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Sound Partners

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 5 claims (4 for, 1 against) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description

Sound Partners is a structured one-to-one early-literacy tutoring programme developed by the University of Oregon and delivered by trained paraprofessional tutors.

Components

  • Sound Partners one-to-one tutoring program: Sound Partners is "a 1-1 tutoring program that uses paraprofessionals as tutors." Students receive "tutoring 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week, for 18-20 weeks." Instruction differs somewhat between kindergarten and first grade but at both levels "focuses on phonics, phonemic awareness, sight words, and oral reading practice using decodable texts." The program was evaluated in kindergarten and first-grade studies meeting ESSA Strong criteria. (Sound Partners (2023))
  • Sound Partners phonics-based tutoring program: Sound Partners is "a phonics-based tutoring program that provides supplemental reading instruction to elementary school students grades K–3 with below average reading skills." It consists of scripted lessons in alphabetic and phonics skills emphasizing letter-sound correspondences, phoneme blending, decoding and encoding phonetically regular words, and reading irregular high-frequency words, with oral reading practice in Bob Books® decodable texts. It is designed for tutors with minimal training and can be delivered as pull-out, after-school, or homeschool tutoring. (Sound Partners (2010))
  • Sound Partners one-to-one paraprofessional tutoring program in early reading: Sound Partners is a 1-1 tutoring program that uses paraprofessionals as tutors. Students receive "tutoring 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week, for 18-20 weeks." The tutoring "focuses on phonics, phonemic awareness, sight words, and oral reading practice using decodable texts," with somewhat different content in kindergarten and first grade. (Sound Partners (2024))
  • Short frequent one-to-one tutoring sessions with scripted phonics lessons and mastery checks: The program's instructional pattern is "30 minute sessions of one-to-one tutoring that take place four days per week throughout one school year." Each session includes from four to eight short activities, with the last 15 minutes allocated for oral reading practice in decodable texts matched to taught phonics skills. Although scripted, instruction can be adjusted to individual student needs, and tests given every 10 lessons gauge student mastery. (Sound Partners (2010))

Claims

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Key Sources

  • Sound Partners. (2023). Voyager Sopris Learning program summary, Evidence Rating strong. https://www.voyagersopris.com
  • Sound Partners. (2010). WWC Intervention Report: Sound Partners. What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. http://www.wri-edu.org/partners/sound-partners.htm
  • Sound Partners. (2024). Sound Partners. https://www.evidenceforesight.org/programs/sound-partners
Page metadata
Field Value
type product
id sound-partners
title Sound Partners
description Sound Partners is a structured one-to-one early-literacy tutoring programme developed by the University of Oregon and delivered by trained paraprofessional tutors.
status review
moved_from design/sound-partners-tutoring-session-pattern, element/sound-partners-paraprofessional-tutoring-element, element/sound-partners-program-element, element/sound-partners-tutoring-program
product_kind programme
generated by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 3 — sound-partners-2023, sound-partners-2010, sound-partners-2024

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