Realist evaluation (RE) has been proven as a strategic lens in understanding interventions or social programs as reflected in literature and evaluation studies. As one of the most important components of an educational institution, the Admissions Office (AQ) carries out the screening and selection criteria in accepting applicants to the respective academic degree programs. The study is a RE of the Admissions Programs (APs) of three private and three public universities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Consistent with the RE methodology, the first phase of the evaluation was the identification of the program theory underlying the AP. Afterwards, qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to identify the contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes (CMO) of the APs. These were subjected to an iterative process of coding. Multiple sources of data were used to generate the CMO configurations: (1) a review of literature on the functions, objectives, processes, and operations of the admissions program and office in HEIs, (2) survey questionnaires administered among first and second year students in public and private HEIs, and (3) interviews with the key officials and staff involved in the work of admissions. To facilitate and deepen the analysis, contexts were categorized into Internal and External. The intersecting and distinct internal and external contexts of the public and private HEIs were likewise examined. Mechanisms, on the other hand, were classified as either Positive or Negative. The process of grouping together the contexts and mechanisms was iterated to ensure that data were categorized accordingly. Once these were in place, the successful and unsuccessful program outcomes (enrollment and student attrition) identified by the key officials involved in the work of admissions, guided the phase of configuring the CMOs. Tables were prepared to group the coded contexts and mechanisms that emerged from the responses and insights of the three groups of program stakeholders (students, faculty members, and admissions officials). This enabled the configuration of the relevant contexts and mechanisms to the most appropriate program outcomes (enrollment or student attrition). After closely examining the CMO tables, the final CMO configurations focused on the three groups of stakeholders that participated in the study, namely, students, faculty members, and admissions team members. This allowed the presentation of specific ways on how each CMO configuration could benefit the three groups of stakeholders. Nine (9) CMO configurations were generated. Two (2) are directed to students which are as follows: (1) The admissions office’s accessibility, clear and fast procedures, reasonable acceptance criteria, and friendly and helpful staff (C), make the students happy and satisfied (M) which eventually lead to their enrollment in the university (O) and (2) Strong recommendation from family and friends (C1) and from high school teachers/guidance counselors (C2) help increase HEIs’ enrollment (O) since these build the students’ confidence in the university (M). The two (2) CMO configurations that focus on faculty members are (1) If faculty members are familiar with the admissions criteria and procedures (C), their expectations as regards the academic capability of their students are better addressed (M). This helps them manage their students academically and personally which contribute to the attainment of low student attrition rates (O) and (2) Faculty members’ confidence in the ability of admissions office to attract the best students is strengthened (M) when they are given opportunities to contribute to the improvement of the admissions program (C) to increase enroliment (O1) and to minimize student attrition rates (02). The CMO statements that correspond to the admissions team are as follows: (1) Competition with big and well-established universities (C1) together with the implementation of the free tuition in tertiary education in public HEIs (C2) pressure on the admissions team (M) to achieve the target enrollment (O), (2) Increase in enrollment (O1) that is attributed to the absence of admissions criteria in private universities (C) result in the HEIs’ Management’s satisfaction (M) and at the same time eventual increase in student attrition rates (02) (3) Admissions team in private universities are challenged to solve (M) withdrawals of enrollment due to financial reasons and failure in meeting student expectations (C) since these contribute to high student attrition rates (O), (4) Strong support from the management (C) motivates the admissions team (M) to aim for high student enrollment (O), and (5) The involvement of the alumni in the work of admissions (C) becomes a motivation to give back to their alma mater by initiating programs and activities (M) that help increase the institution’s enrollment (O). Conclusions and recommendations based on the findings were presented to provide a better understanding of the APs. This is specifically intended to support the HEIs in refining their admissions processes and systems to improve program outcomes. Lastly, it is recommended that researchers conduct similar studies using the RE methodology in different groups or settings for the testing and refinement of the CMO configurations. This will also expand the limited literature on RE in the field of education.

Using a combination of explanatory-sequential and transformative mixed method research design, this study evaluates the Angoff and Mapmark standard-setting procedures in setting cut scores of a college admission test. The elements of evaluation focused on internal, procedural and external validity, and modeled the facet effects by means of Many-Facet Rasch Model (MFRM) using 3282 students' data. The study also looked into the considerations of the 63 members of the standard-setting panel and the management committee in recommending and finalizing the cut score. The findings of the study shows that the Mapmark method has better inter-rater reliability than the Angoff method and the cut scores produced by both methods are statistically different with a decreasing trend, observed in rounds 1 to 3. The Mapmark method derived a final cut score that is lower than that of the Angoff method thus, facilitating a higher passing rate. Both the Angoff and Mapmark method are procedurally sound. The Angoff method has a better fit than the Mapmark method to the MFRM and the separation statistics revealed the effects of age, length of experience, and college affiliation facet to one's judgment in the standard-setting process. The findings of the study supported the objectivity of standard-setting process exemplified by the Angoff and Mapmark methods, exhibiting comparable validity. However, pragmatic policy considerations such as enrollment quota, internally generated income, and fiscal viability of the educational institution, influence the finalization of the cut score of the college admission test which leads to the notion of accommodation, and the revelation that cut score setting is a mediated process.

