Reading Comprehension Level of Grade 8 Students in Uddiawan National High School: A Basis for Designing Contextualized Reading Intervention Material in English for Readers

A fundamental ability that is essential for both academic achievement and lifetime learning is reading comprehension. Recent researches, however, show that many Filipino students, especially those attending rural schools, have difficulty comprehending written materials. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reading comprehension skills of eighth-grade students at Uddiawan National High School and investigate the ways in which environmental and demographic factors affect their ability. Creating contextualized reading intervention tools that were suited to the needs of the students was the final objective. The study employed a non-experimental, descriptive-correlational and descriptive comparative research design. A total of 133 Grade 8 students were assessed using the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) Contextualized Group Screening Test. Their profiles—including age, sex, mother tongue, academic performance, and exposure to multimedia resources—were analyzed through descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman’s rho to determine significant differences and relationships with reading comprehension levels. The results showed that just 9.8% of the respondents achieved the autonomous level of reading comprehension, while 61.7% were at the frustration level. When categorized by mother language, age, sex, or academic achievement, no discernible variations in reading comprehension were discovered. Similarly, there were no discernible associations between reading comprehension and factors like parental education, income, ethnicity, or exposure to multimedia, with the exception of a little inverse relationship with the presence of a laptop at home, which may indicate a digital distraction. The results underscore the urgency of developing targeted, culturally responsive reading intervention materials. While demographic variables showed limited direct impact, the widespread low comprehension levels indicate the need for interventions grounded in students’ local context and educational realities. The study provides a research-based foundation for designing contextualized reading materials that can address the learning gaps among struggling readers in rural secondary schools. It also encourages future research to explore broader cognitive, motivational, and instructional variables influencing reading performance.