Mission Statement

Especially in high-poverty areas, too many children enter school not ready to learn, and never catch up, resulting in increased rates of remedial attention, school failure, delinquency and lifetimes of perpetuated hardships. HOME WORKS! trains, supports, and helps pay teachers of students performing below grade level to visit their homes to positively engage parents in their children’s education. Grants are used to fund the general operating budget which helps pay teachers, and pays for teacher training, data collection, evaluation, staffing, academic materials for parents to use at home, Family Dinners at school, and interpreters and transportation for those who need it.

Impact

HOME WORKS! has made significant progress toward our goals and objectives.

• 90% of all parents surveyed felt that home visits improved their relationship with their child’s teachers and were “very comfortable” contacting them.
• Students, parents, and teachers all reported improvements in homework completion.
• State test scores for math and communication arts increased for HOME WORKS! students when compared with students who did not have home visits.
• Improvement in math grades occurred among 3rd to 6th grade HOME WORKS! students, while math grades of non-participants declined.
• Attendance rates for HW! students increased, but decreased among non‐HOME WORKS! students.
• 97.4% of teachers believed visits improved the relationship with parents.
• Students who received at least one home visit scored 5% higher in academic performance based on the STAR literacy assessment, than students receiving no visits.
• HW! students who took part in two home visits scored nearly 7% higher in academic performance based on the STAR literacy assessment.
• HW! students missed fewer days of school than similar non-HW! students.
• HW! students who suffered from chronic absenteeism (two weeks or more) improved attendance by 13% after one home visit compared to chronic absent students receiving no visits.
• HW! students who received the target number of two home visits were 25% less likely to be absent two weeks or more.