The impact of a targeted home visitation program on teacher attitudes, teacher practice and parent participation in selected urban elementary school classrooms

The research presented in this dissertation utilized both quantitative and qualitative strategies to examine the impact that teacher participation in a targeted home visitation program had on their attitudes, practices, and parent participation within their classrooms. One hundred elementary school teachers were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. The treatment group was asked to attend a 2-hour training and conduct 3 home visits during the implementation phase of the study. All participants were asked to complete the 25-item Likert researcher designed instrument. Selected participants from the treatment group were asked to participate in a focus group. The responses to the questionnaire and focus group were analyzed for quantitative and qualitative results. The overarching research question was: What is the impact of a targeted home visitation program on teacher attitudes, teacher practice, and parent participation in selected urban elementary school classrooms? Subordinate research questions that were investigated were: (a) What is the effect of the home visitation program on teacher attitude towards children's learning and towards parent involvement in selected urban elementary classrooms? (b) how does participation in the program change teacher instructional practice effectiveness in student engagement and teacher-parent interactions in these classrooms? (c) does the program increase a teacher's use of culturally responsive instructional strategies in classrooms? and (d) is there an increase in parent participation in classrooms after a teacher's visitation? The findings from this study indicated that teacher participation in the home visitation program significantly impacted student learning, parent involvement, and the use of cultural responsive strategies. Significant themes that emerged included feelings of empowerment, establishing parent partnerships, understanding of culture, and enhancing parental involvement.