There are longstanding debates surrounding homework: when it is beneficial to learning and understanding, and how much time should students spend on it.
In an informal Education Week LinkedIn Poll earlier this year, 42% of respondents said they believe homework is necessary for student learning. Another EdWeek social media poll revealed that while educators can see benefits to homework, many believe that the amount of homework that students have is too much.
For students in middle or high school, research shows that the more often students complete homework, the higher their academic achievement, according to the Center for Public Education. But homework should be limited to 1.5 to 2.5 hours per night for high school students and less than an hour per night for middle school students, according to the Center for Public Education.
Some educators believe that elementary students should not have any homework, as it may sour their attitudes toward school as they get older. But according to Johns Hopkins University research, younger students can still benefit from homework if it’s engaging and doesn’t take too much time. Teachers could follow the informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level—for example, 20 minutes in 2nd grade, 30 minutes in 3rd grade, etc.
Additionally, the pandemic highlighted the inequalities students face outside of school, like having access to technology, the internet, or parent help, further driving a wedge between advocates and critics of homework, according to Education Week reporting.
Education Week recently asked its social media followers another homework question: How would you describe what works and doesn’t work in today’s school homework assignments? Most of the answers to this Facebook post fell in the camp that homework isn’t effective.
Here are some of their responses, edited lightly for length and clarity.
Homework isn’t challenging anymore
What homework? It’s nothing like it was when I was in junior or high school. My middle schooler only brought homework home 2-3 times in the last year and a half. Instead, class time is used. As an example, my child’s ELA class wrote a five-paragraph essay and dedicated most of class period to get it done, which means no forward progress on anything else in that class for most of the week. My child was done the first day and completely bored the rest of the week. Without homework or study hall time to complete assignments outside of class, I fear the amount of learning new material has been greatly reduced!
Technology is changing the role of homework
What works is… no homework. Home life is unpredictable, but what is predictable (sadly) is that if it’s for points, there’s an extremely high chance they just copied it from a friend or used the internet/AI. Giving points for copying seems silly.
That being said, I just give ungraded practice during class and to take home. Then I only grade their assessments. Now, they do the work because they need to learn instead of doing it for points.
School-life balance is important
What doesn’t work is homework. Can I control the home environment? Nope. Maybe we should just make school last longer instead of messing with home and work-life balance? Reading is not homework, and it shouldn’t be graded, only rewarded.