The three-phase study involved ethnography, the development of the Cognitive Bridges - Approach (CBA), and an experiment using the two-group pretest-postest design. The ethnography revealed the different mathematical concepts found in the construction of the bale (native house) and in the local woodcraft, ET Stick Bulul. The first construction involves the application of the different kinds of systems of linear equations in two unknowns. The latter construction involves a linear relationship among the body parts of the Bululs. The golden ratio was also observed in some of the samples of the woodcraft. The development of the CBA was a fusion of the school-based and Ifugao concepts, processes, and values in mathematics. It was anchored on ethnomathematics, constructivism, brain-based learning, and culturally responsive pedagogy. The mathematical processes considered in the development of the CBA were: problem-solving, connecting, reflecting, reasoning and proving, selecting tools and computational strategies, communicating, and visualizing/representing/modeling. On the other hand, the following mathematical value clusters were used in designing the CBA: Rationalism-Objectivism, Control-Progress, and Openness- Mystery (Bishop, 2000). The CBA also took into consideration the characteristics of the target learners. In the final phase of the study, an experiment was done to determine the effects of the CBA on the mathematics achievement of students. Two comparable, first-year high school classes in a public school in Banawe, Ifugao were chosen. They were randomly assigned as the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught using the CBA and the
other group was taught the Conventional Approach (CA) for three weeks. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the post-test scores between the students who were taught using the CBA and those using the CA. However, an item-by-item analysis using a t-test revealed that those in the CBA group scored significantly higher in items requiring higher cognitive levels of thinking. The CA class had an edge over the CBA class on three items only and all of which were at the lowest level (knowledge level).

Values education has been reintroduced in the Philippine basic education curriculum as a separate and stand-alone learning area for it was recently institutionalized in the country as the GMRC and Values Education Act. It is argued that if we expand our understanding through research of values education beyond familiar structures, the country may be more equipped to teach crucial and fundamental subjects to the Filipino youth. In support of this endeavor, my study delved into values integration in the senior high school of a Catholic school in lieu of it being taught as a subject on its own. In this study’s participating Catholic private school, values formation is part of the curriculum planning and teaching of the subjects. Value integration is the incorporation of moral values in the process of learning in the various learning areas in the Senior High School of the participating Catholic school. The analysis of values integration’s evidence in the senior high school through the lenses of the participating students and teachers is the heart of the study. The participants consist of 15 students and 15 teachers of the Catholic School. The data collection was conducted by answering the open-ended focus group discussion questions through the researcher’s facilitation with the participants and was analyzed by the researcher using the grounded theory approach. The academic pursuit of properly integrating values appears to have found considerable support from student and teacher participants. The researcher concluded that the problem lies not in whether the participants are aware of values and their integration but in how the institution integrates and or teaches it. Based on evidence, values integration is present in the Catholic School’s academic endeavors through the teachers’ manners of discussion and as well as with the learning materials and school activities.

This study investigated teacher Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and teacher Sense of Efficacy (TSE) in three public elementary schools in the city of Sorsogon. Using sequential explanatory research design to measure OCB and TSE, surveys were administered to 79 teacher participants using the OCB Scale developed by DiPaola and Hoy (2005) and TSE Scale created by Woolfolk-Hoy and Tschannen-Moran (2001). Afterwards, three separate teacher focus group discussions (FGDs) ensued together with multiple interviews with parents, students and principals to explore factors of OCB and TSE that affects school performance. Findings shows that public elementary school teachers have high OCB and TSE scores despite the differences in school settings. Correlational analysis reveals a moderately positive correlation (r = .419) between teacher OCB and TSE. The constructs of OCB that influences teacher retention are altruism, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship with mastery experiences, affective states and social persuasion as its TSE sources. The teacher OCB and TSE constructs that impact students’ school participation are the interplay of teachers’ altruism and sportsmanship behaviors with mastery experiences. Among the OCB construct that affects home-school partnership are altruism, civic virtue and sportsmanship, with mastery experiences, affective states, and social persuasion as its TSE sources.