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Is Homework Hurting or Helping Me?

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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Should we get rid of homework? Why, or why not?

Is homework an outdated, ineffective or counterproductive tool for learning? Do you agree with the authors of the paper that homework is harmful and worsens inequalities that exist between students’ home circumstances?

Or do you agree with Mr. Kang that homework still has real educational value?

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Do you think the amount is appropriate, too much or too little? Is homework, including the projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or, in your opinion, is it not a good use of time? Explain.

In these letters to the editor , one reader makes a distinction between elementary school and high school:

Homework’s value is unclear for younger students. But by high school and college, homework is absolutely essential for any student who wishes to excel. There simply isn’t time to digest Dostoyevsky if you only ever read him in class.

What do you think? How much does grade level matter when discussing the value of homework?

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

If you were a teacher, would you assign homework? What kind of assignments would you give and why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

How Much Homework Is Enough? Depends Who You Ask

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Editor’s note: This is an adapted excerpt from You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education ( Viking)—the latest book by author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson (co-authored with Lou Aronica), published in March. For years, Robinson has been known for his radical work on rekindling creativity and passion in schools, including three bestselling books (also with Aronica) on the topic. His TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” holds the record for the most-viewed TED talk of all time, with more than 50 million views. While Robinson’s latest book is geared toward parents, it also offers educators a window into the kinds of education concerns parents have for their children, including on the quality and quantity of homework.

The amount of homework young people are given varies a lot from school to school and from grade to grade. In some schools and grades, children have no homework at all. In others, they may have 18 hours or more of homework every week. In the United States, the accepted guideline, which is supported by both the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, is the 10-minute rule: Children should have no more than 10 minutes of homework each day for each grade reached. In 1st grade, children should have 10 minutes of daily homework; in 2nd grade, 20 minutes; and so on to the 12th grade, when on average they should have 120 minutes of homework each day, which is about 10 hours a week. It doesn’t always work out that way.

In 2013, the University of Phoenix College of Education commissioned a survey of how much homework teachers typically give their students. From kindergarten to 5th grade, it was just under three hours per week; from 6th to 8th grade, it was 3.2 hours; and from 9th to 12th grade, it was 3.5 hours.

There are two points to note. First, these are the amounts given by individual teachers. To estimate the total time children are expected to spend on homework, you need to multiply these hours by the number of teachers they work with. High school students who work with five teachers in different curriculum areas may find themselves with 17.5 hours or more of homework a week, which is the equivalent of a part-time job. The other factor is that these are teachers’ estimates of the time that homework should take. The time that individual children spend on it will be more or less than that, according to their abilities and interests. One child may casually dash off a piece of homework in half the time that another will spend laboring through in a cold sweat.

Do students have more homework these days than previous generations? Given all the variables, it’s difficult to say. Some studies suggest they do. In 2007, a study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that, on average, high school students spent around seven hours a week on homework. A similar study in 1994 put the average at less than five hours a week. Mind you, I [Robinson] was in high school in England in the 1960s and spent a lot more time than that—though maybe that was to do with my own ability. One way of judging this is to look at how much homework your own children are given and compare it to what you had at the same age.

Many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all.

There’s also much debate about the value of homework. Supporters argue that it benefits children, teachers, and parents in several ways:

• Children learn to deepen their understanding of specific content, to cover content at their own pace, to become more independent learners, to develop problem-solving and time-management skills, and to relate what they learn in school to outside activities.
• Teachers can see how well their students understand the lessons; evaluate students’ individual progress, strengths, and weaknesses; and cover more content in class.
• Parents can engage practically in their children’s education, see firsthand what their children are being taught in school, and understand more clearly how they’re getting on—what they find easy and what they struggle with in school.

Want to know more about Sir Ken Robinson? Check out our Q&A with him.

Q&A With Sir Ken Robinson

Ashley Norris is assistant dean at the University of Phoenix College of Education. Commenting on her university’s survey, she says, “Homework helps build confidence, responsibility, and problem-solving skills that can set students up for success in high school, college, and in the workplace.”

That may be so, but many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all. Families have busy lives, and it can be hard for parents to find time to help with homework alongside everything else they have to cope with. Norris is convinced it’s worth the effort, especially, she says, because in many schools, the nature of homework is changing. One influence is the growing popularity of the so-called flipped classroom.

