# Once — Full Reference > Once is an early literacy education company that teaches 3-7 year olds how to read in just 15 minutes a day. We provide a fully scripted, research-backed reading curriculum paired with live coaching — delivered through school programs (Once at School) and a home product for parents (Once at Home). The curriculum is rooted in the Science of Reading, aligned with LETRS, and has produced consistently strong gains in independent third-party studies. --- ## What Once is Once is an early-reading program for pre-K, kindergarten, and first-grade students. The product comes in two delivery models built on the same scripted curriculum: **Once at School** — Schools deliver in-person, one-on-one tutoring sessions of 15 minutes per day, every school day. Schools' existing support staff (instructional aides, paraprofessionals, volunteers) deliver the tutoring using Once's scripted curriculum. Once trains them at the start of the year and coaches them weekly throughout the year. **Once at Home** — Parents deliver the same scripted, research-backed curriculum at home in 15 minutes a day. Each family is paired with a live coach. The home product is free until a child reads their first 3-letter word, then $1.63/day ($49/month). Both versions share the same 200-cycle curriculum, the same Science of Reading foundation, and the same human coaching approach. --- ## The Once method ### One-on-one, in-person, daily Instruction happens the way young students learn best: sitting next to a trusted adult, one-on-one, every day. No screens between adult and child. No cohorts. Focused 15-minute sessions. ### Fully scripted curriculum Once instructors do not need any special expertise in teaching reading. They use a carefully scripted curriculum in every session. The script tells the instructor exactly what to say — including real-time corrections based on the specific mistake a student makes. ### Recorded sessions and weekly coaching Every session is recorded. Every instructor is assigned an Once coach who reviews recordings and leads a 30-minute personalized coaching meeting each week to provide targeted feedback and support. Over a school year that adds up to 20+ hours of structured 1:1 coaching per instructor. ### Curriculum structure The Once curriculum is organized into 200 cycles. Each cycle is composed of distinct tasks (New Sound, Sound Review, Word Reading, Story Reading, Writing). Tasks become more complex as students develop skills. Cycles 0–69 include explicit phonemic-awareness exercises (segmenting, blending, onset-rime rhyming). ### Specialized orthography that fades out Early in the curriculum Once uses a specialized orthography to help students decode many words sooner than they otherwise could. This orthography begins phasing out at one-third of the way through the curriculum and is fully phased out at two-thirds. By year-end, students read books in standard serif fonts. ### Lowercase first Once teaches lowercase letters first and introduces capital letters in the middle of the curriculum. Reasoning: students learn capitals more easily once lowercase is mastered, and skipping capitals early lets students read complete sentences (and develop comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency) sooner. Punctuation is taught throughout. ### Long-e before short-e Once introduces the long-e sound before the short-e sound (an exception to its general "short before long" pattern for vowels). The long-e sound, rendered in Once's specialized orthography, lets students decode many words far earlier in the curriculum. ### Authentic text in every cycle Every cycle includes an opportunity for the student to read and engage with authentic text by asking questions, drawing connections, and making inferences and predictions. ### Narrative continuity Once chains the practice text across all 200 cycles into a single, cohesive narrative with consistent characters — so students stay engaged and want to keep reading to find out what happens next. --- ## Research and evidence Once has completed multiple ESSA Tier 3 studies, with Tier 2 and Tier 1 studies in progress. Major findings: - **2024-25 LXD Research quasi-experimental study (ESSA Tier II):** Kindergarten students who started below the 50th percentile nationally and completed 80+ Once sessions gained 0.46 standard deviations on FastBridge — equivalent to roughly +5 months of additional reading growth. Statistically significant at p<0.001. - **2024-25 LXD Research FastBridge study:** 551 kindergarteners across 35 Southeast schools. Students who completed 80+ Once sessions were 7× more likely to reach low/no risk by spring. - **2024-25 LXD Research i-Ready study:** 822 kindergarten students. Those receiving 20+ hours of 1:1 Once tutoring grew over 20 percentile points on i-Ready. - **2023-24 LXD Research:** 168 kindergarteners across three schools grew from the 38th percentile nationally to the 67th percentile on i-Ready. - **2022-23 Stanford NSSA pilot study:** Students receiving Once scored two points higher on end-of-year DIBELS than peers in a large urban district. - **2025-26 RCT (in progress):** Once is partnering with Johns Hopkins University on a multi-year randomized controlled trial. Once is a grantee of Accelerate's Call to Effective Action and is featured in NSSA reports on paraprofessionals as high-impact tutors. Every Once school and district is treated as a research partner and receives top-tier efficacy data on their implementation at no additional cost. --- ## Affordability and access (Once at School) Because Once instructors are existing school support staff (not outsourced tutors), Once costs roughly 10% as much as typical high-dosage tutoring programs. All school-district customers receive uniform pricing — no special discounts for large customers, no special premiums for small ones. A typical Once quote includes: student licenses, coaching, student and instructor consumables, program management, and professional services including training. If a student leaves the district mid-year, that student can be replaced with another at no additional cost. ### How to start Districts often start with a small Tier-2 or Tier-3 cohort, then expand to Tier-1 (all kindergarten students) once they have seen the impact. The recommended end state is using Once with all kindergarteners so they enter first grade reading fluently and independently above grade level. --- ## How Once works for specific student types **Multilingual learners and students with disabilities** — Once works for these students. The curriculum supports many of the accommodations typically found in IEPs and 504s, including the one-on-one setting and code-emphasis approach. Decisions to place these students in Once should be reviewed with the appropriate school-based team (IEP, 504, LEP). **Students with higher reading ability** — Higher-ability students start at Cycle 0 with everyone else to learn the routines and task formats. They move quickly through early cycles until reaching content that is genuinely new and