Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.

City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
THE EFFICACY OF ECARP (EVERY CHILD A READING PROGRAM) FOR
ENHANCED INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

Literature Review

Every Child A Reader Program (ECARP) is a three-stage approach to

support children with reading at key stage that waves into: a) quality first teaching

that aimed at all children through class-based teaching; b) small group

interventions aimed at children who can be expected to catch up with their peers

with some additional support; c) Reading Recovery’ – intensive reading support

in the form of a one-to-one programmed for children who have been identified as

having specific support needs.

According to Mapacpac (2014), this program has been adopted by the

Philippines, through the Department of Education. Every Child A Reader

Program (ECARP) is a part of the Ten Point Agenda of Aquino’s administration. It

was implemented along with Phil IRI Assessment Tool used to determine the

reading levels of the learners in the public elementary schools. ECARP aims to

ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere in the country, boys and girls alike, will

be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

Furthermore, ECARP involves materials for development of teachers and

pupils as well as training of teachers on the utilization of materials such as

teacher self-learning modules (TSLMs) and Phil IRI. The Teacher Self-Learning

Modules (TSLMs) are designed to equip primary grade teachers with the

necessary materials to improve the teaching of reading. On the other hand, the
 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
Phil IRI Informal Reading Inventory (Phil IRI) is an authentic reading assessment

tool that evaluates reading proficiency of the learners (Mapacpac, 2014).

Moreover, this education reform builds and improves on Every Child a

Reader Program (ECARP) launched by the Department of Education in 2001

which targeted Grade 3 as the level by which every child must be a successful

reader—sometimes described as the zero nonreaders’ goal by Grade 4.

Accordingly, Grade 3 has been found too late in the elementary level, especially

with the introduction of the kindergarten program. A goal as ambitious and all-

encompassing as that entails major institutional reforms, the accompanying

infrastructure, and the much-needed teacher training for more effective reading

instruction. To echo the prevailing observation about such initiatives from the

Department of Education: there is no denying that we have numerous pockets of

excellence going on, but not a mandated standard, uniform, sustainable program

that everyone adheres to. What we have on hand instead, are different initiatives

from different divisions around the country: a catalog of Best Reading Practices

and Reading Intervention Projects from 30 schools in 17 regions as of March

2010. Thus, a decade after the launch of this very catchy Every Child a Reader

slogan, our achievement scores remain nothing to crow about (Cruz, 2011;

Mendoza, 2012).

The evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of ECARP in

improving the reading skills of Grades 1 and 3 pupils in one of the public schools

in Bulacan, results revealed that ECARP was not effective in improving the
 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
reading skills of the subject students. Moreover, there was a problem in the

school’s capacity to implement the program due to the lack of monitoring and

follow-through by the administration. The researcher recommended that the

ECARP’s implementation in the school be discontinued since it was not effective

in improving the reading levels of pupils. It further recommended that a new

reading intervention be introduced in the school for Grade 1 and Grade 3

nonreaders, taking into consideration the specific reading deficiencies of students

in the school (Adriano, 2013).

In the study of Vejerano (2012), ECARP served as the framework of the

study in which the reading strategies used by the teachers were assessed. It was

determined based on the results of Phil IRI pre and post assessment. Findings,

emphasized that reading intervention programs like ECARP is excellent

assistance to boost academic performance especially in reading, however,

pupils’ improvement in reading are not based on the reading programs but on the

strategies used by the teachers to teach the skill of reading that helped the

learners understand the processes in a day-to-day learning session in the

classroom.

The development of the Phil-IRI is one of the initiatives put in place in

support of Every Child A Reader Program (ECARP). Before teachers can design

and provide appropriate reading instruction for their students, they should be

armed with information about their students’ current reading levels and abilities.

This diagnostic approach to describing how children read embraces inclusionary

principles that emphasize the need for education that is learner-oriented,

 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
responsive and culturally sensitive. The Phil-IRI is one of the diagnostic tools that

teachers can use to determine students' abilities and needs in reading.

The Phil-IRI was revised in 2013 prior to the introduction of the K-12

Curriculum. The readability level of the selections for oral and silent reading were

based on the old English and Filipino curricula and were validated to pupils who

were products of these old curricula; they were taught to read in Filipino and in

English starting in Grade 1.

The Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) was created to

provide classroom teachers a tool for measuring and describing reading

performance. It is an assessment tool composed of graded passages designed

to determine a student’s reading level. Phil-IRI only provides an approximation of

the learner’s abilities and may be used in combination with other reliable tools of

assessment.

Under the K-12 curriculum, the pupils are introduced to Reading in Filipino

during the first semester of Grade 2 while reading in English is introduced during

the second semester. For example, the curriculum in Phonics and Word

Recognition for Grade 2 English during the second semester is reading short e, a

and i words in consonant-vowel-consonant pattern (Flippo, 2014).

Phil-IRI may be used to describe reading speed and comprehension. The

student’s reading speed is measured by recording the time it takes the child to

read each passage completely. Silent reading comprehension is measured by

asking the student to answer five to eight questions of varying difficulty after a
 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
passage has been read. For all three types of individual assessments (oral

reading comprehension and silent reading comprehension), the aim is to find the

learner’s independent, instructional and frustration levels, so that teachers know

what level of reading materials the student can read and understand well, as well

as what level of reading materials the student is not ready for. Since the Phil-IRI

is administered at the start and at the end of the school year, it can also tell

teachers about the growth and changes in students’ reading skills and levels.

With this premise, several studies were conducted to assess the reading

levels of the students using the Phil IRI assessment tools. The study of Carbado

(2015) determined the reading proficiency level of Year 1 to Year 3 students in

HNHS Aplaya Extension High School as basis for reading intervention program.

It made use of descriptive survey research design and Philippine-Informal

Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) materials were used in assessing the level of

reading proficiency of Years 1 to 3 students. The results revealed that majority of

the students belonged to frustration level of reading proficiency in silent reading

while in instructional level for the oral reading in which majority of the males are

less proficient in reading compared to females in both silent and oral reading.

There is no significant difference on the levels of reading proficiency levels of

students when analyzed according to their year levels and gender. However, a

significant difference on the levels of reading proficiency of students in silent and

oral reading was found.

Mendones (2014) study determined effective strategies for remediation

using analysis of errors to further identify the level of reading proficiency of the
 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
Grade IV pupils in Tiwi Central School, Albay. It employed descriptive research

using a combination of assessment and non-experimental methodology. It made

use of items in Phil IRI as the main tool. Strategies were developed to remedy

the word recognition errors and comprehension deficiencies in oral reading in

ranked order as: mispronunciation, repetition and substitution, insertion, omission

and punctuation errors. The comprehension deficiencies were: making

inferences, making judgment, thinking creatively and drawing out values on the

situation or story read. The study recommended that teachers should give pre-

test in reading to determine the initial reading proficiency, analyze the result, and

adapt appropriate strategies to improve the reading proficiency level of the

pupils, plan a medium-term strategy and a year-to-year operation plan for a

school-wide reading program involving all teachers in all subject areas. Other

recommendations include, participation of all teachers in improving the reading

proficiency of the pupils, and teachers should let the pupils as well as their

parents know the former reading weaknesses.

In another study, Tongco (2013) identified the reading proficiency level of

the Grades IV, V, and VI pupils of Bitano Elementary School in the following

reading comprehension skills: literal, inferential, critical, creativeness and valuing

and devised appropriate school reading programs. Results of the oral reading

test in word recognition and comprehension were analyzed with the use of Phil

IRI reading level criteria. Findings showed that almost all the pupils fall under

frustration level, which connotes for an intervention program.

 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
Introduction

Many developing countries across the world, including the Philippines,

have established and developed programs that vary in content and design to

encourage reading and to promote the development of reading skill among

young learners. Some programs focused on improving the quality of reading

instruction provided by the teachers and supported by the parents; others are

attempt to increase the quantity of reading materials available to children; while

are also programs on reading intervention or remediation to bridge skill gaps in

reading (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2009; Snow, 2013).

The Department of Education has initiated programs to address the

reading problems of children. The release DepEd Order No. 12 s. 2015 envisions

the expansion related to enhancement that requires special education and

trainings, skills component of a particular profession of the program Guidelines

on the Early Language Literacy and Numeracy Program Professional

Development Plan or Every Child A Reader Program (ECARP) promulgated in

2017 through DepEd order no. 18 which aims to develop in Filipino learners in

the elementary level, the literacy and numeracy skills and attitudes, which will

contribute to lifelong learners.

