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Amy Baeder

T

he winding entrance to Fualosa and Vais house isbordered by vibrantly colored dahlias and

hydrangeas, evidence of their grandmothersinterest in gardening. Their father, an evening

shift cook at an expensive restaurant in Seattle,welcomes me into his home. He tells me that he talks to hischildren every day about the importance of education, and he

asks me to pass on to other teachers at Cleveland High Schoolthat, although he cant attend evening events at school, he

would still like to be involved.Sarahs family meets me at a neighborhood coffee shop.

Sarahs adoptive parents are busy with their careers, her fatheras a university professor and her mother as a religious leader.

However, they hope to serve as field trip chaperones andpanel members for our schools senior projects. I learn from

our talk that the family lives in an area with few teenagers

(Sarah calls it the diapers and dentures community) andthat Sarah feels isolated as a biracial teen in a mostly white

neighborhood. I also learn new things about Sarahs strengths;although she struggles in school, she loves science and reads a

lot in her free time.Sapphire lives with her father and half-brother. When I

arrive, she immediately takes me upstairs to show me herspotless bedroom and the desk where she does her home-

work. Her father enjoys remodeling their homehis toolsand a newly purchased shower board are in the hallway. He

tells me he is proud of his daughters academic success, espe-cially after the death of her mother, and also that he would

like to mentor young men at Sapphires school.These three portraits exemplify the richness and diversity of

families at Cleveland High, a small school in southeast Seattleserving approximately 700 students. Such portraits cannot be

found by reading the schools 200809 annual report, whichstates that 95 percent of our students come from minoritybackgrounds, 64 percent are eligible for free and reduced-

price lunch, and 64 percent live with only one parent or agrandparent. The information teachers gained while talking

with these families may never have been shared in a parent-teacher conference or PTA meeting.

These glimpses of students lives, and many like them,unfolded during visits that our teachers made to students

homes during the last school year. Through listening toparents, grandparents, and others, we learned of these indi-

viduals talents, experiences, and dreamsin ways that wouldlater help us understand and motivate our students.

56 E D U C A T I O N A L L E A D E R S H I P / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0

By visiting studentshomes, a Seattle high

school brings familiestalentsand studentsinterestsinto school.

SteppingInto Students

Worlds

The information teachers

gained may never have been

shared in a PTA meeting.

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The Need to Cross the Threshold

Educators lives are increasingly disconnected from the lives oftheir students. Many teachers commute to school from far-off

suburbs or simply live in different neighborhoods from those

they teach. Because the natural overlaps that once arose fromliving in close community, such as shopping at the samestores or sharing a place of worship, have largely disappeared,teachers have a harder time getting to know students and

their families. As Thomas Barone (1989) puts it, educatorshave lost the ability to reach out and honor the places

(whether the barrio, the ghetto, the reservation, theAppalachian holler, or simply the peaks and pits of adoles-

cence) where our students live (p. 151). Home visits bridgethat gap.

Bridging the gap is especially importantwhen socioeconomic, racial, or linguistic

divides exist between the cultural groups aschools families come from and those itseducators come from. When teachers get to

know families in their homes, they gain first-hand knowledge about each family, rather

than accepting generalities about Latino,black, Asian, or American Indian cultures.

Education researchers have discussed the importance ofvisiting with immigrant families to discover these families

strengths and talents (Ginsberg, 2007; Lopez, 2001; Moll,Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). When educators work hard

to make the initial visit positive, home visits can shift power

into the hands of families and overcome any negative schoolexperiences from family members pasts.

Entering as Learners

When we train Cleveland Highs educators to do home visits,we encourage them to focus on discovering the strengths of

families, what Gonzlez, Andrade, Civil, and Moll (2001) callfamilies reservoirs of accumulated knowledge and strategies

for survival (pp. 116117). We urge teachers to considerhow they might transfer these funds of knowledge (Moll et

A S C D / W W W. A S C D . O R G 57

Teachers from Cleveland High School visit

with the Galvan family in their home.

