PPSSH Framework: Holistically Developed Filipino Learners

The PPSSH Framework is Figure 1 of DepEd Order (DO) No. 024, s. 2020, the order that adopted the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH). It is a ring of the five domains around two arrows, School Effectiveness and People Effectiveness, with “holistically developed Filipino learners” at the center. The order says the figure “depicts the synergy between maximizing school effectiveness and ensuring people effectiveness through a broad sphere of instructional and administrative practices stipulated in the five domains of the PPSSH” (item 11).

The order explains the figure in two short items and does not say in what order to read it. Read from the outside in, it follows a path the order states in a sentence: “quality student learning is contingent upon quality teachers, who are supported by quality school leaders” (cover item 2). A school head works in five domains. That work keeps the school performing and its people cared for. Both exist for the learner.

Pick a part of the figure, or a stop in the row under it, to read what the order says of that part. The marks on the outer band are the 34 strands; the filled ones are the strands whose indicators name learners. Play the path to the learner lights each part in turn.

Key findings

• The framework has three parts. The ring is the five domains, the two arrows are school effectiveness and people effectiveness, and the center is the learners. “The placement of learners at the center of the framework emphasizes the important role of school heads for the improvement of learner achievement” (DO 024, s. 2020, item 12).
• The path to the learner runs through the school and its teachers. Through school heads’ “quality leadership and management”, DepEd “can develop quality teachers and ‘holistic learners who are steeped in values, equipped with 21st century skills, and able to propel the country to development and progress’” (DO 024, s. 2020, item 1).
• DO 024, s. 2020 does not define “holistically developed”. The words appear only inside Figure 1. The K to 12 policy the PPSSH cites describes its graduate in nearly the same words: “The K to 12 graduate is a holistically developed Filipino who has built foundations for learning throughout life” (DO 021, s. 2019, item 18).
• Fourteen of the 34 strands name learners in their indicators. They are 3 of 7 strands in Domain 1, 1 of 6 in Domain 2, 5 of 8 in Domain 3, 1 of 8 in Domain 4 and 4 of 5 in Domain 5 (PPSSH, Domains 1 to 5). The other 20 do not use the word; most act on the school or its people.
• School effectiveness is “maximizing organizational performance and health”; people effectiveness is “taking care of people in schools”. The order gives a school head “the authority, responsibility and accountability” for both at once (PPSSH, Roles of School Heads).
• The order ties three domains to one kind of effectiveness in words, and all five to both. Domain 1 aims at “organizational performance”, Domain 2 at “organizational health” and Domain 4 at “people and team effectiveness”. Career Stage 2 school heads “maintain school effectiveness and people effectiveness” through all five domains (PPSSH, Domains 1, 2 and 4; Career Stages).
• The framework follows eight principles, and the first is that it is learner-centered (DO 024, s. 2020, item 9). The PPSSH explains: “the learner is the heart of educational supervision” (PPSSH, Guiding Principles).

What the PPSSH Framework is

DO 024, s. 2020 presents the framework in Section V of its policy, in four numbered items. Item 9 lists eight principles. Item 10 says what the standards are for: the PPSSH “sets out what school heads are expected to know, be able to do, and value as they progress in their profession.” Item 11 names the figure and the five domains, and item 12 explains the ring and the center.

The eight principles say what kind of leadership the figure describes. The PPSSH Framework:

1. “is learner-centered”;
2. “emphasizes building and strengthening a network of stakeholders for school and people effectiveness”;
3. “reflects the understanding of problems and issues at the school and the need to address them”;
4. “focuses on developing high-quality instruction, developing a strong school culture, and ensuring job-embedded professional development for school personnel”;
5. “reflects values and concepts in promoting school success”;
6. “regards supervision as a crucial organizational behavior in school management”;
7. “highlights the importance of accountability and transparency of school heads”; and
8. “is anchored on the principles of inclusivity” (item 9).

The first two principles are the figure in words: the learner at the center, and school and people effectiveness around the learner.

How the framework leads to holistically developed learners

The figure draws no line from a school head to a learner. It draws rings, and the order’s text names what links one ring to the next.

Figure 1 has no ring for teachers. The text puts them between the school head and the learner each time it states the path. The order supports school heads “so they can better perform their roles in schools, including the improvement of teacher quality, and, through this, learner achievement” (cover item 1). Its policy statement repeats the order of events: “the improvement of teacher quality, and, eventually, learner achievement” (item 8.a). And its rationale gives the reason: “Teacher quality is vital in raising learner achievement. However, teachers alone cannot bring about substantive changes without effective leadership” (item 2).

