This chapter submits that conventional learning assessment models used in traditional classrooms cannot be employed in blended programs at the secondary education level. The tendency of high school students in online education is to adopt the path of least resistance or to cheat thinking that they cannot be caught. Constructing authentic assessment measures for online education should be crafted for teachers to ensure that students who graduate through this learning mode are competent. While examinations are to be conducted, test construction should differ. Online learners would prefer to apply what they have learned instead of the conventional assessments. This contribution aims to develop authentic assessment procedure for the Open High School Program of the Philippines (OHSP), a blended program offered by private high schools in the Philippines, funded by the Department of Education. The program aims to mainstream out-of-school youth, high school dropouts, or regular students who cannot afford to study on their own given their unfortunate circumstances in life. As adult learners, they have rich experiences that can be used in problem-based learning to understand the lessons more effectively. Hence, this study is anchored on the assumption that teachers in blended learning mode should employ a different learning assessment or unique to conditions of OSHP students.
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The Department of Education of the Philippines (DepEd) topped the list of 10 agencies with the highest budget allocation for the 2013 fiscal year at 13%. While the budget for basic education (elementary and high school) may appear to be large, access to schools for both levels of education is still difficult due to lack of classrooms, teachers, textbooks, and even schools. Poverty complicates the problem despite access to basic education being free in the Philippines. Sending children to school requires ancillary costs especially transportation, uniforms, school supplies, notebooks, pens, telephone load, daily allowances, etc.
In 2013, the total number of students who were enrolled in an educational institution reached 20.6 million. Of this, 1.7M are in kindergarten; 13.3M in elementary; and 5.7M in high school (Dacanay, 2013. With 5.7M secondary school students in 7,917 public secondary schools (http://www.deped.gov.ph/index.php/resources/facts-figures), one can surmise that schools cannot accommodate this current enrolment. This trend, however, is not new; it has always been the case. Since not everyone can be accommodated in public schools, in 1998, DepEd embarked on an alternative delivery mode dubbed as the “Education Service Contracting Scheme.” This was expanded in 2011 to the ESC-Open High School Program (OHSP) through distance learning offered by Level 1-accredited private high schools.
Department Order No. 35, s. 2011, states that anyone can be eligible to enroll in OHSP provided that he or she is: a) a Filipino citizen; b) has capacity for independent learning; c) has completed the prerequisite grade or year level; and d) must pass the Independence Learning Readiness Test (ILRT) and the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI).