How We Compare to
Other Organizations
Many organizations offer “home visits” but
those are usually based on a model where an assessment is
being made or a problematic behavior is being addressed.
This is true whether school systems use home visits to address
truancy problems or a social service agency is using home
visits to address concerns and need for services. This strategy
only heightens mistrust – the very issue we are trying
to address.
We are different from those home visits because our project
and training is based on a community organizing model and
principals of parent empowerment, endorsed
by the state and local teachers union, our local interfaith
organizing group, and championed by school district leaders
who are willing to do business a little differently for
the sake of student success. Our home visits are
not “drop ins”, but rather an appointment set
between two willing colleagues in a setting where teachers
do not have the power/institutional advantage.
Our Project Members Believe:
- Parents and teachers are equally important co-educators
given that the parent is the expert on the individual
child while the teacher is the expert on the curriculum
that must be mastered for success.
- Before important information about academic status can
be effectively shared, positive communication must be
established and barriers addressed.
- All students and families should be visited because
targeting challenging students will only perpetuate the
cycles of mistrust.
- All parents have the ability to assist their child in
their academic success and that effective parent involvement
can happen in every home—especially in light of
the educational research about rethinking effective exactly
what is effective parent involvement.
- This project should be voluntary for all involved and
that teachers should be compensated for their time.
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