This month, we feature HOME WORKS! – The Teacher Home Visit Program. Founded by Karen Kalish in 2007, HOME WORKS! (HW!) partners with underserved schools to build their capacity to effectively engage parents in their children’s learning. Years of practice and research into learning have established an unquestionable insight: when parents are engaged in their children’s education, students succeed. The connection between school and home is crucial.
HW! trains, supports, and pays teachers to conduct home visits with families and works with schools to implement focused parent engagement strategies at home, with the goal of improving trust, relationships, student attendance, classroom behavior, and school achievement.
“We are so incredible happy to participate in the HOME WORKS! program,” said the Superintendent of a HW! partner school. “It really has been such a great avenue for us to build connections with our families!”
Much of the impact of the pandemic is falling disproportionately on students from historically marginalized and underserved groups. Prior to the pandemic, most public school students in Missouri spent less than 14% of their year in a classroom. Last school year, that number dropped to less than 12%, while overall attendance dropped to 50%. Many students learned virtually the entire year, and experts estimate that our most vulnerable students lost at least one year of learning during the pandemic.
“It is no longer enough for family engagement to be placed at the margins of our approach to children’s development,” said CEO Colleen Polak. “A critical mass of research and practice shows that we should be looking for ways to place it at the center of our thinking. Teachers cannot educate students alone.”
Collaboration with partner schools, teachers, parents, and community organizations is at the heart of HW!’s success. As tenants of Delmar DivINe, HW! looks forward to being part of a community that effectively and cohesively works together to support children’s success.