i) nonverbal reasoning (NV), (ii)
quantitative reasoning (QR), (iii) reading vocabulary
(RV), (iv) reading comprehension (RC), (v) mathematical
capacity (MC), and (vi) mathematical applications (MA). A
descriptive analysis was used to draw inferences on the
data. Two factors were considered in the study: (i) K-12
program type and (ii) SATA subtest.
As a result, the STEM and the ABM groups obtained
above-average scores in most of the subtests. *e HUMSS
and the GAS groups obtained average scores in most of the
subtests. *e TVL group obtained below-average scores in
most of the subtests. Moreover, a potential interaction
between the two factors was found; however, it appeared
to be restricted only on track types. For instance, an
interaction was observed to be divided into two classes: (i)
interaction between STEM and ABM and (ii) interaction
between HUMSS, GAS, and TVL. However, these two
 1Education Research Education Research 1
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