Why We Need HOME WORKS! The Teacher Home Visit Program

Research shows that the lack of parent involvement is one of the key challenges facing schools, and that establishing a relationship between a student’s home and school is critical for academic success, and has a strong impact on each student’s ability to perform academically.

• FACT: 68% of Missouri’s fourth graders are performing BELOW grade level in reading, 62% are performing BELOW grade level in math; 69% of Missouri’s eighth graders are performing BELOW grade level in reading, 70% are performing BELOW grade level in math. Only 13% of all Black fourth graders in the U.S. are reading at grade level. (Children’s Defense Fund, Nov. 2008)
• FACT: The rate of low literacy skills among children growing up in our society is a national problem. More than one million children drop out of school each year (every 26 seconds another student drops out of high school in America), costing the nation over $240 billion in lost earnings, forgone tax revenues, and expenditures for social services. (The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, McQuillan)
• FACT: About 2/3 of public-school fourth graders cannot read at grade level; 60% cannot do math at grade level; more than 80% of Black and Hispanic fourth graders in public school cannot read at grade level. 85% of Black fourth graders in public school cannot do math at grade level. (Education Yearbook 2008: The State of America's Children, Children's Defense Fund)
• FACT: 70% of public school 8th graders cannot read or do math at grade level. More than 80% of Black and Hispanic 8th graders cannot read or do math at grade level, compared to 60% of their White peers. (Education Yearbook 2008: The State of America's Children, Children's Defense Fund)
• FACT: More than 1/3 of children entering kindergarten are unprepared for school. Furthermore, those who start behind often remain academically behind resulting in increased rates of remedial attention, school failure, and incarceration. (Education Yearbook 2008: The State of America's Children, Children's Defense Fund)
• FACT: Children in low-income families lack essential one-on-one reading time. A report by the Packard and MacArthur Foundations found that the average child growing up in a low-income family has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading from birth to kindergarten. The average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to up to 1,700 hours of one-on-one reading during the same time. (The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, McQuillan)

St. Louis, and indeed the entire U.S., is losing tens of thousands of young people who end up graduating functionally illiterate, or dropping out, or incarcerated, or in low-paying, dead-end jobs, or engaged in illicit activities, rather than becoming productive, employable members of society. All of this is less likely to happen if they have an academically healthy start in life, enter school ready to learn which enables them to stay in school, graduate, and go to college or trade school.

Teachers and principals are desperate for parents to be more involved. Federal requirements under No Child Left Behind legislation call for providing school districts assistance in developing parental involvement programs to further the effort to improve the academic achievement of students in under-performing schools.