In the stereotypical classroom, the teacher spends time in class presenting material to the students. Their homework consists of assignments based on that material. In the flipped classroom, the teacher provides the students with presentational materials—videos, slides, lecture notes—which the students review at home and then bring questions and ideas to school where they work on them collaboratively with the teacher and other students. As Norris notes, in this approach, homework extends the boundaries of the classroom and reframes how time in school can be used more productively, allowing students to “collaborate on learning, learn from each other, maybe critique [each other’s work], and share those experiences.”

Even so, many parents and educators are increasingly concerned that homework, in whatever form it takes, is a bridge too far in the pressured lives of children and their families. It takes away from essential time for their children to relax and unwind after school, to play, to be young, and to be together as a family. On top of that, the benefits of homework are often asserted, but they’re not consistent, and they’re certainly not guaranteed.

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The learning network | do teachers assign too much homework.

Do Teachers Assign Too Much Homework?

Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

• See All Student Opinion »

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Will it keep you up late at night? Will it cause stress in your family? Or do you have homework under control?

Do teachers assign too much homework?

In the article “The Homework Squabbles,” Bruce Feiler writes:

Homework has a branding problem. Or, to be a little less pointy-headed about it, everybody hates homework. Scan through the parenting shelves, and the frustration is palpable: “The Case Against Homework,” “The Homework Trap,” “The End of Homework.” Glance through glossy magazines, and the enmity is ubiquitous: “The Homework Wars” (The Atlantic), “The Myth About Homework” (Time), “Do Kids Have Too Much Homework?” (Smithsonian). Heck, just drop the word into any conversation with families and watch the temperature rise. Some of this is cyclical, of course. Homework goes back to the onset of formal schooling in America and was popular in an era when the brain was viewed as a muscle to be strengthened. The first backlash began in the early 20th century as repetitive drilling came under attack, and by the ’40s, homework had lost favor. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 generated hysteria that we were losing ground to the Soviet Union, and more homework was one response, but the practice again waned in the 1960s. Homework came roaring back after “A Nation at Risk” in the 1980s as Americans again feared their children were falling behind. Today’s tension echoes this back and forth. “The Chinese do six hours of homework before breakfast — we have to keep up” versus “Play is more important than make-work. Google wants people who are ‘creative’.”

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …

— Do your teachers assign too much homework? Or do you have just the right amount?

— Does homework cause stress and tension in your family ? Or does it create opportunities to work together with your parents or siblings?

— Does it get in the way of sleep or extracurricular activities? Or are you able to manage the right balance?

— How do you usually get your homework done? At home or at school? In a quiet room, or with family or friends around? Do you tend to work alone, or do your parents or friends help?

— Is homework, including projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or is it not a good use of time, in your opinion? Explain.

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name . For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

when i get home i do AT LEAST 2 hours of homework and since i got into 7th grade i have no time for hobbies or fun. in a word, it just stinks.

I personally believe that teachers do give a fair amount of homework. Yes some days we do have more homework than others, also some teachers give more homework than others. A page or two of homework for each class is not a big deal but when each teacher assigns two pages of homework a night that’s about ten pages to do when you get home. Children also have after school activity’s, with some children not getting out until late. When you have hours of homework that can be stressful and hard as well. Taking the child out of the after school activity you say could be beneficial to the students education, on the other hand what could is do for them physically. Once they get done with homework would they spend their time on social media and technology? Everything you can do about homework is going to have something you will have to lose. Not saying homework does not help the student but also takes a way sleep and rest for the student as well. Making a child go to school non well rested could damage there learning. Falling asleep in class, not paying attention, and focusing on something else, perhaps unfinished homework for another class. Homework is a good thing and in some ways not so much, just depending on how much is assigned and how much time you have to do it.

I think there are teachers who give just the right amount but i also think there are teachers that dont relise we have homework from other teachers to and theres no way we could finish that all in one night. I think it gets in the way of my sleep all the time and i never have time for extracurriculars any more. I usually do my homework in my room with no one else arond because they get me destracted and i never get finished.

When I have homework, I normally do it wherever I am and I have time to do it. But, it is more difficult for me to do my homework when it’s loud, so I usually prefer to be somewhere quiet. I also prefer working alone because then I stay focused and can do my work without any disruption. On the topic of homework, I also do think that my teachers are assigning too much homework every night. I don’t think some teachers keep the students that do extracurricular activities, like myself, in mind when they are giving homework. They need to consider the student’s life because we wake up very early to go to school for 7 hours, and then after school some students go to a sport practice or a meeting for the club they are in, and then being expected to do at least 3 or more hours of homework is ridiculous. Students are loosing sleep more and more every day, making it harder for students to listen and focus in class. Too much homework is like a domino effect for many students.

