High school students become academic tutors and behavioral mentors.
High school students become eager learners and confident leaders.
For all students, we create enthusiasm for learning.
Growing confidence and mutual respect .
Root 2 Rise Thrive
Career and educational support after graduation.
Root 2 Rise helped Cquemiah Clark-Richmond discover a career. Thrive now helps her attend college.
In their own words…
Root 2 Rise utilizes practices recommended by the National Gang Center to discourage youth gang involvement.
“I’ve struggled with addiction and made some poor choices in the past. Fortunately, I found help and advice from Root 2 Rise Thrive and elsewhere when I needed it.”
Luis Rodriguez
“Root 2 Rise held me to a high standard. Many of my friends just went with the crowd, and many of them are now dead, in jail, or homeless.”
Joseph Thigpen, Jr.
NEWS
Empowering for Success
Does Root 2 Rise empower students and, if so, how does it affect their subsequent actions, attitudes, and outcomes?
Kendall Holley, a fourth year PhD student in social psychology at the UW-Madison, is determining whether it’s possible to objectively assess these benefits, thus confirming the anecdotal accounts of Tutor-Mentors, teachers, and parents.
It’s early in his study, but Holley said the results could have far-reaching implications. He notes that positive changes, such as better grades or the confidence to apply to college would be remarkable, considering their low aspirations previously,
Holley said other interventions designed to help students are usually “incredibly expensive,” and usually target students whose grades are either very poor or very good. Root 2 Rise focuses on students who are at risk of not graduating and might not be offered a leadership role in a program.
There may be more subtle benefits, such as those provided by remedial education when Tutor-Mentors help younger students,
Some preliminary results will be available in June, but Holley said benefits might not be apparent since data involved only the effects occurring during two months.
Field studies are complex, and Holley said it may be necessary to validate some variables, such as changes in attitudes, by relying on questionnaires,and self-reports.
Holley was previously a teacher and worked for the American Institutes for Research In Washington, D.C.
His research interests include the repercussions of questioning authority. Confrontation is generally viewed as having negative consequences, but Holley said “it can be a moral imperative” and have benefits, such as increasing the questioner’s sense of autonomy and reducing anger, and benefit society if, for example, it deters undesirable behavior such as prejudice.
“Working with R2R appealed to me because the concept of empowerment as an intervention in school settings is one that I have not explored often enough. Root 2 Rise creates opportunities for struggling students to experience being the ‘expert’ or role model for younger students and to determine how that translates into success in their own domain, whether that be education or life in general.”
Kendall Holley
Our Partners
