One of the four key requirements identified as necessary to advance core reforms in education is continuous improvement.  There are two aspects to this requirement.  One has to do with the structure and processes needed to ensure that teachers and students have continuous access to the individualized training they need, with the recognition that those needs change over time. The other is the requirement that longitudinal data systems are in place to measure continuous improvement over time.

Because Ripple Effects is not an online, tutoring course, but a software application, with a Learning Platform, Content Library, Expert System and Data Management capacity built in:

• A one-time investment ensures the capacity for several years of personalized, professional development for teachers, and individualized behavioral support for students
• Data tracking is automatic and data output is in a School Interoperability Format, so that it can be correlated with other administrative data 

Embedded coaching

For both students and teachers, Ripple Effects offers a fully self-contained, embedded, coaching system. Learners can access it when, where and how they choose. Many thousand screens of multimedia content provide 55+ hours of professional development for teachers, 45 contact hours for elementary students, and more than 160 contact hours for middle and high school students! The fully self-contained system, with internally hyperlinked content, allows literally billions of unique combinations of content choices. It enables both systematic, proactive, formal training with assigned curricula, and  on the spot, reactive help to address hundreds of specific personal challenges as they arise, through whatever set of instructional methods each learner prefers.   

Longitudinal data systems for continuous improvement

Ripple Effects includes optional pre and post surveys, as well automatic progress tracking. All dosage data is SIF (School interoperability Format) compatible to enable easier correlation with district data. By special arrangement with AIR, the country’s premier educational research organization, Ripple Effects can include a highly credible, third party evaluation of program related outcomes as part of the software package, enabling administrators to use outcomes data to inform decision making, without the bureaucratic headaches of separately mounting a large research project.