Research confirms that students succeed when their parents are involved with their education and research supports the idea that schools need to build relationships first if they are going to engage the vast majority of parents so that they  become partners in the learning process. Home visits are a proven strategy for reducing absenteeism, improving student behavior, increasing parent involvement in student education, and ultimately improving academic performance.

The program Stepping Up As Powerful Partners will be working with seven schools this year as part of a program etitled PARENTS: Stepping Up As Powerful Partners (Bowles, DeBerry. Lincoln, Renaissance, Sumner, Walsh, and Gerena). Participating schools were the most successful at implementing the program last year during a pilot program in twenty schools. The goal this year is to have a deeper impact in fewer schools as a step towards expanding to other schools in the future. All the magnet grant schools (Gerena and Renaissance) potentially have funding to implement teacher home visit programs next year.

The model for the teacher home visit is based on a program developed in Sacramento, CA. The program designed so that teachers and school-based parent facilitators work with families in the students' homes to build relationships, understanding, and communication skills that provide a foundation for working together for the success of the child. Visits are made by the invidivual child's teacher and the school's parent facilitator at the same time. Teachers identify ways that parents can work with the them to support their teaching. Parents also are invited to come to the school.

Participation by both teachers and parents is voluntary. Teachers are paid for an hour of extra-curricular work for each home visit. Teachers in the program participate in a three-hour workshop to prepare to make home visits. The first visit is made as early in the year as possible and a second visit is made in January or February. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the visits takes place at the end of the school year.