So the answer the framework gives to “how do learners become holistically developed?” is indirect. Most of what a school head does never touches a learner directly. A budget released on time, a teacher coached after a class observation, a records system that finds a learner at risk of dropping out, a barangay council that lends its covered court: each acts on the school or its people, and reaches the learner through them. Domain 3 says so in its own commitment, which is to instructional leadership “towards improving competence among teachers and outcomes among learners” (PPSSH, Domain 3).

What “holistically developed Filipino learners” means

DO 024, s. 2020 does not define the phrase. It appears only inside Figure 1. The text of the order uses a shorter form, “holistic learners”, in a sentence it quotes from the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017: learners “who are steeped in values, equipped with 21st century skills, and able to propel the country to development and progress” (item 1). The order adds that this “is consonant with the DepEd’s vision of producing ‘Filipinos who passionately love their country and whose values and competencies enable them to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to building the nation’”, the vision adopted by DepEd Order No. 36, s. 2013.

That sentence gives the learner at the center three qualities:

The K to 12 description

The K to 12 Basic Education Program, which the PPSSH names among the reforms it answers, uses nearly the same words. DepEd Order No. 021, s. 2019, the K to 12 policy guidelines, says: “The K to 12 graduate is a holistically developed Filipino who has built foundations for learning throughout life.” It describes four sets of skills (item 18):

Skills alone do not make the learner whole. The same item says “These skills, coupled with curriculum support system and DepEd core values, are designed to holistically prepare the K to 12 learners”. The law behind the program, Republic Act No. 10533, sets the aim as “productive and responsible citizens equipped with the essential competencies, skills and values for both life-long learning and employment” (Sec. 2).

The same learner in later orders

DepEd has kept the words “holistically developed” in the plans and policies issued since the PPSSH.

The BEDP 2030 does not call it a definition of “holistic”, but its sector outcome names four kinds of preparation: learners “have the physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and moral preparation for civic participation and engagement in post-secondary opportunities in their local, national, and global communities” (DO 024, s. 2022, Executive Summary).

How each domain reaches the learner

Each domain’s introduction in the PPSSH names a commitment, and each domain has strands whose indicators name learners and strands whose indicators do not.

The second and third columns quote the PPSSH, School Leadership Quality in the Philippines and the introduction of each domain. The fourth counts the strands in which at least one of the four indicators uses the word “learner”, “learners” or “student”.

The strands that name the learner

In these 14 strands at least one indicator uses the word. In eight, the learner is the one the work is for or about (1.5, 1.7, 3.1, 3.4, 3.6, 3.8, 5.1 and 5.5). In two, the learner is a source the school head listens to (1.6 and 3.3). In three, learners are one of several groups named (2.6, 4.8 and 5.4), and in one they are an example: the “learner organizations” of Strand 5.2. A Career Stage 2 school head is expected to:

• “Implement programs in the school that support the development of learners” (1.5.2);
• “Utilize learner voice, such as feelings, views and/or opinions to inform policy development and decision-making towards school improvement” (1.6.2);
• “Utilize available monitoring and evaluation processes and tools to promote learner achievement” (1.7.2);
• “Assist teachers in the review, contextualization and implementation of learning standards to make the curriculum relevant for learners” (3.1.2);
• “Manage a learner-friendly, inclusive and healthy learning environment” (3.6.2); and
• “Initiate partnerships with the community, such as parents, alumni, authorities, industries and other stakeholders, to strengthen support for learner development, as well as school and community improvement” (5.5.2).

Learner voice (Strand 1.6) stands out. It treats learners as a source of the school’s decisions, with their “feelings, views and/or opinions” informing policy, and so as more than the ones who receive what the school decides.

The strands that do not

Twenty strands have no indicator that names learners. They are the first four strands of Domain 1 (vision, planning, policy, research), five of the six in Domain 2 (records, finances, facilities, staff, school safety), three in Domain 3 (teaching standards and pedagogies, learning assessment, career awareness), seven of the eight in Domain 4, and Inclusive practice in Domain 5.

These strands are where the arrows matter. Their indicators act on the school or on its people, and their purpose clauses point at what the learner needs:

• A Career Stage 2 school head manages school safety “to ensure continuous delivery of instruction” (2.5.2).
• They “Provide technical assistance to teachers on teaching standards and pedagogies within and across learning areas to improve their teaching practice” (3.2.2).
• They “Implement professional development initiatives to enhance strengths and address performance gaps among school personnel” (4.5.2).

