Public schools are bridging the gap

The Parent Teacher Home Project (PTHV) is a program that originated in Sacramento California and has been adopted by several school Districts across the country, including Nichols Elementary-Middle School in Detroit.  It has proven to increase attendance, academic performance and positive behavior in school. It works in closing the gap between parents and teachers and benefits students by immediately positioning children to do better in school.

Detroit Public Schools Community District has committed to support parents by creating this opportunity to receive a visit from their child's teachers. (Detroit Public Schools Community District, 2025).

The success of the PTHV model relies on training teachers and staff to develop meaningful relationships with families of their students, starting with these voluntary home visits. ESSA makes the funding available for the schools to receive state funding to pay teachers for these hours. 

In these short, 30- to 40-minute conversations, educators are offered the opportunity to listen, ask questions, and make observations that they can reflect on, in order to take the evidence-based inquiry into classroom activity, in order to improve instruction for the learner.  

Because it is a two-visit model, the first visit is set up as an ice-breaking visit and occurs in the summer or early fall. This first visit focuses on sharing hopes and dreams that the family has for their child. It is followed up by ongoing communication throughout the year, which creates a dynamic relationship between parents and teacher, and then a second visit occurs that focuses on academics or any other relevant issue to the student, their family or the teacher. 

When an educator and parent team act together, there is something of a spiritual substance that is created, according to educator and author Torin Finser, PhD.  He claims that, “When a teacher meets in conference with the same parents again and again, a tapestry of connected conversations, dedicated to the best interests of the child, is gradually woven over time and that there is a continuity that strengthens the work” (Finser, 2014). 

I have graduated 14 students and can attest that those parents who dedicated many hours in conversation with me not only improved the quality of their relationship with me, as their child’s teacher, but grew in their own ways as committed members of the school community and we are still lifelong friends.  Their children are now flourishing in high school and are recognized as leaders among their peers by their high school teachers.