A rich, high-quality academic program that prepares all students for success necessitates that educators have the knowledge, skill, and will to understand and engage students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Expert teachers must be culturally and linguistically responsive teachers; they orchestrate learning experiences that leverage students’ strengths, interests, and backgrounds in an effort to make learning more relevant and effective; they view students’ differences as assets in the classroom.

Parent Teacher Home Visits are an opportunity to tap into families’ funds of knowledge and increase use of culturally responsive and inclusive practices. As teachers learn – through home visits – about the unique interests, stories, and assets of students and their families, they are better equipped to integrate them into classroom practices. Likewise, by strengthening relationships of trust among students, families, and educators, the PTHV model can increase students’ sense of belonging such that they feel more accepted, included, and valued at school; in turn, student engagement and motivation in school is improved and academic proficiency is increased.