Project REACH (Reading Empowerment Asserting Connection at Home): Input to an Enhanced Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade 9 Students in English

Reading comprehension is one of the most useful lifetime skills that go beyond the classroom setting. Students who have excellent reading comprehension can succeed inside and outside the school. Relative to this, the study aimed to find out the possible impact of Project REACH (Reading Empowerment Asserting Connection at Home) on the reading comprehension skills of Grade 9 students of Alaminos Integrated National High School, A.Y. 2021-2022. This study was descriptive correlational for it aimed to accurately and systematically describe a population, situation, or phenomenon and at the same time it investigated relationships between variables without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of them. It aspired to find out the significant difference between the mean pre-test and post-test scores of Grade 9 students in English and the significant relationship between the Project REACH and reading comprehension skills of Grade 9 students in English. Eighty percent (80%) or one hundred and sixty (160) of the two hundred (200) Grade 9 students of Alaminos Integrated National High School who have undergone the Project REACH pilot implementation since the school year 2020-2021 were the respondents and the study covered the Fourth Quarter period of the academic year 2021-2022. The researcher utilized a teacher-made pre-test and post-test based on the particular reading skills, as well as a researcher-made survey questionnaire to test the students’ perception of the Project REACH components. Statistical treatments used in the study were frequency count, percent distribution, mean, standard deviation, paired sample t-test, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson r). The result showed that among all the reading skills, only Getting the Main Idea is associated with the Project Reach’s Assessment, r=.258, when tested at P<.01. However, when tested at P<.05, it was found that Drawing Conclusions has a very weak association with Project REACH’s Content, r=.164 while Noting Details is associated with Project REACH’s Procedure, r=.184., Thus, partially rejecting the null hypothesis. Since the study reveals that there is the partial relationship between the level of reading comprehension skills of Grade 9 students and the Project REACH components, the school may continue supporting and improving the implementation of Project REACH, as well as involving all the learners in this kind of reading program and to religiously follow its mantra, “no child will be left behind”. Keywords: reading, reading comprehension, reading skills, Project REACH, reading materials.