challenging. **Older students** — Once is generally not the best intervention for older students who read at a kindergarten level. The curriculum was designed for young children before they have developed the coping mechanisms typical of unsuccessful older readers. Some exceptions: students starting school for the first time and students new to the country. --- ## Once at Home — for parents ### Who it is for Parents and caregivers of children aged 3 to 7. Whether a curious preschooler or a first grader needing a confidence boost, the 1-to-1 model meets the child at their pace. ### How much time 15 minutes per day. Short, high-impact daily sprints prevent learning fatigue and keep attention high. ### What you need A laptop or tablet for the parent (to read the script). A phone is not recommended. The child works with the physical decodable book, not the screen. Once is web-based — there is no app to download. ### Free trial The trial is free until the child reads their first 3-letter word. After that, Once is $49/month (~$2 per lesson), cancellable any time. 30-Day Risk-Free Guarantee on the first month after trial. ### What's included - 200+ scripted lessons - 10,000+ rigorous activities - Live coaching from a dedicated Once coach - A community of parents across the country - All decodables, worksheets, and consumables for printing ### Multiple children and "coaches" Subscriptions cover the whole family. Parents can add multiple children and adult "coaches" (grandparents, tutors) at no extra cost. Each child has their own personalized progress. ### Difference from reading apps Most reading apps are "digital babysitters" where children click screens in isolation. Once is built on Human-Centered AI: the program facilitates an active connection between the parent and child. Research consistently shows this is the most effective method for learning to read. ### Time to first results "Micro-Wins" appear immediately — children start recognizing sounds in everyday text (a cereal box, a sign). Most parents reach the "Click Moment," when independent blending happens, within the first 3-4 weeks of daily 15-minute sessions. --- ## Why early literacy matters (the third-grade window) Around third grade, school shifts from *learning to read* to *reading to learn*. Children who arrive in third grade fluent take off; those who don't face an uphill battle in every subject after. Once builds that foundation early through real phonics instruction and human coaching, not gamified taps on a screen. The earlier the foundation, the more confident a child walks into every classroom that follows. --- ## Trusted by District partners include: - Hawaii Department of Education - Aiken County Public Schools - Metro Nashville Public Schools - Sumter School District - Tangipahoa Parish School System Featured in: WIS-TV, WFAE, The 74, WCNC, News Channel 5, Chalkbeat. --- ## Company background The idea for Once was born in the early pandemic when schools closed and the founders taught their kindergarten-age children to read at home with 15 minutes of instruction each day. Within a year their children were reading fluently. Former teachers themselves, the founders knew firsthand how hard it was to differentiate phonics instruction in classrooms — and asked: what if every child had the chance to learn to read one-on-one, side by side with a trusted adult? Students will learn to read with this instructional support, and they will only need it Once. ### Values - **We sweat the small stuff.** When you're teaching kids to read, every detail matters. - **We find a way.** Third-grade reading proficiency has not budged for 50 years. To change that, we need to get creative quickly. - **We thrive on feedback.** Feedback is our lifeblood — how students learn, and how we learn how best to teach them. - **We do it all with love.** Helping students learn to read is what gets us up in the morning. ### Team highlights Matt Pasternack — CEO. Brett van Zuiden — Product. Plus a team across Coaching, Program, Partnerships, Academics, and Professional Services. --- ## Selected FAQs ### How many students can one instructor work with? Each session is 15 minutes per day. A staff member dedicated full-time can work with up to 20 students per day (with normal breaks). ### Is Once a Tier-1, Tier-2, or Tier-3 intervention? It can be any of them. Districts often start with a small Tier-2 or Tier-3 cohort, then expand to Tier-1 with all kindergarteners. ### How is Once different from other High-Dosage Tutoring programs? Once is in-person and one-on-one (most high-dosage tutoring is online or small-group). Once is also more affordable because instructors are existing school staff, not outsourced tutors. ### Our district already implements the Science of Reading. How does Once help? Once augments existing Science of Reading instruction. Most SoR curricula draw from the same research base, so phoneme progressions overlap. Whether a phoneme is introduced first in Once or first in whole-group instruction, students benefit from the spaced practice across both settings. ### Are instructors required to read the script? Yes. The script is carefully written for maximum effectiveness. Instructors quickly become comfortable with it, and following the script frees them to build relationships with students and tailor pacing to each child's needs. ### What about students who don't finish a cycle in 15 minutes? The pace is dictated by the student's mastery. Some students finish two cycles per session; others spend several sessions on a single cycle. Both can be working hard and proud of their progress. Instructors should never rush to finish a cycle or hold off on starting a new one — they pick up wherever the student left off the next day. ### Does Once conflict with authentic-reading instruction? No. Every Once cycle includes engagement with authentic text — asking questions, drawing connections, making predictions. Once advocates strongly for authentic reading. ### What does the curriculum cost a school district? A Once quote includes student licenses, coaching, student and instructor consumables, program management, and professional services. All districts receive uniform pricing — no volume discounts or premiums. --- ## Page map - Marketing site: https://tryonce.com - Once at School: https://tryonce.com/at-school - Once at Home: https://tryonce.com/at-home - Research and outcomes: https://tryonce.com/research - Customer stories: https://tryonce.com/customers - Wall of Love (testimonials): https://tryonce.com/wall-of-love - About: https://tryonce.com/about - Implementation Guide (full): https://docs.tryonce.com - Curriculum Guide (full): https://curriculum.tryonce.com - Phonemes reference: https://tryonce.com/phonemes - Printable worksheets: https://tryonce.com/printable-worksheets - Blog: https://tryonce.com/blog - Trust Center: https://trust.tryonce.com - Status: https://status.tryonce.com - Press Kit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XphcgT4K47keGmHSAydqsKCKc0ANJbkB - Contact: https://tryonce.com/contact