PHOTOS SUSIE FITZHUGH

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al., 1992) to the classroom by creating

lessons that directly relate to a familysknowledge or having family members

volunteer in ways that tap their skills.For example, when Cleveland High

teacher Lydia Stone visited Sarah, sherealized that Sarahs father had an

insiders knowledge of standards forcollege-level work. She drew on this

professors expertise by inviting him toserve on the panel that judges students

senior projects. A father who wants tomentor male students is a great find,and when we discovered that Sapphires

father wanted to make this commit-ment, we connected him with teachers

in a career center who could line himup to mentor district students. He now

volunteers on our senior project boardsas well. When teachers design or extend

opportunities for including parents withthe talents of specific families in mind,

they can count on increased parental

involvement.Family strengths have been a focus of

our home visits since we piloted theprogram. In summer 2007, several

Cleveland High teachers attended atraining on engaging families conducted

by GEAR-UP, a program that works toprepare low-income students for

college. These teachers learned ofMargery Ginsbergs work about home

visits and heard presentations from

other educators who did visits. Thispilot team made a plan to initiate visits

at Cleveland High, met with teachers atanother school who were veteran visi-

tors, and arranged for a trainer from thedistricts family engagement department

to do a workshop on conducting familyvisits for all interested Clevelandteachers that spring. They used the

process Ginsberg described in a 2007Educational Leadership articleoutlining

how to prepare the groundwork for ahome visit and collect data on funds of

knowledgeto guide their initial work.Our teachers dont deliver informa-

tion during a visit; instead, they try tolisten. This stance is a significant depar-

ture from the traditional home visit

and a challenge to maintain. Teachersdo provide school forms, staff and

resource directories, and other informa-tion as part of the visit, but only give

them to families just before they leave.The primary focus is to build relation-

ships, create a more tightly knit schoolcommunity, and eventually design class-

rooms that better reflect our students.We find it highly rewarding when we

incorporate information gleaned from a

home visit into a lesson, warm-up ques-tion, project, or assignment; and we are

trying to do this more in our second

year of visits. One teacher drew on whathed learned in talking with a students

father to develop a lesson with thatstudent in mind. The father mentioned

that his daughter, who was disengagedin school, was highly interested in crime

scene investigation techniques andforensics. This teacher then related a

chemistry lesson to forensic methods.Cleveland High requires all certified

teachers to conduct home visits. Admin-istrators, our bilingual instructional

aides, and such resource personnel asthe school nurse sometimes accompanyteachers. A partnership with the Univer-

sity of Washington provides extraprofessional development for our staff.

Teachers receive appropriate training ledby our professional development coordi-

nator and Cleveland Highs home visitscoordinator. The arrangement includes a

yearly stipend for teachers$2,500 perteacher this yearfor conducting visits

and attending professional developmentin the summer.

Last year, each of our 40 teachers

visited five 9th grade students homes;this year, each teacher will visit the

homes of at least five students from hisor her advisory class, choosing a mix

that represents the academic, racial, andlinguistic diversity of our school.

Although some may choose to visit afew students who are struggling, the

focus remains on getting to know thefamily, not addressing problems. We

hope to eventually visit all students in

the school. We follow up by trackingthe academic progress of the visited

students in our professional develop-ment time. Teachers plan together how

to incorporate what they have learnedfrom visits into lessons, and they later

examine student work created duringthese lessons.

Some educators perceive home visitsas auxiliary to what occurs in the class-

58 E D U C A T I O N A L L E A D E R S H I P / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0

Teachers discover the familys

musical talents on the home visit.

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room and unrelated to student achieve-

ment. However, when we visit astudents home, students become aware

that lines of communication have

opened between their family and theirteacher, and a feeling of trust and inclu-sion develops. We are often pleasantlysurprised at how much student interest

in school increases after we begin tomake such connections.

How to Make It Work

Many secondary educators would like tovisit students homes but are unclear

about how to go about it. Students havemultiple teachers, and teachers serve

150 or more students. How can teacherspossibly make time to visit families inthe first few weeks of school? Weve

discovered that successfully launchinghome visits requires schools to start

slowly, gather a pilot team, and lay thegroundwork:

Do research. Read articles abouthome visits, seek professional develop-

ment regarding family engagement, andtalk to staff at other schools that have

implemented home visits. Ponder your rationale. Carefully

consider why your school should dohome visits.

