Moving Towards K-12 With Purpose

Xavier Schools Plan for the K-12 Transition

1

Moving Towards K-12 with Purpose

1. What is K-12 about and why it is necessary for Philippine education
K-12 refers to the number of years a student undergoes in basic education. The current education system in the Philippines follows a K-10 model: 6 years of Primary School and 4 years of Secondary School. The model proposed by the Department of Education is the K-6-4-2 model, comprised of: Kindergarten, Primary (Grades 1-6), Junior High School (Grades 7-10), and Senior High School (Grades 11-12).

2. Why we welcome and support the DepEd move towards K-12:

It will address the poor quality of education as reected in low achievement scores of Filipino students. It will prepare High School graduates more adequately for work, entrepreneurship, or higher education. It will put our graduates at par with professionals and university students abroad. We are the only Asian country with 10 years of Basic Education.

3. How Xavier has been preparing for K-12:

We have been undergoing a curriculum reform process since 2004 through: (a) the introduction of Understanding by Design (UbD) in 2004 as a framework for curriculum review and revision, followed by a series of curriculum planning workshops from 2006 to 2012; (b) the introduction of the Singaporean Science and Math curricula starting 2008; and (c) the offering of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program to selected High 3 and 4 students starting SY 2010-11, effectively converting their curricula to Grades 11 and 12. We have been benchmarking our students performance using international standardized examinations to ensure that they are comparable with K-12 students: (a) Since 1991, the administration of the Preliminary SAT to our 3rd Year HS Students to compare their performance with Grade 11 students, and (b) the use of the MAT (Metropolitan Achievement Tests) since 2006 to compare our students from Prep to Grade 7 with counterparts belonging to a grade level higher.

Xaviers Plan for the K-12 Transition

4. What Xavier plans to do starting next school year and how these changes will affect your sons
No additional year will be required of our students for the following reasons: (a) Xavier already has 13 years of basic education (from Nursery to High 4), and (b) we believe that the curriculum we offer is already K-12 compliant given its continuing enhancement process and the performance of our students using international standards. K-12 labels will already be used effective SY 2012-2013 to indicate the K-12 curriculum and standards being used by the school. For example, an incoming Prep student will ofcially be a Grade 1* student. The asterisk is an internal reminder that the curriculum offered for that grade level is undergoing enhancement.

(a) The shaded area refers to the Graduations. Note that for SY2012-13 and SY 2013-14, there will be two Grade School Graduations: for Grades 7 and 8 and Grades 6 and 7 respectively. Starting SY2014-15, only those who complete Grade 6 will be graduating from the Grade School. (b) The asterisks refer to a curriculum enhancement in process. Note that the process will be gradual and is expected to be completed after a maximum of ve school years.

For Incoming Grades 5 to 7

For the next two school years, SY 2012-13 and SY 2013-14, an interim Middle School will be set up for students who are incoming G6 & 7 (G7* & 8*). Their programs and teachers will be directly under High School supervision. The purpose is to facilitate the upgrade of the academic and formation programs while easing the transition of the students into High School. Two Grade School graduations will be held for the next two school years: In SY 2012-13, Grades 7* & 8*, and in SY 2013-14, Grades 6* & 7*. Starting SY 2014-15, Grade 6 students will be graduating from the Grade School. In a letter dated 09 March 2012, Department of Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro fsc has granted DepEd approval of our plans pending review of our curriculum enhancement efforts.

What you as parents need to know and do:

Please make sure to attend the Parents Orientation scheduled on the rst week of June so that we can more fully discuss the changes that will occur in Xavier School. The schedules are as follows: June 04 (AM) June 04 (PM) June 05 (AM) June 05 (PM) June 06 (AM) June 07 (AM) June 11 (AM) 08:00 AM 01:00 PM 08:00 AM 01:00 PM 08:00 AM 08:00 AM 08:00 AM Kinder Grade 1 Grade 2, Grade 3 Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6 High 1 and 2 High 3 and 4 Grade 7 and Grade 8 MPC MPC MPC MPC MPC MPC MPC

*Please note that we are here using the new labels to refer to the different grade levels.

Given the work on the curriculum, the teachers will need more time during the summer. For this reason, classes for School Year 2012-13 will begin on: June 18 June 19 K, G1, G2, G7, G8, and High 1 G3 - G6, High 2, 3 and 4