As kindergarten teachers Paul Ferreter and Carla Randazzo arrive at their students' homes, they are greeted with rock star welcomes.

Squeals of excitement can be heard from the sidewalk as students peer through windows and see the teachers walking up the driveway.

This kind of scene shows the Golden Empire Elementary teachers that their efforts are working. A home visit from a teacher is not reserved for struggling students, they say.

And it shows when they enter Jeff and Kelly Adams' home in Rosemont. Their 5-year-old son Jared was both bashful and beaming as he welcomed his teacher, Mr. Ferreter.

"Jared was really excited leading up to this," said his mother, Kelly. "He wanted to wait outside."

The visit was part of the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project, a national model that began in 1998 at Sacramento City Unified as a way to increase parent engagement at schools.

There are 41 schools in Sacramento City Unified participating this year in the home visit project. It is primarily paid for out of federal Title I money, which is given to schools serving a large number of low-income students.

Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said that when budget constraints lift he would like to use general fund money to support the home visit project, which would open the program to more schools.

"I'd like to see it in every school," said Raymond, who has gone on more than a dozen home visits with teachers. "We'll get there."

Teachers at participating schools choose to be a part of the program and are paid a stipend for an hour visit after school.

Fern Bacon Middle School teacher Tarik McFall said he feels a greater connection with a student and his or her family after a home visit.

"With all the students, once they come back to the class their demeanor changes, their attitude changes," McFall said. "They feel a connection to you."

That connection is key, McFall said.

The home visit project grew out of a cycle of blame in low-performing schools, where parents said students were failing because teachers didn't care and teachers said it was the parents' fault.

"All of the home visits don't go smoothly, but all of them have value, even the uncomfortable ones," Randazzo said.

That value may come in the form of insight into a student's study habits, perspective on why a student is sometimes late to school or the most important piece of information a teacher can possess: an understanding of what motivates a student.

"The trick is to get the students and families who don't feel connected to the school," Ferreter said. "Most of the families we get are like Jared's."

Or families like that of Edrees "Eddy" Aseel, one of Jared's closest friends and classmates at Golden Empire.

As Ferreter and Randazzo drove to the Aseel home near the former Mather Air Force Base, they said they had a new understanding of the distance the family drives to attend Golden Empire, which is not their neighborhood school.

"There is a school behind my house, but I love Golden Empire," said Eddy's mother, Homaira Aseel.

Aseel talked about being a teacher in Afghanistan before coming to the United States in 1990.

Ferreter and Randazzo asked about Eddy's hobbies and whether there was anything they'd like to see different at the school. Then they asked a question that has become signature to the home visit project.

"What are your hopes and dreams for Eddy?" Ferreter asked.

"The only thing I want is for him to be educated," Aseel said. "The way America is you need a degree to eat."

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