READING ABILITY AND ITS DETERMINANTS: A CASE OF ELEMENTARY GRADE LEARNERS

This study examined the reading ability of 221 Grade 4 to Grade 6 learners and six determinants of reading performance: teacher competence, learning resources, parental involvement, school environment, pupil engagement, and socio-economic status. A quantitative descriptive-comparative design was employed using the learners’ latest Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) pretest results and a validated researcher-made questionnaire. Frequency, percentage, weighted mean, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test were used. Results showed that 117 learners (52.94%) were at the Instructional level, 84 (38.01%) at the Independent level, and 20 (9.05%) at the Frustration level. Teacher competence obtained the highest overall mean (4.22, Strongly Agree). Significant differences were found for parental involvement (H = 12.274, p = .002) and socio-economic status (H = 12.295, p = .002), whereas teacher competence, learning resources, school environment, and pupil engagement did not differ significantly across the groups. The findings emphasize the importance of family engagement, equitable learning opportunities, and differentiated reading support for learners with varying reading needs.