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Verizon and FableVision Make Donations to Expand Research ILD's "Drive to Thrive" Project to Foster Student Success in Watertown

Over 10,000 Dollars in Financial & Product Support Continue Innovative Collaboration Between the Research Institute for Learning & Development & the James Russell Lowell Elementary School

WATERTOWN, MA
The Verizon Foundation and local children’s media company FableVision have made a significant donation to expand the “Drive to Thrive” initiative at James Russell Lowell Elementary School in Watertown, Massachusetts. An innovative, research-based program to help learning-challenged students succeed in school, “Drive to Thrive” was designed and implemented by the internationally-acclaimed Lexington-based Research Institute for Learning & Development (Research ILD) under the leadership of Dr. Lynn Meltzer and Dr. Bethany Roditi, and launched as a pilot program this past spring at the James Russell Lowell Elementary School. Verizon Foundation has donated ten thousand dollars and FableVision outfitted the school’s computer lab with forty copies of its award-winning BrainCogs®: Test-Taking Survival software valued at twelve-hundred dollars.

The project, “Drive to Thrive: Fostering Persistence, Effort, and Resilience”, is a field research initiative designed to identify predictors of life success in students, especially those with learning and attention difficulties. As Research ILD’s Executive Director and Director of Research, Dr. Lynn Meltzer explains, “The program develops learning strategies that foster effort and persistence, processes that are more important predictors of life success than IQ or skill level. Our goal is to bring this work to as many students as we can.”

Both Assistant Superintendent, Stephen Gould, and Principal, Marilyn Hollisian have been instrumental in bringing the student performance program to the Lowell School. Hollisian observes, “The donations by Verizon and FableVision will make a real life-long impact on the performance of all our students – we couldn’t be happier.” Gould agrees, “We’re taking advantage of cutting-edge research and putting it where it matters.” Gould adds, “The Drive to Thrive program doesn’t offer a one-size fits all solution – it respects our kids’ learning differences and helps them excel, based on the strategies that work for them.”

Verizon’s Regional Director of Public Affairs, Peter Bowman concurs, “It is Verizon’s hope that financial support for “Drive to Thrive” here in Watertown will help spark a national model that can be scaled to help children across the nation.” The Verizon Foundation, which has invested more than $3 million in a variety of education and cultural programs in Massachusetts in 2003, has gained national attention for its support of innovative eSolutions, helping bridge the digital divide, fostering basic and computer literacy, and creating a skilled workforce. For more information on the Foundation, visit www.verizon.com/foundation.

Paul Reynolds, President of Watertown-based FableVision remarked, “When we heard that Verizon was helping bring Research ILD’s programs to a school right in our own backyard, we didn’t hesitate to donate to the cause as well.” FableVision donated a 40-computer license package of the BrainCogs program it created with Research ILD as a resource for the Drive to Thrive program at the Lowell School.

Verizon and FableVision aren’t the first to help with the “Drive to Thrive” program. Steven Beckhardt, formerly CEO of Iris Associates and an IBM Distinguished Engineer, donated $20,000 to fund the initial “Drive to Thrive” pilot program at the Lowell School this past spring. Beckhardt notes, “There is a tremendous amount of untapped potential in our schoolchildren. Not all children learn the same way and Research ILD is developing techniques to help kids who learn in different ways unlock their true potential. The key ingredient for many children is to experience early success and then use that experience to develop persistence and resilience. The learning techniques developed by Research ILD, and embodied in the Brain Cogs software by FableVision, provide the tools that many children need to experience early success."

Research ILD’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Lynn Meltzer emphasizes that the programs developed by Research ILD staff are designed to create pathways to success for every learner. “There are too many children in too many schools who desperately need help – especially as they face the demands of high-stakes testing. The software that FableVision developed with us allows us to scale our approach so we can reach more children, parents, and educators, both nationally and internationally.”

Research ILD’s Co-Founder and President, Dr. Bethany Roditi shares, “We’ve only just begun – we are still seeking funding to expand Drive to Thrive on a national basis, enhance BrainCogs as a networked version, and finish another major CD-ROM project, Essay Express, that helps students break down essay writing into a manageable process.” Essay Express is the follow up software to BrainCogs, which are both based on over a decade of research and clinical work by The Research Institute for Learning and Development (http://www.ildlex.org), and designed, produced and published by FableVision (http://www.fablevision.com.)

"We need to create a revolution in learning in schools across this country and Research ILD is leading the charge to help kids who learn differently and who struggle with tests. Based on our success at the Lowell School in Watertown, I hope other companies and individuals will join us and help fund the expansion of this program to the other Watertown schools and also to schools across the U.S.” says Steve Beckhardt,

The BrainCogs® software, which already has won several major educational awards, including Media & Methods Awards Portfolio and District Administrator’s District’s Choice Award – Top 100 Products of 2002, is generating a great deal of attention across the nation. As Gigi Devanney of John Hopkins University’s Center for Technology in Education, points out, “BrainCogs is truly the first really new and innovative software application I have seen in the last several years.” The software was also chosen as a featured web resource for the PBS special “Misunderstood Minds”.

Additional details about the BrainCogs software are available at http://www.fablevision.com/braincogs. Family, parent or corporate sponsorship interest for “Drive to Thrive” and BrainCogs at The Lowell School and other schools is being handled by Irene C. Papadopoulos, M.A., Coordinator of Development at Research ILD, who can be contacted at 781-861-3711 or e-mailed at irene@ildlex.org