Two of the twenty are defined by the learner in the PPSSH glossary even though their indicators do not use the word. Career awareness and opportunities (Strand 3.7) “refers to enabling mechanisms for encouraging aspirations, developing potentials among learners, and guiding them toward any possible career paths in the future”. Inclusive practice (Strand 5.3) “Refers to an environment where all learners shall have access to and participate in all aspects of life in school, in learning centers and other places of learning”.

Where the standards meet the three qualities

DO 024, s. 2020 does not sort its strands by the three qualities of the learner in its rationale. The indicators below are the ones whose own words speak most directly to each.

School effectiveness and people effectiveness

The two arrows carry the two terms of one sentence of the PPSSH: “School heads have the authority, responsibility and accountability for taking care of people in schools (people effectiveness) while maximizing organizational performance and health (school effectiveness) by setting the direction of schools, managing their systems and processes, promoting quality teaching and learning, nurturing themselves and others, and engaging stakeholders in initiatives towards the improvement of school communities” (PPSSH, Roles of School Heads).

Three points help in reading the arrows.

The word between them is “while”. A school head answers for both at the same time. A school that reaches its targets by wearing out its teachers has traded one arrow for the other, and so has a school whose staff are content while its learners cannot read.

Each arrow chases the other. In the figure the two arrows form a circle. The glossary suggests why: organizational health includes the “commitment of people”, so taking care of people is part of what keeps the school performing, and a school that runs well is one where people can do their work.

The colors are the figure’s, and the text is wider. Figure 1 colors Domains 3, 4 and 5 like the People Effectiveness arrow, but the order ties only Domain 4 to people effectiveness in words. It ties Domains 3 and 5 to neither arrow by name, and it describes Career Stage 2 school heads as those who “maintain school effectiveness and people effectiveness by leading strategically, managing school operations and resources, focusing on teaching and learning, developing themselves and others, and building connections” (PPSSH, Career Stages). Every domain serves both. A later order describes the standards as a whole from the people side: DO 007, s. 2024 calls the PPSSH “a people effectiveness framework” beside school-based management as “an organization effectiveness framework” (Sec. V.A).

The framework beside the law and school-based management

The framework repeats, for one office, what the law says of the whole school. Republic Act No. 9155 declares: “The school shall be the heart of the formal education system. It is where children learn. Schools shall have a single aim of providing the best possible basic education for all learners” (Sec. 2). It makes the school head “both an instructional leader and administrative manager”, with authority, accountability and responsibility for “Implementing the school curriculum and being accountable for higher learning outcomes” (Sec. 7(E)). The two roles match the two halves of the order’s phrase “instructional and administrative practices” (item 11). The guide to RA 9155 duties covers all twelve.

The revised school-based management (SBM) system uses the same logic for the school and its community. DO 007, s. 2024 says of its own framework: “As these school dimensions are improved, the achievement of higher learning outcomes is realized, and Filipino learners are developed with the necessary 21st-century skills” (Sec. V.B). The order also names how the two relate: “The SBM as an organization effectiveness framework and the PPSSH as a people effectiveness framework have common and shared principles” (Sec. V.A), and SBM “aims to achieve both people and organization effectiveness in realizing organizational success” (Sec. V). Both end at the same learner. The guide to the revised SBM explains its six dimensions.

What this means for school heads

Start every decision at the center. Before approving a program, a purchase or a schedule, name the learners it serves and what will change for them. The standards point the same way: programs “that support the development of learners” (1.5.2), and monitoring and evaluation “to promote learner achievement” (1.7.2). Domain 1 covers both strands.

Check both arrows before acting. For each plan, ask two questions. Does it help the school perform, on access, quality and governance? Does it take care of the people who will carry it out? A remediation plan that adds sessions to teachers who already carry full loads needs a second look at the yellow arrow before it starts. Domain 2 and Domain 4 hold most of the indicators behind these questions.

Read “to” and “towards” in every indicator. Most indicators end in a purpose: “to ensure continuous delivery of instruction”, “to improve their teaching practice”, “to promote learner achievement”. The purpose is the route from the strand to the center. When you study a strand in the interactive guide to all 34 strands, find its purpose first, then the verb that rises from one career stage to the next.