I believe teachers do assign too much homework for students. It causes us to become stressed when we have a lot of homework to do. I have stayed up really late just to finish my homework and the lack of sleep effects me a lot the next day. I have a hard time staying awake and the lack of sleep just keeps building. Students have other things to do after school besides homework, like sports practices or games. They get home later then usual and they are expected to do their homework and be ready to go the next day. I believe the amount of homework given to students is too much with all of the other stuff going on in their lives.

In my opinion, I think it’s not entirely the teacher’s fault for giving us much homework because sometimes kids just fall behind in class work and that makes homework for them. One issue though is when each class has homework for you. For me it’s difficult to do all 5 classes homework because most of the time, one assignment is more important than another and sometime they contradict each other. Homework can be quite stressful when it’s mainly sitting down for hours at a time thinking, writing, and clarifying. Most parents look at homework and think, “I don’t know anything about this”. Honestly, the curriculum has changed that much that not even our parents understand it. Mainly math and science, and even physics. It can be quite annoying when you need help and get distressed over homework. I was up until 1am doing homework and I had to stop because my back hurt, I was tired, and I didn’t even get the chance to study for a test because I was just exhausted. I didn’t even get to sleep until near 2 in the morning. Talk about sleep deprivation.

Homework is a very controversial topic. Some kids say it helps with learning on there own. Others believe that its a waste of time. To me, it depends on what class the homework is for and how much homework it is. I’m okay with fifteen to thirty minutes of homework, but that about it. Being a high schooler, you are expected to do lots of homework. But I don’t believe that. We spend 7 hours of our day already in classes and I don’t think doing another hour of homework is helpful. It adds more stress onto an already stressful lifestyle. If you get home at 6 from sports, and start your homework at 7, and you are up until 12, I don’t think that is fair to students. Everyone has there opinion on homework. Some love it, some hate it. Some think its quicker to finish while laying in bed, and some think its better to do at the kitchen table. It all depends on your lifestyle and how you see fit.

I think that each teacher gives out the right amount of homework, but the reason it seems like a lot is because each teacher gives out homework. Say if you only get your average amount math homework, but no other classes, that’s fine, right? but adding in the average amount for every class, and it’s a lot. Homework does get in the way of my sleep because I usually go to sleep at 10 but if I get 3 different homework assignments, which is what I tend to get now, I have to stay up until 11:30. I also do track as an extracurricular acivity, track meets usually go from 3:00 pm and end at around 9:30 pm. on normal days I start my homework at 6:00 and end at 10:30 but if I got home at 9:30 and couldn’t do my homework at the meet then I will end up having to get it done at 1:30 but of course I’ll stop at 11:00 and do the rest in the morning and during lunch break. I think the teachers are giving the right amount eahc, but not all together.

Does it get in the way of sleep or extracurricular activities? Or are you able to manage the right balance?

Coming from a very small school, I see that almost every student is involved in some type of extracurricular activity which take places outside of school hours. Personally when I get back later in the day from practice or a game, the last thing I want to do is spend hours on homework. I think teachers should give students homework if they feel it is important to practice what they are being taught; however, I think some teachers give an excessive amount and it is unnecessary. I think it would be best if each teacher only gave an assignment that at tops would take 15-20 to complete. This way it would be enough to get some practice in without taking a long time and not focusing the whole time.

Teachers do assign to much homework and i think that they shouldn’t assign any, we go to school to learn not to just bring the learning and work home. Homework does get in the way of sleep and extracurricular activities, i just don’t have the time to finish or even start my homework, i could stay up and do my homework but then i would be tired for the next day. I feel that by doing projects and writing assignments at home is not a productive way of learning because why would i want to do something at home where i can’t ask a teacher any questions.

In my thoughts, I believe homework does help the criteria of learning, but too much of it doesn’t. When I have to stay up all night just trying to finish my homework is ridiculous. If I’m not getting enough sleep, then I’m going to be dreading on the next day of school and I’m not going to be focused. Plus, I play year round sports and I have practice every day after school, and games at least twice a week. I do my homework alone in my room, because I tend to work better where it’s quiet and where I’m working alone. Teacher’s and coaches say to do your homework on a bus, but that’s nearly impossible when it’s dark and loud and the bus is not nearly stable. In my opinion, it doesn’t help me when they give a boat load of homework every single night, to where you’re not getting any sleep, or to where you can barely function the next day.

