To fulfill its mission of providing quality learning to underserved youth in Southeast Asia, PHINMA Education partnered with Asian Psychological Services and Assessment (APSA) to evaluate students’ mastery of skills and competencies required for their level. Beginning in 2015, APSA has been conducting Standards-Based Assessment (SBA) to PHINMA Education schools to measure students’ proficiency level against national and international standards. This year, APSA administered the tests to around 40,000 college freshmen across nine PHINMA Education schools.

“Through the data on learning outcomes, we are able to identify areas of strength, as well as areas for improvement, to address the learning gaps of students,” said PHINMA Education Analytics Chief Dr. Nigel N. Cabison. “These results empower us to better our strategies and customize learning systems according to our students’ needs — making it more efficient and effective for them.”

APSA President Dr. Rose Marie Salazar-Clemeña, RGC, RPsy noted that the SBA is a modern trend in education that addresses the needs of schools for quality assessment. She explained, “It is an approach far different from traditional assessment because the SBA evaluates students’ performance based on the required standards for a specific grade level, rather than comparing a student’s performance with that of other students. It specifies academic performance standards by defining different levels of proficiency.”

PHINMA Education’s strategies have produced encouraging results in licensure exam passing rates and the employability of its graduates. Since 2004, the network has produced 122 board topnotchers and over 26,000 professionals in the Philippines. Through these results, they are able to gain the trust of over 124,000 students in ten schools across the Philippines and Indonesia, enrolled in over 110 programs covering the entire education chain.

“Understanding where our students are in terms of competencies in core subject areas helps us tailor our learning strategies so they can be one step closer to achieving the future they want and deserve,” added Dr. Cabison.