How do teachers feel about the idea of eliminating homework?

On June 16, 2011, the New York Times published an article, “New Recruit in Homework Revolt: The Principal”

[A] school board will vote this summer on a proposal to limit weeknight homework to 10 minutes for each year of school [and] ban assignments on weekends, holidays and school vacations. … [Some claim] that high-stakes testing and competition for college have fueled a nightly grind that [does] little to raise achievement, particularly in elementary grades. … [T]he anti-homework movement has been reignited in recent months by the documentary Race to Nowhere. … “There is simply no proof that most homework as we know it improves school performance,” said Vicki Abeles, the filmmaker and a mother of three from California. …

In response to this article, Scholastic Teachers wrote (on Facebook):

Homework can help improve student learning, but if it isn’t manageable, frustration can ensue for everyone involved. Like one parent said, “how many times do you have to add 7+2?” Many schools are re-evaluating their homework policies to replace weeknight work with in-class “goal work.” What do you think about an end to homework?

Here’s how teachers responded:

• Emily Miller: It’s funny because I’ve never assigned much homework (in 3rd grade) besides reading, spelling words, and math facts. However, I’ve had many parents comment that they’d like more homework so they can see what their child is doing and how their child works. I am always surprised to hear this!
• Becky Young: Me too! Usually the only homework I have in 7th grade Language Arts (other than a “book project” presentation preparation) is if they can’t get an assignment done within class time.
• Monica Schuster Harshman: I think that students should not have homework every night or on the weekends/breaks…but some homework teaches responsibility and good work ethic…which many of my students need b/c these characteristics usually are not reinforced at home
• JoAnna T. Nichols-MacDonald: I do not assign homework. I do not want parents doing the work or a child performing a task or answering a question wrong because s/he doesn’t understand the assignment.
• Kristin Cielocha Welke: I never assigned a lot of homework (4th grade). I tell parents the best thing they can do after school hours is spend time together as a family.
• Debi Briggs: I think homework as practice of the concepts learned in class is an important part of the process. With the amount of information to be learned at each grade level always increasing, there is a limit to how much can be accomplished during the school day. Such things as Emily mentioned, which require different levels of practice depending on each child’s skills, need to be worked on outside of school as well. Extra activities and television are not reasons to do away with homework.
• Denise DeProspero Ginocchi: I do not feel there should be a end to homework completely, if it is not given to practice out of school, it is often lost and not retained. Also, parents need to be involved in their children’s daily lives and need to interact with their child, homework will, for some, provide that, even if its minimal. I have much, much more to say but cannot type it all here.
• Michelle Morales Capriotti: I am all for no homework but with so much of the day spent teaching things that should be taught at home I don’t think it is possible to get it all done in the day –
• Melissa Lea: My kids (5th, 7th & 8th grades) were just swamped with homework this year. Didn’t have any free time on school nights!
• Kimberly Schiller: Homework is a necessary part of education. When done properly, it can help bolster a student’s learning from class and again, when done properly, can help a parent become more involved with their child’s learning and development. Especially in the middle and upper grades, every task/reading cannot be done in a 40 minute window. It is unrealsitic to think everything can be learned and absorbed in such a small window of time. Students should show effort outside the classroom as well to help their progression in all subject areas. However. homework should not be busy work or punishment, it should be a relevant and reasonable extension of the classroom learning.
• Kim Ravenscraft Ayres: I assign minimal homework. Mostly it’s nightly reading and a quick page of math to review what we did in class. My district has a 10-min-per-grade policy for how long homework should take and that includes nightly reading. I teach 2nd grade, so we give 20 mins. 15 of that for my students is nightly reading. I tell parents if the math is taking much more than 5 minutes (it’s really short!) the student probably didn’t fully understand the lesson and just write me a note on the homework so I know we need to revisit it. I don’t want to completely do away with the homework, because I like having the student check for understanding later, but I don’t want it to take up their whole night either!
• Scott Walters: The standard is ten minutes times the grade you are in per night until HS when you level out and 90 minutes. This is the total for ALL classes. Any child getting more than this on a regular basis, the parent MUST APPROACH the school ad demand these limits. PERIOD!