In compliance to the program, teachers are mandated to implement the

Every Child A Reader Program. They are free to choose any of the reading

remediation programs which they think best fit and appropriate to the learning

needs of the children in their respective classes.

 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
In support to the program, the Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE)

develop the “Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil IRI) which aims to

address its thrust to make every Filipino child a reader. Its goal is to enable every

Filipino child to communicate both in English and Filipino languages through

effective reading program. The Phil IRI has been administered to all public

elementary schools since 2011 up to present to assess the progress and levels

of reading ability and comprehension of the pupils after the reading intervention

or remediation program implemented by the teachers (Madrid, 2012).

However, despite the implementation of reading remediation programs,

there are many cases that a child is promoted l to another grade level without

learning the skill of reading. For instance, a pupil is promoted from one grade

level to another grade level with poor word recognition skill and poor reading

comprehension, which fall under frustration level. Thus, reading remains a

problem in many of the public schools and a culprit of low academic

achievement.

Thus, this longitudinal study on Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil

IRI) was conducted. The Phil IRI assessment results would be used to determine

the efficacy of Every Child A Reader Program implemented in Cabadbaran City

Division.
 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________

Theoretical Framework

The study is anchored on dual route reading theory postulated by Tilly, et

al. (2010). Accordingly, the association of word recognition and comprehension is

concomitant to the development of reading skill. Word recognition is an indirect

non-lexical reading route which assumed to be restricted to low-frequency of

words for which the readers have not yet established and well-internalized its

orthographic representations or to any instance to which the reader encounters

an unfamiliar word or a nonsense letter setting.

Furthermore, the efficient and accurate recognition of written words is

undoubtedly a pre-requisite for proper reading comprehension but not sufficient

to its own. Thus, in order to comprehend a sentence or a paragraph, the final

meaning of correctly recognized words has to be elaborated with reference to the

readers’ syntactic and semantic knowledge (Miller, 2010; Tilly, et al., 2010).

In addition, the study is based on the concept that ECARP, a national

program that would address the thrust of DepEd to make every Filipino child a

reader at his/her own level which is designed to equip elementary pupils with

strategic reading and writing skills to make them independent young readers and

writers.

Likewise, it is anchored on the belief of the researcher that ECARP, as a

reading intervention program would help improve the reading skill of the pupils.
 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________

Statement of the Problem

1. What are the Phil IRI pre and post assessment results of Grade 6 pupils

from School Year 2017-2018 to 2019-2020?

2. Are there significant changes in the reading skills of the pupils in terms

of :

2.1 word recognition; and

2.2 comprehension?

3. What are the challenges and concerns encountered by the teachers in

the implementation of ECARP?

4. Based on the findings of the study, what classroom intervention can be

developed?

Research Methodology

Research Design

This study made use of longitudinal research design. Longitudinal

research is a type of correlational research that involves looking at variables over

an extended period of time. It aims to discover the relationship between variables

that are not related to various background variables. This observational research

technique involves studying the same group of individuals over an extended

period. Data are first collected at the outset of the study. Doing this allows

researchers to observe how variable may change over time.

 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________

The location of the research

The study to determine the efficacy of ECARP for enhanced intervention

strategies of Division of Cabadbaran City will conduct at Cabadbaran City,

Agusan del Norte.

Participants of the Study

The three teachers of all the schools of Cabadbaran City Division were the

participants of the study. They were the Grade 3, 4, and 5 teachers of Grade 6

pupils for the last three school year: 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020. The

Grade 6 pupils were the subjects of the subject.

Instrumentation

Primarily, this research utilized results of Phil IRI pre and post assessment

as the main source of data. These were requested from the subject teachers of

the Grade 6 pupils for the past three years 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-

2020.

Also, a researcher-made interview guide questions were used in gathering

additional data from the participants. The interview aimed to provide

comprehensive details in describing the efficacy of ECARP in this longitudinal

study. It contained questions on challenges and concerns encountered by the

teachers in implementing the ECARP.

 Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc.
City of Cabadbaran
______________________________________________________________________________
Data Gathering Procedures

Several steps were conducted to gather the data and all the information

needed to facilitate the research. First, the researcher will send a letter to the

School’s Division Superintendent as a sign of permission to gather data. Second,

request letter to the school principal to access the results of pretest and posttest

of Phil IRI for the last three school years, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020.

and a permission to allow the researcher to conduct interviews to the

respondents.