Perceived Gains, Implementation Barriers, and Effectiveness of Reading Recovery Strategies: Evidence from Viga East and West Districts, Schools Division of Catanduanes

Reading proficiency remains a critical predictor of learners’ academic success, socio-emotional development, and lifelong engagement with learning. Despite national and regional efforts, early literacy deficits persist in rural Philippine contexts, particularly in low-resource, geographically isolated districts. Structured interventions such as Reading Recovery (RR) programs have demonstrated potential to enhance decoding, comprehension, motivation, and learner confidence; however, localized evidence on their implementation, perceived gains, and operational barriers remains limited. This study examined teachers’ perceptions of gains, barriers, and overall effectiveness of RR strategies in the Viga East and West Districts of the Schools Division of Catanduanes. Employing a descriptive-correlational design, data were collected from 128 teachers across 28 public elementary schools using a validated survey instrument. Descriptive statistics summarized levels of perceived gains, implementation barriers, and program effectiveness, while Pearson correlation assessed relationships among these variables. Findings indicate that teachers perceive RR strategies as effective in fostering learner confidence, motivation, home–school collaboration, and moderate improvements in fluency and comprehension. The most frequently encountered barriers were learner attendance, time constraints, limited reading materials, and insufficient teacher training. Correlation analyses revealed that perceived gains significantly relate to overall program effectiveness (r = .518), while implementation barriers also exhibit a strong positive association with effectiveness (r = .650), highlighting the influence of both program strengths and operational challenges on instructional outcomes. Based on these findings, a context-specific intervention plan is proposed, focusing on enhancing learner engagement, optimizing instructional time, strengthening teacher capacity, expanding access to culturally relevant reading materials, and institutionalizing monitoring mechanisms. The study provides empirical insights for improving early literacy interventions in rural, resource constrained settings and contributes actionable strategies for sustaining Reading Recovery programs in the Philippines and similar educational contexts.