• Rena Drabant: Homework used to be whatever the child didn’t finish in class. And with the exception of a science project or writing a report, that is what works best in most cases. Assigning homework that takes an additional 2-3 hrs. every night to complete is awful! It takes away from their family time and other meaningful activities that deepen and add to their life. JMO but it is the opinion of most parents from what I have observed. ?
• Laura Donaldson Lyons: But college and real-life work actually DO involve managing work after-hours. Ask your teachers who juggle a bag full of lesson planning, inservice reading, papers to grade, etc. each week. Homework shouldn’t be something that brings young kids to tears, though. It should be a thoughtful way to practice what’s been accomplished in class, family projects, and perhaps choices of activities that students can make for their level. And it is actually a good way for parents to see what their child is doing weekly in the classroom. For those families who don’t care to enforce a homework policy, homework should not be graded and held against the student.
• Angella J Curran: I read an interesting study in grad school, that each student should have no more than 8 minutes of homewok times the grade the student is in..which basically means make it count! I know when I was in school I would spend HOURS each night trying to finish research papers, and do 30+ geometry problems every night, and now at age 28 I have no clue how to do higher level math! I try to give my students ample time to finish their work in class…on rare occasions they have to take home book work, but if they can get it in class..then they do fine!
• Susan E Roth: How about the last school I taught at BANNED homework???? How can a kid learn everything in a 40 minute class- if they even come.
• Gayle Hobbs: As a Language Arts teacher, I only assigned homework on an as needed basis. If the students were not getting a particular concept and needed more practice, I might decide a worksheet was in order. Most of the work was done in class with constant supervision on my part. As the students completed the work, then they got a sticker or initials. Those stickers/initials are work points for completing the work in a timely manner. I do, however, give vocabulary/spelling packets that they can work on at home or during class when other work is completed. There are the large projects that might require research time or other prep time. They could become homework.
• Tracy Shannon: This is just more cowtowing to students who refuse to do HW. I also have seen friends write notes asking for extensions b/c it was more important to run from soccer to band to basketball instead of doing HW. No way.
• Tracy Shannon: HW should not be busy work. It should be meaningful. How do I teach a novel without having kids read at home? I can’t do all the reading in class. We would only do 1 novel a term.
• Stacey Beam: We are not allowed to assign homework on game nights, church nights, or weekends at our school.
• Susan Nichols: I believe in no more than 20-30 min. of homework for my 1st graders, 10-15 min. reading practice, 5-10 min. other activity…math facts, vocabulary, grammar….If an easy project is assigned, there is little (5 min) or no homework for that week….This is my belief, however when my son was @ another school in 1st, his assignments were an hour a night (and he is a VERY intelligent child)….needless to say, I revolted!
• Erica Cunningham Woodard: I think we still need to reinforce what the children have learned in class with some homework. I teach 1st grade and ask that parents read daily with their child and write the title of the book on our daily behavior sheet, every day review spelling words, Monday is spelling homework, Tuesday Reading, Wednesday Language Arts, and Thursday Math. All assignments are review of what we are doing that week. What do you all do for parents that want more or harder work for their child?
• Sarah Bianchet: I teach middle school math and think homework is necessary. I gave my students homework almost every night, the length of it depending on what lesson we did in class and how much work time they had. Our school implented an after school math support for students who struggled or didn’t complete their homework and it was staffed by math teachers. By the end of the year almost all kids were turning it in on time and complete. Homework teaches self Dicipline and responsibility. It also allows students to apply their skills and problem solve on their own when their teacher is not right next to them.
• Susan Nichols: Plus family time & outdoor play/sports activities for any age is very important in my opinion…If my personal children and I get frustrated & burnt out on long homework assignments , then think about how my students & parents feel!
• Christa Pollard Castellano: I was upset last year that my 8th & 4th grader NEVER had homework! How are they supposed to ‘practice’ what they have learned throughout the day? As a Kindergarten teacher myself, I found that the homework allowed the parents to see exactly what we were doing in class–it was amazing that some parents didn’t realize what their child was supposed to learn, way more than just ABCs & 123s!!
