The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Teacher visits blur line between school, home
DEARBORN, MICH. — There is a knock at the door, and inside the house several young faces are smiling through the glass, jostling to get a better view of their afternoon visitors.
Two familiar faces — Lisa Younce and Michelle Rawson, teachers from Dearborn’s public schools — are welcomed inside the Dearborn, Mich., home where first-grader Noah Hazimeh lives with his parents and three siblings.
The Oakman Elementary School teachers are part of a national visiting teacher program in which trained educators schedule visits with a child and parent at home after school hours to build relationships with families and blur the line between school and home.
As both teachers make their way inside, Noah and his family find seats in the family’s living room. Noah, 6, smiles and eyes a nearby book called “David Goes to School,” bringing it to his teachers to read while his mother and siblings look on.
Younce has been trained by the nonprofit Parent Teacher Home Visits, whose model is used in 700 communities in 27 states and the District of Columbia.
Home visits are non-confrontational and non-punitive, program officials say, and educators don’t discuss missed classes or poor grades. The idea is for teachers to make contact with families to develop a strong, working partnership with parents and guardians.
Research in 2018 by Johns Hopkins University and the nonprofit research organization RTI International has found home visits lead to measurable results including reducing chronic student absenteeism and improved performance on reading and writing tests and math proficiency.
All visits are voluntary, and any teacher on a visit has been trained and is compensated
Gina Martinez-Keddy, executive director of the nonprofit PTHV (Parent Teacher Home Visits), said for teachers, home visits combat implicit bias and help educators relate better to students and their families.
As part of her visits, Younce takes a selfie with each student and puts a copy of the photo on a special wall at school.
“Kids live in a home bubble and a school bubble,” Younce said. “When we merge those together, and they know we are openly communicating with their parent, they try to be a better student at school and a better child at home.”