Administration of National Achievement Test and LAPG for Primary Grades

1. The Department of Education (DepED) through the National Education Testing and Research Center (NETRC) shall administer the National Achievement Test (NAT) and Language Assessment for Primary Grades (LAPG) nationwide, as contained in the enclosure of DepED Order No. 19, s. 2014 entitled School Calendar for School Year (SY) 2014 – 2015, on the following dates:

March 5, 2015 – Fourth Year High School students of public and private schools (census)
March 11, 2015 – Grade 3 pupils of public schools only (census)
March 12, 2015 – Grade 6 pupils of public and private schools (census)

2. Only private elementary and secondary schools with permit to operate from this Department shall be included in the conduct of the test.

3. Each NAT examinee (Grade 6) shall be issued a Certificate of Rating (COR) containing the actual rating per subject area. The COR will reflect the examinee’s readiness for junior high school.

4. Instead of NAT (Grade 3), Language Assessment for Primary Grades (LAPG) shall be administered to all Grade 3 pupils in the public schools. The test is anchored on the following objectives:

• establish a baseline data for the Filipino and English language learning in the K to 12 Curriculum;
• evaluate the effectiveness of the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) instruction across 19 languages;
• establish Mother Tongue language development across Philippine languages in the context of the MTB-MLE program implementation;
• compare the performance of Grade 3 pupils on English and Filipino essential skills; and
• correlate language development across Early Grades Reading Assessment (EGRA), Early Grades Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) and language literacy assessment in the primary grades.

5. At present, there are 19 mother tongues being used as mediums of instruction in the country. These are Ilokano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Ivatan, Ibanag, Sambal, Tagalog, Bikol, Akeanon, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, Sinibuanong Bisaya, Waray, Chavacano, Maguindanaon, Meranaw, Surigaonon, Tausug and Yakan.

6. In view of the test administration, Division Testing Coordinators (DTCs) are directed to submit the following data/information on or before November 29, 2014 at the NETRC in printed and electronic copies (excel format) as shown below:

7. Likewise, DTCs who have not yet submitted their enrolment data for NAT Grade 6 and NAT Year 4 must submit on the same date.

8. The NETRC authorized forwarder/courier shall deliver the test materials at least two weeks before the test administration, except for schools divisions under the National Capital Region (NCR) where the delivery will be five days before test administration.

9. The same forwarder/courier shall deliver the test materials at least two weeks before the test administration, except for schools divisions under the National Capital Region (NCR) where the delivery will be five days before test administration.

9. The same forwarder/courier shall retrieve all the test materials one week after the test administration. Hence, all Division and Testing Coordinators (DTCs) and Private School Supervisors (PSSs) are instructed to ensure that the test materials are ready for pick-up/retrieval.

10. The NETRC shall conduct the National Conference/Consultative Workshop on the Standardized Administration for purposes of updating information and resolving issues/concerns on testing.

11. Authorized to attend the activity in every designated regional venue and date are one Regional Testing Coordinator (RTC) from every region, one Division Testing Coordinator (DTC) from every schools division, and one Private School Supervisor (PSS) from every schools division that has at least 20 private schools.

12. Dates, venues and clustering of regions for the Conference/Consultative Workshop will be announced later through a DepED Advisory.

References:

DepED Order: (No. 19, s. 2014)
DepED Memorandum: (No. 222, s. 2013)