Students’ Reading Proficiency and Academic Performance

Abstract

Reading proficiency and academic performance are both of paramount importance to a learner’s holistic academic success. These aspects of a student’s journey must not be taken for granted regardless of their locale, cultural context, and academic setting. Consequently, this intellectual endeavor examined the correlation of said factors. It first probed into the students’ profile and determined their reading proficiency level (RPL) and academic performance (AP) in English based on the Phil-IRI result and mean percentage scores. Using descriptive-correlational analysis, the study investigated the significant differences in the RPL of the students when grouped according to their profile variates and the significant relationship between their AP and RPL. Findings revealed that the latter differed in terms of sex, parents’ highest educational attainment, parents’ occupation, and a number of days of attendance in school, but similar along with age, nutritional status, and attitude toward reading. Students showed a favorable AP in reading as depicted in the positive coefficient result, suggesting a direct proportional linear relationship indicating that students with higher RPL manifested higher AP than those whose reading performance was on the average only. Hence, the study inferred that students need an intervention program for their reading skills and in becoming independent readers. Also, as female students were proven to manifest higher RPL, it was recommended that teachers provide enhancement activities for male students to be at par with their female counterparts. Thus, this empirical information would be beneficial to both schools and educators in strengthening every learner's reading proficiency and academic performance.