Language contained in the ARRA bill states “…the U.S. Department (of Education)  shall encourage states to use 40 percent of their additional allocation over the fiscal year 2008 funding level to provide supervised and supportive after-school activities to middle and high school students. 

Ripple Effects award-winning, self-regulated, behavioral training software currently anchors a wide range of supplemental education programs, including individualized, expanded summer programs, extended learning during the regular school day, in-school suspension, alternative schools and programs in ISS settings, for behavioral RTI, and in counselor offices.  Implementer training is contained right in the staff training software, and superb supplemental materials provide further guidance in how to use the program in various settings, including as a supplement for Language Arts.  Districts with schools identified for improvement can contract with Ripple Effects to fully administer the SES program, including preparation of the Student Learning Plan (SLP), monitoring of the computer-based tutoring, communication with parents, and data tracking.

An innovative model

To mitigate the educational impact of socio-economic disadvantage, Ripple Effects does not simply increase the dosage of methods that so far haven’t worked.  It takes a completely different approach, one that is innovative and grounded in educational theory, outcome research and brain science. Ripple Effects tutoring software uses the most challenging parts of each students’ own life as the starting point to develop students’

• Belief in their capacity to learn and read
• Motivation to learn and read
• Emotional readiness to learn and read
• Social emotional competencies linked to reading comprehension 

Barriers into bridges

Ripple Effects takes what previously may have been barriers to learning – problematic experiences and risk factors in multiple domains, including social emotional skill deficits – and turns them into bridges to learning.  A host of non-academic risk factors, both personal and social, are correlated with overall school success - or failure. Ripple Effects empowers students to privately address personal risk factors, through evidence-based strategies that include extensive training in language arts skills.  In the process, it develop two key personal abilities that have been directly correlated both with higher reading comprehension scores AND reduced rates of bullying, and other anti-social behavior: empathy and problem solving. The result is greater academic achievement, including specific gains in reading comprehension, fewer discipline referrals, less absenteeism, and in some cases, lowered depression scores.

How? A multi-modal approach

Ripple Effects uses engaging, differentiated, multi-media instruction  in listening, speaking, remembering, analyzing, interpreting, communicating,  media analysis and assisted reading and journaling exercises.  It is aligned with California and other state’s language arts standards for grades 2-11.

After school programs

After/before school programs can purchase Ripple Effects and students can use the software on the same computers that will be available to students during the regular school hours, with topics on “learning,” “homework,” “test taking,” and “problem solving,” which all include a wide range of language arts exercises, as well as hundreds of tutorials that address life challenges and personal concerns.