Teachers’ friend

Affinity with teachers is a calling for Delgado.

For Clarissa Isabelle Delgado, coming home to the Philippines in 2009 after years of studies abroad was a must. There was a mission that was waiting for her. She had been tasked by Sa Aklat Sisikat, a non-government organization that advocated functional literacy, to coordinate an impact assessment project conducted by experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The engagement turned out to be a turning point for this young lady who belongs to one of the country’s leading families in business and philanthropy.

That first job had opened Clarissa’s eyes to the need for supporting educators, especially the young ones, to attain expertise in their profession, either as full-time teachers or as administrator-policy makers.

Clarissa thus saw a career path she could pursue. In 2012, Sa Aklat Sisikat transformed into the Teach for the Philippines, with herself as a co-founder, along with her mother Margarita Caluag Delgado and their family friend, Lizzie Eder Zobel.

Today, Clarissa is the NGO’s chief executive officer, with the two serving as chairman and vice chairman, respectively.

CLARISSA (seated middle) with the Teach for the Philippines staff.

The job would not be easy, but it would have its rewards. Outside of the good the NGO has done for teachers, Clarissa had been recognized for her excellent work. She was selected as one of the 20 inaugural fellows of the Obama Foundation. She received the TOYM Award for Community Service and the Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders Award.

Just this week past, she was awarded as one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service 2019 for Education.

The Dailly Tribune visited Clarissa at her office where she shared with us the story of Teach for the Philippines.

Daily Tribune (DT): What was your first job?

Clarissa Liboro Delgado (CLD): I came back to the Philippines in 2009 because the co-founders of the original organization called Sa Aklat Sisikat, which was working on functional literacy for already a decade at that point, had hired the MIT Poverty Action Lab to run a randomized control trial or impact measurement survey on their program. I was then hired to manage this entire project to ensure the delivery of the knowledge product as well as manage the teams in the Philippines as well as in the US. We ran the survey across 100 schools of Tarlac, 50 of which would receive the program and 50 would have a delayed reception (trial on the program). We surveyed close to 7,000 children and 800 teachers. It was a big undertaking.

That was actually my first job and your question is timely as the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics were actually the founders of the MIT Poverty Action Map. And the youngest Nobel laureate Dr. Esther Duflo was actually the lady that helped assign our team to the Philippines. So, we’re proud of our affiliation with the Lab, so proud of Dr. Duflo, and we’re so thankful that we’ve continued our relationship until today.

DT: What was the result of the survey? What did you do with the findings?

CLD: The result of this survey showed statistically significant impact, but it also led us to a question about doing something more systemic. And so based on the review of the survey result, we formulated the business plan of Teach for the Philippines. The survey was from 2009 to 2011. In 2012, we formally transitioned Sa Aklat Ka Sisikat to Teach for the Philippines. We rebranded, renamed ourselves and began a new journey as Teach for the Philippines.

DT: What is the difference between the two organizations?

CLD: So many. Sa Aklat Sisikat was a grassroots intervention program that was a 30-day reading program. Teach for the Philippines is completely different. We have three different programs.

Our first program is called the Fellowship. In that program, we recruit and place new public school teachers so we try to raise the prestige of the public school teaching profession by recruiting really competent and intelligent young Filipinos to consider teaching in public schools for two years.

“IT’S nice to sit with teachers and principals and ask how they are doing.”

Our second program works with existing public school teachers. So we look for fully tenured public school teachers, the average length of time of their service anywhere between 5 to 10 years. And we also train them for two years. The number one difference again from Sa Aklat Sisikat is we moved 30 days to 2 years and 600 hour full-time training commitment so it is a more permanent interaction with the school.

Our final program is actually working with convincing former Teach for the Philippines-trained teachers to consider extending for one year by working in an education and youth policy in the local and national governments.

So it’s also moving from an intervention program into one that is hopefully partnering with the system to bridge the gap between head office and the implementing arms in the frontline public school teachers.

DT: So, how are these teachers trained? How are they trained differently from would-be teachers?

CLD: I think we are a bit more intensive in the sense that apart from content knowledge, we also have an individual coaching framework (for the teachers). We are focused 100 percent on taking care of the caregivers. And so if you ask me specifically what the difference number one is, you have an individual coach. So, if you were teaching with us, you have an individual manager who is visiting your classroom, doing clinical observations with you, perfecting your craft. These are young people in that the teachers are between 20 and 40

The second thing that makes it different aside from the individual coaching is we also put a premium on wellness and human development. So we also have an in-house human development specialist, meaning that outside of just your teaching skills and expertise, we look after your whole self. So, we’re concerned about your wellness, mental health, how you’re doing, and you have access to those resources if you are part of our program. Which is admittedly something we are able to do because we’re much smaller. We have about a hundred teachers that we fully manage a year. If you join our program, those are the things that you receive.

DT: The teachers under your program are at an advantage.

CLD: In the sense that they are given the opportunity and the privilege to be part of a program that looks after them. And they also get connected with each other. It is a two-year program.

DT: What are your expectations after they complete the program? In what way do they become better?

CLD: We ask them to consider two things. Instructional leadership or administrative and policy leadership. In other words, we hope that you show up as the best version of yourself. And that you either pursue that by pursuing excellence in instruction and become a master teacher IV, follow the instructional route and become the best teacher you can be, like become a Metro Bank awardee, or if you want to follow that administrative path or the policy path, you then pursue that to its fullest extent. You fully join the Department of Education, you share your talent in a supervisory or administrative position, share the privilege of your training or coaching in that capacity and continue to support education for the rest of your life.

DT: How do you choose them? What process takes place?

CLD: It takes six months for you to be chosen for our program. We get thousands of applications and we choose only 50 a year.

DT: How do they know that you’re looking for trainees?

CLD: We have partnerships with various universities for fresh graduates. We also have a very strong and close relationship with the Department of Education so we also recruit internally.

DT: Are these all public school teachers?

CLD: Yes. We only work with public schools.

DT: Do you engage directly with the teachers aside from your regular visits in their respective schools?

CLD: Every year, the staff of Teach for the Philippines close up shop for a day, spend one full day teaching one full shift with our teachers. All over the country. So, this year, I was in Cebu. I was teaching senior high school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) which is not exactly my expertise. (laughs) Senior high school chemistry and physics would not necessarily be my best strength, but in that particular case, the day was a little shorter than those of our other teachers in the elementary school. Majority of our teachers are in elementary school. And so it was a different age group. It was interesting not to be in a classroom of 50 children. But then I learned that it is important for teachers to have content knowledge. Our teacher was actually a mechanical engineer and so he has the requisite math to teach STEM in high school. And I learned again that, especially for the older grades, content knowledge is critical. And the placement of teachers who have four years of content knowledge is really critical.

Previous to that, I have taught everywhere from Mindanao to Quezon City. I will say one other thing that I have realized over the years. That it is difficult in some of our urban schools because it is so noisy outside. You just have to yell to be heard. Some teachers end up investing in microphones. Which I think is something that is seen only in the Philippines. Also, when it rains, it’s very noisy.

Another thing that I have learned, teaching doesn’t end with the classroom. Teachers have to spend a long time doing forms. They check papers and so on. Those long hours may often be overlooked. I have learned that It’s not often that teachers and principals are asked how they are. Everyone wants something from a teacher. For a teacher or principal, there is always something wanted, to be had, to be delivered, to be submitted. It would be nice to sit with them and ask how they are doing. If we could do that just a little bit more, I think they’d appreciate it.