Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.ONLY IN THE WORLD-HERALD
Jamie Sacks and her two kids, Gregory and Emilie, were digging through boxes in the basement of their Ralston home, pricing and sorting toys for the family's summer garage sale.
They heard a knock on their door.
“Umm, it's Gregory's new teacher and the art teacher, Mom,” Emilie said.
“Oh my gosh, it's Tuesday,” Jamie Sacks said.
She had forgotten about the letter the Ralston teachers had sent out, telling parents they'd be stopping by to talk.
But the family welcomed the teachers inside, where they tried to get the coming school year off to a good — and early — start. They chatted about the kids' summer and asked if Jamie had any concerns about this school year.
About 10 minutes later, the teachers had met a parent, and the parent had met the teachers — two months before the back-to-school greetings are typically exchanged.
“I think that was a really positive thing,” Jamie Sacks said after the visit. “It's just different when the teachers get to come to your home and kind of get a feel for your family.”
Ralston is piloting the home visit program this summer to help create better relationships with families.
Research suggests that such relationships lead to higher achievement, fewer discipline problems and a better school experience.
Ralston teachers say a stronger connection will make them more likely to call the parent during the school year. “You're a little more apt to pick up the phone earlier,” said Kathy Boeve, the principal at Mockingbird Elementary School.
And school officials want parents to become more comfortable with them as well. “It's hard to trust somebody you've never met,” Boeve said.
Schools in local districts, including the Omaha Public Schools, have similar programs to welcome new families before the school year.
Ralston, however, picked up the idea from officials in a similarly sized Kentucky district at a national conference.
Nationwide, districts in at least 11 states run similar home-visit programs. Denver's public school district, for example, plans to expand its home-visit program from five schools last year to 21 schools this fall, citing a higher turnout at parent-teacher conferences at schools with the programs.
“They've been able to see that once they form the relationship with the parent, the parents are more apt to come and talk about how their child is doing,” said Patsy Roybal, manager of the Denver district's office of parent engagement.
Denver's teachers were trained by the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project, a nonprofit group based in Sacramento, Calif., that consults with districts on home-visit programs.
Carrie Rose, the organization's executive director, said the first home visit should take place in the late summer or early fall. The visit should be an informal introduction and a chance to talk about the student's hopes and dreams.
“There's nothing that replaces a one-to-one connection to build trust and create communication,” Rose said. “That doesn't mean it's all you do, but it's a very critical foundational step.”
And it works, according to research.
A three-year study of such programs in 14 schools by a California State University at Sacramento professor found that schools with a home-visit program had better student performance and more parental involvement.
One reason the program works, Rose said, is that the home visits stem from a district's desire to have teachers learn more about their students. No federal law makes them do it.
In the Omaha district, Fullerton Magnet Elementary School, near 138th and Fort Streets, started its home visit program about seven years ago. Every spring, a few school employees visit students from north Omaha who will be opting out of their neighborhood schools in the coming fall to attend Fullerton, which has students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
The employees bring a welcome package, maybe a T-shirt or a binder, along with general information about the school. They also invite the families to the end-of-the-year carnival, remind them when school starts and just talk.
“The feedback from the parents was really positive,” said Craig McGee, the school's principal. “Now they know an adult at the school.”
Such programs are relatively inexpensive, too. In Denver, teachers receive $20 for each home visit they complete, and Ralston teachers will receive an extra day off later in the school year for participating in the program.
This year, Ralston sought teacher volunteers for home visits. The district plans to track how students who received home visits do academically this year compared to students who did not get visited.
“We wanted to be more proactive than reactive,” said Kristi Gibbs, the district's assistant superintendent for learning. “It's doable for us to get involved with the parent and get to know the students.”
Jamie Sacks, the Ralston mom surprised by the visit, wants more teachers to visit her kids, who will be in first grade and third grade this fall.
“I really, really liked that Gregory's teacher was one of the ones that came to our house,” she said. “She got to get an impression of our family.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1074, jonathon.braden@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