Think about your model. Whatcosts (such as for mailings or extra staff

time) may be associated with homevisits? Will you need translators? Howwill you make this project sustainable?

Get the commitment of all staffora pilot groupbefore you plan logistics.

You might present the idea to a buildingleadership team first or have a pilot

team share positive data from a fledgingvisits program at a staff meeting. At

Cleveland, all staff had to sign acompact agreeing to conduct home-

visits.As you design the details of a home

visit program, youll need to Designate a responsible person or

team to coordinate visits, ideallysomeone who already works with fami-

lies (such as a school social worker).You might give a classroom teacherrelease time to devote to planning and

evaluating home visits. Small teamswork better than one person.

Train teachers to conduct effectivevisits. Introduce the basics of home

A S C D / W W W. A S C D . O R G 59

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Home visits can shift power to families

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visits and the concept of funds of

knowledge. Consider role-playing a

home visit and help teachers developquestions that will be conducive tolearning from families.

IAgree on a method for selecting

which families to visit. Our first year, Iassigned five 9th graders to each

teacher, matching teachers withstudents they had in class when

possible. This year, teachers chose fivekids from their advisory group.

I Decide how to contact families andset parameters for visits. During our first

year, we sent letters to families and thenphoned to schedule visits ranging from30 minutes to one hour. Be flexible in

arranging meeting times to accommo-date parents schedules. We set a two-

month window for teachers to completevisits, which gives teachers flexibility

but creates a sense of urgency aboutconducting visits early in the year.

I Follow up with parents. Theprogram coordinator or a teacher

should contact parents or grandparentsafter a meeting to answer questions and

tell them about opportunities forinvolvement in school.

I Create opportunities for teachers to

use what they learn. You might design aform or process that teachers can use to

describe key information they gained ateach visit and reflect on how to use that

rich knowledge. Its crucial to set up away for each home visitor to share infor-

mation with the students otherteachers; this may require further

professional development on how to tap

funds of knowledge. Teachers may alsoneed shared planning time to reviselessons.

The Stories We Must Hear

Stories like those of Sarah, Fualosa, Vai,

Sapphire, and their families need to betoldand its essential that theirteachers hear these stories. Each year,on the first day of school, I stand in

front of a sea of faces, with namesswirling in my head. Some students

remain a mystery to me until I visit theirhomes and they unfold into real people.

Teachers need to know students in thisway; every day we make instructional

decisions that hinge on what we knowabout our kids. We can learn so much if

we just enter students homes andlisten.

References

Barone, T. (1989). Ways of being at risk: Thecase of Billy Charles Barnett. Phi DeltaKappan, 71(2), 147151.

Ginsberg, M. (2007). Lessons at the kitchen table.Educational Leadership, 64(6), 5661.

Gonzlez, N., Andrade, R., Civil, M., &Moll, L. (2001). Bridging funds of distrib-uted knowledge: Creating zones of prac-tices in mathematics.Journal of Educationfor Students Placed at Risk, 6(1&2),

115132.Lopez, G., (2001). The value of hard work:Lessons on parent involvement from an(im)migrant household. Harvard Educa-tional Review, 71(3), 416437.

Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzlez,N. (1992). Funds of knowledge forteaching: A qualitative approach to devel-oping strategic connections betweenhomes and classrooms. Theory Into Prac-tice, 31(1), 132141.

Authors note: All names are pseudonyms.

Amy Baeder teaches biology at Cleve-

land High School, 5511 15th Avenue

South, Seattle, WA 98108; 206-252-7881;

aebaeder@seattleschools.org.

EL

60 E D U C A T I O N A L L E A D E R S H I P / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0

Avoid theFunding

Cliff...

Invest inSustainableSchoolImprovement.

www.sustainableschoolimprovement.org

For the story of another schools home visit program, read the online-

only article When Are You Coming to My House? by Dana Aguilera

at www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb10/vol67

/num05/When_Are_You_Coming_to_My_House.aspx.

EL onl ine

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