Earlier this month, reported The Cincinnati Enquirer's Brenna R. Kelly, as Leonard Allgeyer was preparing for his first day as an eighth-grader at Tichenor Middle School in northern Kentucky, his mother, Staci, complained to his teacher: "He spells so many words wrong."What was Leonard's mother's immediate course of action? She explained her concerns to the teacher and a counselor when they came to her home.This direct educational reform was possible because, according to the Enquirer's Kelly, "several Northern Kentucky school districts are sending teachers out of the classroom and into homes to get to know their students and their families."These schools are evolving, one student at a time -- but deeper. And dig the result of this commonsense approach to understanding how individual students learn:"Experts say teacher home visits can result in increased attendance, decreased discipline problems, more parental involvement and -- ultimately -- higher test scores."Before these visits, the at-risk population of the Tichenor School had doubled, according to principal Bryant Gillis, who told Kelly: "Probably a lot of our parents didn't have a good experience with school."In addition, Kelly, citing an interview with Newport (Ky.) Independent Schools Superintendent Kelly E. Middleton, reported that "research shows that students work harder when they believe that teachers care about them."By getting to know the students, teachers and counselors are showing parents that schools can reach these students more wholly than tests can.Last week, Kendal Gapinkski of the Daily (West Chester, Pa.) Local News reported on another example of creative critical thinking in education reform that is connected to Pennsylvania's new Common Core standards.