• Mandi Sharkey: Homework can be punishment for special needs students – you have to consider the goals . I know parents ask for more homework all the time and then others would rather focus on other commitments and let students recharge their brains… You should consider the needs of the student and the desires of the family before assigning homework, for older students it should be the results of poor time management or scaffolded independent work… always to ensure success
• Anju Thapa: : I think homeworks shouldn’t be a burden for the students but it shouldn’t be eliminated completely because it helps stds to get engaged in their studies …for this enjoyable n creative n appropiate amount ofHW should be given.
• Diane Hansen Castro: I’m not looking back to see what’s already been said, but as a jr high Spanish teacher, homework is a must. I only want them to practice the vocabulary and concepts for 5-10 minutes tops, but it needs to be daily, not every other day or once a week. It’s about building a base of memorized vocab, etc. Having an in-class “goal” to pass off is not the point. The point is can they practice it enough out of class when it’s not fresh in their mind? Homework should be practice, not blazing new trails of information.
• April Kievernagel: I tried to do away with most of the homework in 2nd grade last year. I asked kids to read for 20 minutes each night. Sadly, I had less students turn in reading logs than I ever had with homework packets. I am going back to assigning a litle homework as review.
• Tammy Collins Brand: I think homework is a complete waste of time except for specific practice in a specific skill. Especially when parents cannot help children. I teach in a low socio-economic area and the parents are sometimes worse off than the kids.
• Ruth Grant: I tell my parents that homework is a “necessary evil” in that we’d all like to do away with it, but the 2 years I tried that I saw a slump in my children’s progress (especially in reading) and my parents had more questions about what was being covered in class. Homework helps a student review and do independent work–to see what “stuck” from the classroom lesson. It is also a window into the classroom for the parent. The parents are also able to see how their child applies what was taught and if they have a focus issue. It is just too valuable to throw out because people’s priorities have gotten misplaced. However, I don’t agree with teachers who abuse homework and use it as a way for the parent to become the teacher.
• Denise Williams: I agree with minimum homework. If a child can’t get the lesson in class, how are they going to complete the assignment at home without the teacher? I usually give big review packets, but with the amount of classwork I do, I never really get to check it. Next year, I will assign a set amount of lesson problems both the students and I can manage.
• Michele A. Hall: Teaching for 27 years, I have done it both ways. We do the same homework in our grade level- 20 minutes of reading, and a math worksheet that reviews that days lesson. I am adding a facts sheet for addition and subtraction next year that should not take more than 1-2 minutes- we will do 7+ 2= until they learn that the answer is 9!
• Vickie Jensen: It sounds a lot like the educational model I was exposed to in the seventies in Iowa. The focus was on a balance, and I didn’t get homework until 6th grade. I am now a college professor so I don’t think that I missed out having homework in elementary school. I loved school, and that is what aided my learning. We are making kids hate school and feel serious blows to their self-esteem through hard homework before they can even develop key skills. Kindergarteners do NOT need homework. Fun exploration suggestions perhaps, but required homework: no. It is either frustrating and deterring them from liking school or it is so boring that it is not taken seriously.
• Shelli Kasper Haggard: After teaching middle school for quite a few years, I now direct an after-school program in a parochial school that encompasses K-8th grades. It is a reality check for some parents to see that their child worked on a lot more homework than their peer, who are in the same class. Yes, some students just take longer, but I can also get a glimpse into who is just messing around during classwork time in school.

One Response to “An End to Homework?”

1. Mark Welch says:

   June 21, 2011 at 11:38 pm

   Another report (including a discussion with Alfie Kohn on KQED public radio), this time about the school district where I worked for 2 years as a substitute teacher: “The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees is set to consider scaling back the time students spend on homework. The district is one of many across the country that are reevaluating homework in light of questions about its educational value — and concerns about overstressed and overscheduled kids.”
   http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201106200900

   Reply