Plan for the whole learner. A School Improvement Plan built only on test scores looks at the cognitive, one of the four kinds of preparation the BEDP 2030 names. Look for the others in what the school already does: feeding and health services, guidance and discipline, clubs and learner government, career guidance. Strands 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 5.2 of Domain 3 and Domain 5 hold the nearest indicators.

Use the figure to explain your work to others. Teachers, parents and the School Governing Council see parts of a school head’s job. The figure shows where each part goes. A request for a parent’s help with the school garden (Domain 5) and a request for a teacher’s records on time (Domain 2) rest on the same reason, and the reason is in the middle of the drawing.

For aspiring school heads, learn the framework before the indicators. Career Stage 1 describes those who “demonstrate basic knowledge and understanding of the authority, responsibility, and accountability expected of school heads” (PPSSH, Career Stages). The framework is the shortest statement of that accountability: for the school, for its people, and through both for the learner. The list of all domains, strands and indicators and the free practice sets come after it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the PPSSH Framework?

It is Figure 1 of DO 024, s. 2020: the five domains of the PPSSH drawn as a ring around two arrows, School Effectiveness and People Effectiveness, with holistically developed Filipino learners at the center. The order says it “depicts the synergy between maximizing school effectiveness and ensuring people effectiveness” through the five domains (item 11).

What is at the center of the PPSSH Framework?

Holistically developed Filipino learners. “The placement of learners at the center of the framework emphasizes the important role of school heads for the improvement of learner achievement” (DO 024, s. 2020, item 12).

What does “holistically developed” mean in DepEd?

DO 024, s. 2020 does not define it. DO 021, s. 2019 describes the K to 12 graduate as “a holistically developed Filipino who has built foundations for learning throughout life”, equipped with four sets of 21st century skills (item 18). The BEDP 2030 speaks of “physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and moral preparation” (DO 024, s. 2022, Executive Summary).

What is the difference between school effectiveness and people effectiveness?

School effectiveness is “maximizing organizational performance and health”. People effectiveness is “taking care of people in schools”. A school head has “the authority, responsibility and accountability” for both at once (PPSSH, Roles of School Heads).

Which PPSSH domains belong to school effectiveness and which to people effectiveness?

Figure 1 colors Domains 1 and 2 like the School Effectiveness arrow and Domains 3, 4 and 5 like the People Effectiveness arrow. In words, the order ties Domain 1 to organizational performance, Domain 2 to organizational health and Domain 4 to people and team effectiveness, and it says Career Stage 2 school heads maintain both kinds of effectiveness through all five domains (PPSSH, Domains 1, 2 and 4; Career Stages).

Sources

DepEd issuances

• DepEd Order No. 024, s. 2020, National Adoption and Implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads, September 7, 2020. Cover items 1 and 2; policy items 1, 2, 8 to 12 and Figure 1 (the PPSSH Framework). Enclosed PPSSH: Roles of School Heads, School Leadership Quality in the Philippines, Guiding Principles, Career Stages, the introductions and indicator tables of Domains 1 to 5, and the Glossary of Terms.
• DepEd Order No. 021, s. 2019, Policy Guidelines on the K to 12 Basic Education Program, August 22, 2019. Item 18.
• DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017, National Adoption and Implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, August 11, 2017. Introduction, Role of teachers, as quoted in DO 024, s. 2020.
• DepEd Order No. 36, s. 2013, Our Department of Education Vision, Mission and Core Values (DepEd VMV), September 4, 2013. Enclosure: Our Vision; Our Core Values.
• DepEd Order No. 024, s. 2022, Adoption of the Basic Education Development Plan 2030, May 30, 2022. Executive Summary: The Filipino Learner, and Results Framework.
• DepEd Order No. 007, s. 2024, Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of the Revised School-Based Management (SBM) System, May 16, 2024. Sections IV, V, V.A and V.B.
• DepEd Order No. 010, s. 2024, Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of the MATATAG Curriculum, July 23, 2024. Item 14.

Laws

• Republic Act No. 9155, Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, August 11, 2001. Sections 2 and 7(E).
• Republic Act No. 10533, Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, May 15, 2013. Section 2.

Written by Mark Anthony Llego for NASH Reviewer. Sources: DepEd Orders No. 024, s. 2020; 021, s. 2019; 42, s. 2017; 36, s. 2013; 024, s. 2022; 007, s. 2024; and 010, s. 2024; Republic Acts No. 9155 and 10533.