Every August, before school started, he would telephone each family to build what he called “relationship capital.” He continued calling throughout the year, making sure to vary the kinds of conversations so that he didn’t always bear bad news. The Match training program, in turn, required that each of its teacher candidates practice six different types of phone calls, from the “praise quickie” to the “powwow.” The curriculum also required several hours of calls to different parents each week: one hour a night each weekday and two hours each weekend.
