Across the country, schools are still struggling to regain lost ground in student achievement. Many interventions are falling short, leaving districts searching for strategies that truly move the needle. But at HOME WORKS!, we have clear proof that family engagement works — our students are meeting math and reading growth targets at rates 60% higher than their peers. The evidence is undeniable. Now, we must ensure that more families, teachers, and schools can benefit.
That’s why 2025 is a year of planning and preparation for action. This year, we are actively exploring, strategizing, and listening to ensure that our next steps are intentional, scalable, and responsive to the needs of schools, teachers, and families. Here is what we’re talking about:
Supporting Teachers Through Better Compensation
Teachers are the heart of family engagement, yet they are often stretched thin. While HOME WORKS! helps address key challenges teachers face, participation requires additional effort, which can be a barrier for teachers. To increase participation, we need to ensure more equitable pay for the work being done. When more teachers engage, they experience the benefits of stronger family partnerships, which in turn builds momentum, sustains participation, and creates a positive feedback loop within schools, creating a truly embedded culture of family engagement.
Expanding to More Schools
Districts across the country are searching for interventions that can deliver real, lasting change. The reality is stark: students who were already the furthest behind before the pandemic have fallen even further behind, and standard interventions have not worked for them. Schools are still struggling to close these widening gaps, searching for solutions that will truly reach the students who need them most. Meanwhile, HOME WORKS! students are not just catching up — they’re surpassing their peers.
With proven results and increasing demand, we have a responsibility to grow. In 2025, we are laying the groundwork to bring HOME WORKS! to more schools, ensuring that when we grow, we do so in a way that is sustainable, responsive, and impactful for students, families, and educators.
Enhancing Family Engagement Training
As school environments evolve, so do the challenges teachers face in fostering family engagement. Students’ mental health and behavioral needs are becoming harder to ignore, yet many educators aren’t receiving professional development that translates to the specific work they do through our family engagement program. At the same time, parents are experiencing these same needs at home with their children, struggling to establish productive home learning routines amidst growing screen time distractions, and often turn to teachers for guidance. These challenges are deeply intertwined, impacting student success in ways that extend beyond academics.
In 2025, we are exploring ways to refine our training to address these root causes and better equip teachers with practical, culturally responsive strategies that strengthen partnerships with families, embracing a more upstream approach to ensuring students can thrive. Building real connections across diverse backgrounds — whether related to race, socioeconomic status, nationality, political beliefs — requires thoughtfulness, especially in a program rooted in trust. By adapting our training, we ensure that teachers feel prepared and confident in fostering meaningful relationships that drive student success.
Exploring New Ways to Support Families
Families face a range of challenges that extend beyond the classroom — housing instability, food insecurity, and lack of access to critical services all impact a child’s ability to learn. Through the trusting relationships built between school and home, teachers gain insight into these challenges and often become the first to recognize barriers that affect student success.
Right now, many teachers who are involved in our program take on the individual responsibility of connecting families with external support simply because they care deeply — but this approach is not sustainable given the demands on educators. In 2025, we are assessing how we can develop more formalized support systems in schools that need them, ensuring that teachers have structured pathways to connect families with resources without carrying the burden alone. This includes strengthening relationships with nonprofit organizations and service providers, as well as leveraging schools’ internal care teams in more routine ways to create proactive connections between families and the support systems in their community ready to help them.
Navigating Transition Without Losing Momentum
This work has never been about one person — it has always been intensely the opposite: a collaborative, collective effort shaped by the voices of families, teachers, and school leaders working toward shared goals. A village. Our next leader will play an important role in our journey, but the work continues with momentum because the conditions demand it. We are fortunate to have incredible experts, educators, and community voices guiding us to ensure we remain relevant and responsive.
As we continue these efforts, we also remain committed to finding the right leader for HOME WORKS!. We began our search for the next leader of HOME WORKS! in September, and while the process has taken longer than anticipated, our work has continued without interruption.
Under the steady leadership of Ed Dickinson, our Board Chair and Interim CEO, HOME WORKS! continues to advance with focus and purpose. After refining our approach in December, we officially restarted the search in mid-January and already have strong candidates in the mix. We are confident that this process will result in a leader who will guide us into this next phase of impact and growth.
We know that family engagement changes lives. The data proves it, and the need has never been clearer. Now, it’s time to take our work even further. 2025 is about laying the foundation for lasting impact. We are expanding to more schools, increasing support for teachers, refining our training, and strengthening connections that empower families.
But we can’t do this alone.
If you believe in the power of family engagement to transform education, we invite you to join us. Whether through advocacy, donations, or partnerships, your support fuels this work.
Together, we are creating lasting change — and this is the year to build something bigger.
Support our work here: www.teacherhomevisit.org/donate
Get in touch with us, we’d love to meet you:
Ed Dickinson, Interim CEO and Board Chair: [email protected]
Katrina Brown, Director of Program Operations: [email protected]
Kathryn Brayton, Director of Development: [email protected]