Tech Research Article 1: RAPS 360

Mindplay has come up with a new strategy to find out the reading levels of students and how to keep up on their progress. It is called Reading Analysis & Prescription System 360 (RAPS 360). This version of RAPS is more comprehensive and it is quicker and more effective. It can diagnose a full spectrum of reading difficulties that the students might face from grades 1-10. You test the student’s ability to read and comprehend grade level passages and then diagnose further based on their proficiency levels. It provides a baseline that the student is on in each skill area and measures the student’s progress. It can target appropriate interventions based on the student’s needs and abilities and helps improve reading proficiency. Progress reports within the whole district, the whole school, the class, or the individual student are available. Also, a great thing about this program is that is automatically creates and individualized education plan that stays with the students and parents receive summary reports that may give recommendations for intervention at home to help children meet their reading goals. Teachers can group students together based on their skill level to provide an intervention. This program uses graphics and tables for easy comprehension. RAPS 360 is a useful tool for tracking yearly progress for the students, the school or the district. This program was due for release in fall 2008. When you use this program with A Spanish Support Module (if needed) and Fluent Reading Trainer (FLRT) it is called My Reading Coach and are all made by Mindplay. These are great programs for helping students because it not only has assessment to determine primary level reading skills but it also focuses on phonemic awareness and phonics and the measurements on vocabulary word knowledge and reading comprehension skills and fluency rates.It is great because it is like a reading specialist is working with every student.