Latine students are the fastest growing demographic group in K-12 education, yet they often experience a disconnect between their home lives and school due to linguistic and cultural differences. Further, most teachers do not share the racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds of their Latine students and receive minimal training in family engagement. Asset-based, relationship-centered home visits are a promising strategy to build trust, enhance collaboration, and inform teacher classroom practices to better support Latine academic experiences and outcomes. But home visits can also mirror power dynamics that marginalize family strengths. The Parent Teacher Home Visit Project is a model for home visiting that has been adopted in school districts across the U.S. In Denver Public Schools (DPS), approximately 7,000 visits take place each year. Palacios and colleagues developed a home visiting training for teachers that centers family assets to mitigate the power imbalance between teachers and Latine families, who constitute the majority of home visit families in Denver. The team will use surveys, interviews, and visit and classroom observations to examine how teachers and Latine families and students experience home visits, as well as how visit experiences are reflected in classroom practices.
How can home visits with Latine families improve family school relationships and teacher classroom practices?
