by Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes
On February 2, 2021 I had the pleasure of training Ms. Darnita Prater to supervise students at Youth Connected Chartered School (Y.C.C.S) to take all 10 modules of the Roots of Success course at home on computers provided by the school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The training introduced Ms. Prater to the Roots of Success pedagogical approach and course. It also covered how to register students for the course and teach students how to use the Roots of Success online platform.
Youth Connected Chartered School is a consortium of 28 community-based youth serving organizations in the city of Chicago currently serving about 1,200 “at-risk” students in Chicago. YCCS focuses on innovative approaches to re-enrolling and engaging students who have dropped out of high school. Teachers work to close the achievement gap and focus on college graduation as the end goal for their students. YCCS teachers have experience offering online curriculum and recently opened a campus that offers online education for students who are under-credited and over-aged.
At the end of the training, Ms. Prater stated that she felt that the training did an excellent job of preparing her to supervise students who will be taking the Roots of Success online course, and she was excited that students in her school will have access to critical information she sees as directly related to the communities they come from and the environmental challenges and injustices they face every day.