Assessment Competency of Secondary School Science Teachers: A Developmental Framework for Leveraging Assessment Practices

This paper aimed to assess the test construction skills of science teachers in public secondary schools in Dagupan City, to establish a foundation for improving current assessment practices. The research was anchored on national and international policies such as the UNESCO Education 2030 Framework, assessment practices of the OECD, and DepEd Order No. 31, s 2020, which concentrated on assessing teachers' competency in the area of test construction and in strengthening classroom assessments. The study covered several aspects of interest: (1) Teachers' profile in terms of academic qualifications, specialization, years of teaching, position, grade level assignment and relevant courses attended; (2) their competency levels in items construction across the four key domains of Item Development (ID), Content Alignment (CA), Cognitive Demand (CD), and Distractor Effectiveness (DE); (3) relationship between teachers' profile and competency levels, (4) expert-based rating of competency in Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics; (5) challenges encountered in items development process; and (6) propose a framework of improving competency in items construction. A cross-sectional study of 84 secondary science teachers was conducted, using a survey questionnaire and CVI evaluation of teacher-made tests. The results revealed that most teachers held Master's degrees and specialized in General Science and Biology. Their competency was highest in Item Development (M = 3.69) and Content Alignment (M = 3.65), with moderate competency in Cognitive Demand (M = 3.44) and Distractor Effectiveness (M = 3.40). Test construction competence showed a positive correlation with educational level, teaching experience, position, and training, but not with subject area or grade level. Content Validity Index (CVI) scores indicated that Senior High School (SHS) teachers performed better (mean CVI = 0.85) than Junior High School (JHS) teachers (mean CVI = 0.79), with Chemistry performing the weakest in both groups. Barriers to effective test construction included lack of time (76.2%), insufficient training (67.9%), difficulty writing distractors (64.3%), and challenges in assessing higher-order thinking (57.1%). The study recommends expanding training programs, providing additional resources, enhancing time management strategies, and establishing mentorship programs. Additionally, it suggests implementing a developmental framework to improve test construction practices, particularly in subjects like Chemistry and Physics.