The Effects of Home Visits on Lower Achieving Middle School Students

Sheri L. Burton
May 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate how home visits to a middle school student
conducted by school-based personnel would affect that students overall achievement.
Using a case study design, office referrals of this particular student were analyzed and
tallied to reveal chronic offenses. The subject in this study was a seventh-grade female
who received repeated office referrals for truancy, uniform infractions, and
insubordination. As a baseline, quarter grades and office referrals were used. The subject
received one home visit per week for ten weeks, and each home visit focused on a
strategy to reduce office referrals. After completion of the home visits, the preceding
quarter grades and office referrals were examined to measure growth. Although the
student, parent, and educator developed a positive relationship that supports open
communication, findings of the study suggest that these home visits did not positively
affect the students overall achievement. Further study with a larger sampling of students
is needed.