Study: 33541

Sound Partners Intervention Report - Beginning Reading

Review Details

Reviewed: September 2010

No statistically significant positive
findings

Meets WWC standards without reservations

For:

Sound Partners Intervention Report - Beginning Reading

Using:

Rating:

Meets WWC standards without reservations

This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Please see the WWC summary of evidence for Sound Partners.

Findings

Alphabetics outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): Nonsense Words Fluency subtest	Sound Partners vs. business as usual	posttest	Grade 1; 47 students	68.50	55.30	No	--
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): Phoneme Segmentation Fluency subtest	Sound Partners vs. business as usual	posttest	Grade 1; 47 students	30.90	30.10	No	--

Reading achievement outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Revised Normative Update (WRMT-R/NU): Total Reading	Sound Partners vs. business as usual	Posttest	Grade 1; 47 students	95.70	92.40	No	--

Reading Fluency outcomes—Substantively important positive effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): Oral Reading Fluency subtest	Sound Partners vs. business as usual	Posttest	Grade 1; 47 students	57.60	44.90	No	--

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Sample Characteristics

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

Female: 34%
Male: 66%
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Nebraska

Race
Black		21%
White		68%

Ethnicity
Hispanic		9%
Not Hispanic or Latino		91%

Study Details

Setting

Study participants were enrolled in seven elementary schools in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Study sample

The study included first-grade students who were screened prior to treatment and determined to be at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. All of the students were systematically screened using a modified version of the first two steps of the Systematic Screening for Behavioral Disorders and met criteria for either internalizing or externalizing behavioral disorders.

Intervention Group

Children in the experimental group received the standard beginning reading instruction provided in the classroom in addition to Sound Partners. The general first-grade literacy curriculum included the phonics component of the Open Court reading program and various teacher-designed reading, listening, and writing activities. Students in the experimental group received approximately 30 minutes of tutoring in reading 5 times weekly throughout the majority of the 2002–03 school year (i.e., mid-September through mid-April). The mean number of Sound Partners lessons completed by participants in the experimental condition was 68.2 (range 2 to 100). Of the 28 first-graders who began the intervention, seven (25%) completed all 100 lessons, while four (14%) completed less than half of the lessons.

Comparison Group

Children in the comparison group received the standard beginning reading instruction provided in the classroom and a home-school intervention designed to improve social skills known as First Step to Success. All 19 participants in the comparison group completed the First Step to Success program.

Outcome descriptions

The study reports the total reading scores on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test–Revised/Normative Update (WMRT-R/NU). The total reading score combines the scores from the Word Attack, Word Identification, Word Comprehension, and Passage Comprehension subtests. The study also includes the combined Word Attack and Word Identification scores and the combined Word Comprehension and Passage Comprehension scores, which are presented in Appendix A2.4. In addition, the study presents the scores from three subtests of the Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): Phoneme Segmentation, Nonsense Word Fluency, and Oral Reading Fluency. For a more detailed description of these outcome measures, see Appendices A2.1 and A2.2.

Support for implementation

A total of 14 tutors (two at each of the seven schools) implemented the Sound Partners program. Tutors were identified and selected by the research team at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for At-Risk Children’s Services. A five-step training strategy was used to train tutors to implement the Sound Partners program: (1) a presentation to tutors on the theory and rationale for Sound Partners; (2) a demonstration involving live modeling of skills; (3) simulated testing conditions to provide practice for the tutors until a high level of skill performance was obtained; (4) structured feedback to tutors on how proficiently they performed during simulated practice conditions (tutors were observed on at least three occasions before beginning tutoring with children); and (5) following training, observation of tutors on a regular basis until a satisfactory maintenance level was achieved.

An investigation of the effects of a comprehensive reading intervention on the beginning reading skills of first graders at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2003).