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Teacher/blogger/Twitterer/
author extraordinaire Larry Ferlazzo recently published a gem of a little article on teacher home visits. He writes about the impact of his own efforts to visit students’ families and calls for much more extensive home visit programs. One story he recounts jumps out at me:

Immigrant parents whom I visited developed the idea of having our school provide computers and home Internet access so that entire families could have more opportunities to study English. I was not only able to learn what these parents thought would help their children and themselves; down the line, I was also able to help other parents who had the same interest connect with each other and help us develop a plan of action.

As a result, the Luther Burbank High School Family Literacy Project has produced dramatic English-assessment gains for students and was the Grand Prize winner of the International Reading Association Presidential Award For Reading and Technology.

I like this story, because it turns a common assumption on its head. Teachers are not coming to parents as missionaries converting the unenlightened. Instead, they are forging strong partnerships with parents, discovering shared aspirations, and putting their heads together to address big challenges.

Ferlazzo calls for programs to expand this kind of work across schools and districts. The Parent Teacher Home Visit Project is one such program. “Since the project came together over 10 years ago [in Sacramento],” he writes:

thousands of home visits have been made in the district (including hundreds done by teachers and other school staff at our school), and the PTHVP has worked with other school districts throughout the state of California and in the U.S. to organize similar efforts—offering workshops, site training, and other resources.

Independent evaluations have attributed increased student achievement and better parent-teacher communication to these home visits, and the PTHVP has been praised by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, teacher union leaders, and education writers.

Ferlazzo points out that the Education Department has identified home visit programs as a promising use of stimulus money. Let’s hope districts are listening.

One final note: I envy Larry Ferlazzo. He gets more done in a day than I can manage in a month. Stay tuned for his forthcoming book, Building Parent Engagement In Schools.