Grade 1 Teachers' Instructional Practices as an Antecedent of the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment Outcome

Abstract

This study determined the relationship between Grade 1 teachers' instructional practices and Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) early reading outcomes. Specifically, it assessed teachers' practices in systematic phonics and decoding instruction, phonemic awareness instruction with letters, dialogic read-aloud and oral language/vocabulary routines, formative assessment of early reading, and print-rich, text-accessible classroom. It also examined CRLA outcomes in phonological awareness, decoding/word reading accuracy, oral reading fluency, and reading/listening comprehension. The study employed a quantitative descriptive-correlational research design using teacher practice survey data and CRLA-based learner outcome records. The findings showed that teachers' instructional practices were generally well implemented and that learners demonstrated favorable early reading outcomes across the assessed literacy domains. The results further indicated that stronger instructional practices were meaningfully associated with better CRLA outcomes, with classroom text access and dialogic oral language routines emerging as important areas for strengthening early literacy development. The study recommends sustained professional development on structured literacy, systematic use of CRLA results for instructional planning, improved access to multilingual and decodable texts, and strengthened school-based coaching to support Grade 1 reading instruction.