Homework Debate Heats Up, Again

As Nancy Keates points out in her article “Schools Turn Down the Heat on Homework” (Wall Street Journal, Friday, January 19, 2007) the homework argument is not a new one. I researched the topic twenty years ago during an administrative internship. The news is that schools in some affluent areas are limiting homework for intermediate, middle and secondary students while eliminating homework for primary students. Keates contends that the educational community at large watches and follows the innovations in such elite institutions. The homework discussion arose numerous times during my forty years in public education. Teachers agreed to alternate days so students did not have every subject every night. We argued that mindless “drill-and-kill” worksheets did not positively impact student learning and that ten instead of fifty math problems would review the process. We even agreed that one thought-provoking, multi-step, authentic math problem would yield a better grasp of mathematical concepts and provide valuable feedback for the teachers. Alas, as Keates points out, American schools have consistently swung back-and-forth on homework when national and world events provoked attacks on American education. Keates says that the problem of lagging US scores is not because of homework. More superficial work does not add the necessary depth or rigor to the curriculum. In some cases, an inverse relationship may exist between achievement and homework.

Country Mean Math score % of students assigned 4+ hours of homework nightly Lebanon 434 24% Armenia 478 23% Romania 474 22% South Africa 266 22% Tunisia 411 20% Moldova 459 19% Jordan 424 19% United States 504 5% England 498 3% Morocco 387 3% Netherlands 536 3% Scotland 498 2% Korea 587 1% Japan 569 1% Source: Gerald K. LeTendre & Motoko Akiba. “A Nation Spins its Wheels: The Role of Homework and National Homework Policies in National Student Achievement Levels in Math and Science,” 2007. Mean scores range from 266 to 605. Teachers have claimed that homework teaches responsibility but the opposite appears to hold true. Common sense alone suggests that organized students are most likely to complete homework independently whereas capable, organized parents are needed to superimpose organization for students still developing this quality. Teachers have claimed that homework mirrors “the real-world.” Society has certainly seen a recent change in how much work Americans are carrying home and no one is praising that practice. Why then, would we want to extend a student’s work day by hours? One final claim by teachers has been that they are expected to carry stacks of papers home to correct so why should students not also work beyond the school day. That is a punitive argument and very faulty reasoning. Research has shown that papers covered in red check marks do not comprise a valuable learning experience for students. WritingNext reiterates the research that teaching students to revise and edit their writing has the greatest impact on the quality of student writing. Surely, students working together in math to find and correct errors in thinking would have a similar effect. The achievement levels of elementary students are not positively impacted by homework except for independent reading. Based on research many schools require thirty minutes of “home-reading” a day. I would also ague that if students are going to spend their time watching mindless television, perhaps the homework is a better alternative. But, if the students can engage in sports and physical exercise, play games and do puzzles, socialize and converse, help family members with chores, lie on their backs and watch the clouds … we will actually go further in helping young students become active and engaged learners during school hours.

Comments

[Clay]

What a nice conclusion. "[Lying] on their backs and watch[ing] the clouds" is precisely what my students here in Korea are deprived of by too much homework and night-schooling. And its detrimental effects show in their inability to relax into higher-order writing and really enjoy making meaning of it all.

I'm horrible at statistics. Can you clarify what the statistics you quote actually suggest about Korea?

Enjoyed your post.