(1) ensuring that high-quality academic assessments, accountability systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional materials are aligned with challenging State academic standards so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress against common expectations for student academic achievement |
Ripple Effects training software for kids and teens is matched to content standards in several states for Language Arts (Listening, speaking, reading, writing and media analysis), as well as recommended common standards for social emotional learning, and national health standards and frameworks. Assessments and professional development are matched to these same standards. |
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(2) meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children in our Nation's highest-poverty schools, limited English proficient children, migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian children, neglected or delinquent children, and young children in need of reading assistance |
Ripple Effects is being used in more than 500 school districts to meet the needs of low achieving students. The program has specific student tutorials to address overall school failure, as well as tutorials devoted to the special concerns of ELL, SWD, foster, homeless, Indian, neglected and delinquent children, including specific tutorials for criminal offenses that involve students in juvenile justice. |
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(3) closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and non-minority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers |
Evidence from a series of six NIH/NIDA funded studies demonstrates that Ripple Effects has been successful in meaningfully and significantly boosting academic achievement for poor and minority students. |
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(4) holding schools, local educational agencies, and States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students, and identifying and turning around low-performing schools that have failed to provide a high-quality education to their students, while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable the students to receive a high-quality education |
Ripple Effects has a three fold approach to turning around low-performing school: 1) professional development, tutoring software targets administrators’ and teachers’ personal leadership, and skills in managing diverse learners; 2) student tutoring software addresses the personal risk factors, including group and societal level factors, that have been barriers to school success, and uses them as bridges to learning. 3) parent training manuals and parent post card system
Implementation resources to streamline site-based planning to align with school level goals is included. |
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(5) distributing and targeting resources sufficiently to make a difference to local educational agencies and schools where needs are greatest |
Ripple Effects 1) distributes “Earned Wisdom” of experienced teachers through true video stories, 2) reduces loss of instruction time due to dealing with student misbehavior , 3) expands and leverages counselors capacity to offer individualized guidance to address personal risk factors. |
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(6) improving and strengthening accountability, teaching, and learning by using State assessment systems designed to ensure that students are meeting challenging State academic achievement and content standards and increasing achievement overall, but especially for the disadvantaged |
Ripple Effects uses three measure to assess impact:.1) Reading comprehension scores on state exams or DRP 2) California Healthy Kids survey measure of empathy and problem solving (correlated with higher order thinking, and higher reading comprehension scores), 3) Administrative data on GPA, absenteeism, and discipline referrals. |
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(7) providing greater decision-making authority and flexibility to schools and teachers in exchange for greater responsibility for student performance |
Ripple Effects site-based planning guide directly ties intervention scope and sequences to measurable goals, and includes identification of the measurement instrument in the implementation planning process. |
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(8) providing children an enriched and accelerated educational program, including the use of schoolwide programs or additional services that increase the amount and quality of instructional time |
Ripple Effects greatly enriches PBS programs, supplements reading, especially for ELL, and recaptures lost instructional time in three ways: it reduces teacher time lost to dealing with behavior problems, it provides a personally relevant supplement for use in after school and extended learning program, and it offers completely self-paced training so that faster students are not left without challenge, and with time on their hands. |
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(9) promoting schoolwide reform and ensuring the access of children to effective, scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content |
Ripple Effects promotes school wide reform by targeting non-academic factors in school success that operate at the school climate, peer group and individual level, and by directly providing students with evidence-based strategies for addressing personal risk factors. |
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(10) significantly elevating the quality of instruction by providing staff in participating schools with substantial opportunities for professional development |
Ripple Effects provides staff with 160, fully self-contained, learner regulated, multi-media engaging, interactive tutorials that develop personal leadership and skills in managing diverse learners and successfully implementing intervention programs. |
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(11) coordinating services under all parts of this title with each other, with other educational services, and, to the extent feasible, with other agencies providing services to youth, children, and families |
Ripple Effects system is a fully integrated, self-contained system that provides output data in SIF compatible formats for easier correlation with district information systems. |
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(12) affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children. |
Ripple Effects 1) provides a post card system of parental notification when students are observed using personal leadership skills; 2) offers a personal trainer manual to boost parenting skills in 12 key areas, and, with district approval, 3) can employ parents as physical compliance monitors. Because all content expertise is in the box, the key to success is simply getting students in front of the computer. |
