Better Behavior and Discipline Outcomes

Use of Ripple Effects has resulted in improved student behavior, based school and district data on office discipline referrals, in-school suspensions, and out of school suspensions, as well objective third-party observations.

Fewer discipline referrals

In seven of the eight studies that tracked discipline referrals, Ripple Effects students had fewer referrals than the comparison group. In five of the six randomized, controlled trials with this data, Ripple Effects students had meaningfully fewer referrals, ranging from 21% to 67% fewer than the control group students.

Fewer in-school suspensions

In one study of 3800+ students using Ripple Effects in ISS, referrals to ISS declined an average of 28% from fall to spring, a time when such referrals normally increase.

Fewer out of school suspensions.

Use of Ripple Effects resulted in statistically significant decreases in out-of-school suspensions in one study.

Observed increases in prosocial behavior, and reductions in anti-social behavior

Trained observers, tested for inter-rater reliability, measured occurrences of specific pro- and antisocial behaviors for a randomized, controlled trial conducted at a New York City middle school in 1999-2000. In this 3-arm study, two experimental groups used the software, Group A used it exclusively as the intervention while Group B used the software, plus had teacher facilitated discussion and role-plays; the control group students did “business as usual.”  Both experimental groups had higher rates of prosocial behavior (77% and 32%, respectively) and lower rates of anti-social behavior (29% and 21% lower, respectively) compared to the control group.