Volume 4
Summer 2011

• Summer 2011
• A Tribute To A Great Leader And Friend
• The San Juan Teachers Association New Leadership Team
• New Teacher Profile
• Improving the Air Quality in Your Own School: What YOU Can Do!
• Assessment Without Victims
• Build It, Nurture It, Keep It: Parent Relationships!
• What is a Consulting Teacher? What Do Consulting Teachers Do?
• Faculty Rep Profile
• Full Day Kindergarten: Year One
• Mike & Me
• It's All Political
• Building Student Success With Parent/Teacher Home Visits
• What's Best for Kids? Recess Before Lunch
• We Tip Our Hats
• A Different Twist to the Three R's
• What Your Eyes Can Really See
• Attention Members
• SJTA Programs for Social Justice Sponsors

Building Student Success With Parent/Teacher Home Visits

 

There are several key elements that insure school improvement and student success. One of those key elements includes family and community engagement. Nonetheless, site leaders often find it difficult to find and sustain effective family engagement strategies that actually impact student success. In order to change that reality, educators, community and administrators have come together around home visiting.

This fall, San Juan Unified School District is planning to expand site and staff participation in the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project. The project, which first began in Sacramento in 1998, has now become a national model for schools and districts in eleven other states. While several San Juan sites have had a chance to participate in parent/teacher home visits in the past, this fall will be our district's first effort to build a truly educator driven and long term home visiting plan. Given that the project is voluntary and that we are in uncertain fiscal times, this expansion will be strategic and cost effective and will align with the development of the district's strategic plan.

The expansion plan will follow two main tracks. The first track is designed for individuals who want to build their knowledge of parent/teacher home visits through their professional development hours. The second track is designed for a small number of sites that have already begun home visits under this model and want to build upon their existing efforts.

The first track has two phases. The first phase includes a 12 hour training course jointly hosted by the SJTA and the district. The Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project will lead six two hour professional development sessions covering current research, the recommended visit model and step by step guide, a discussion of barriers to effective home visits, cross cultural learning opportunities with home visits and site launch strategies for participating sites. The second phase, open to successful participants from the first phase, includes an additional 6 hours of professional development for participating in three home visits and a two hour debriefing session where there is additional reflection on cultural competency and other learning from the home visit experience.

The second track will provide direct training and consultation to sites that have already begun, or expressed interest in beginning, a site wide home visiting effort. In order for this second track to work, the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project, SJTA and SJUSD will work together to identify site interest and need.

Home visits work. They work to build trust and open lines of communication between families and school site personnel. They work to uncover the funds of knowledge of families and staff and to build the capacity of both. Most importantly, they work for students!

To learn more information about the expansion of parent/teacher home visits in SJUSD, contact Steve Duditch (sduditch@sjta.org) or Martha Quadros (martha.quadros@sanjuan.edu).