Abstract
The Special Program in Journalism in Casimiro A. Ynares Sr. Memorial National High School (CAYSMNHS) in DepEd Rizal, which started in 2015, was patterned after benchmarking with other existing locally made curricula. Currently, it offers a four-year course from Grade 7 to 10 where students are given additional two advanced subjects taken along with the regular subjects. Since the CAYSMNHS' Special Program in Journalism has not undergone any form of evaluation, the researcher confidences that the results of this study may be considered in understanding the gap of knowledge and the deficiencies in the school's Special Program in Journalism since Evaluation Models are considered to be decision-oriented. This study is anchored with Steinmetz Discrepancy Evaluation Model (DEM), which primarily intends to evaluate the said program along with the profile of the ratees, level of standard, and the level of performance of the programs as rated by the student and faculty-respondents in terms of a) Objectives; b) Instructional Materials; c) Teaching Strategies; d) Physical facilities and equipment; e) Curriculum; f) Administrators' Support; g) Teachers' Competence, and h) Students Engagement. The research was conducted in CAYS MNHS as it is the only school in DepEd Rizal that offers that specialized program. Purposive sampling was used as it intends to include the faculty members and students of SPJ, as respondents. Results of the computed data revealed that Both groups of respondents evaluated the Special Program in Journalism as Outstanding based on its Program Objectives, Curriculum, Instructional Materials, Physical facilities and equipment, Teaching Strategies, Administrators' Support, Teachers' Competence, and Students' Engagement. It is significantly notable that there is no considerable discrepancy between the actual performance and the intended standard of the program.