Homework has always been a burden for me and now that I am a 10th grader it has been even more of a hassle getting in the way with my sport(running) and friends. I have a Spanish teacher who gives homework daily that usually is easy as long as I keep up with class and I know what I am doing. The homework that I get from other teachers can vary and comes mostly in chunks. I will have no homework one day and then 3 days worth the next. After coming home from practice that can end as late as 7 pm to 5 pm (the earliest) it is hard and stressful to keep up. I am fine about having homework but it cant be enough to not let me sleep or have some free time.

I think, for the most part, teachers give too much homework. Homework causes a lot of stress and tension in my family. It’s a pain having to listen to my parents and siblings argue with each other about doing homework every single night. Some nights when I have a lot of stuff going on that’s not school related, I have to miss out on sleep to get my homework done, or I’ll blow off my homework and my grade will lower, all because I was tired and wanted to sleep. I do understand that if you want to learn, you need to study and practice, but teachers should give students more time in school to do work so they have time outside of school to do activities that they really enjoy and make them happy. Homework causes so much unnecessary stress that students shouldn’t have to go through.

Over the four years that I have been in high school, I’ve had my fair share of homework. Of course there have been days where I have very little, but then there are other days where each teachers continuously add to my work load. If teachers found a good way to balance out the work with each class, homework and the stress it carries with it would not be as bad. But that often doesn’t happen. For me, the reason it becomes so stressful is simply because of how busy I am. It’s not because I don’t care about my grades, or I see homework as totally pointless, but being involved in sports takes up a lot of my time, and I often have to hurry through homework, not really retaining the true purpose of it. However, when I do have enough time, I find that homework can help me understand new concepts better, because the more repetition I have with something, the better I get at it. Overall, I have mixed feelings about the idea of homework. It’s really only beneficial if there is not a surplus of it, and kids take the time to really focus. I also feel like homework should not be such a pressured thing, and it’s a better practice for teachers not to grade it, but simply go over it in class to reward the kids who did their work, but not punish them if they didn’t understand the concept and got problems wrong.

I’m conflicted about the homework subject, and I have become more conflicted as I have seen my own fourth-grade son struggle to keep up with his assignments this year. I think homework is important to build effective work habits and discipline. However, I don’t think all homework is created equal. I currently think that my fourth grader is being given too much homework. I particularly don’t like the assignment of writing 20 spelling words five times each. I still encourage him to do it, because I want him to have good habits.

I believe that teachers do assign too much homework and it can be hard for some students to keep up. Some students participate in after school activities such as sports, clubs, and music lessons, may have problems keeping up because of the amount of homework they are given. I believe that my teachers do assign too much homework and it is hard for me to get it all done and still be able to participate in the activities I love. For students in advanced classes a large amount of homework is okay and should be expected but having too much homework in their other classes can make it hard to stay caught up. Last year I had the opportunity of taking an advanced class and it was causing stress within my family. I get off the bus later than most students and then I have to watch my brother after school so it can be hard for me to get homework done when he is being loud. It can also be hard to get help from my parents when I don’t understand something because they don’t get home from work until late and homework can get in the way of family time.

i think homework is a good way to keep your mind in “school mode” but too much causes stress. I think schools should give less homework, but only an hour’s worth max.

Wake up at 6, come home at 4. Then after-school activities, then homework for 2 hours, then sleep for 8 hours. Then if you have chores, or jobs to do, then you have no time left at all to do anything else. Of course this causes stress.

For my school i do my H.W. until almost 12:00 at night and i get home around 2:30

My school rarely give us homework that make us stay up too late. But my little brother has tons of homework and hes only in 2nd grade. Some teachers are giving way too muchh homework to kids. they should give them less.

i think that kids do get too much homework. Its not fair to the students.

I think homework is good because it grows your brain even though we all hate it we need it but I think that we get too much. As a 8th grade student it causes a lot of stress and barely gives you time to talk,play.or sometimes even sleep. When I reach home I eat a snack then start my homework. Sometimes I don’t even finish until 8 and later. Our homework tasks are to finish essays do projects worksheets etc I do my homework on my own honestly I think they should keep homework but just not give out too much r at least make us do it in class

i think that when teachers give alot of homework it gives us students no time to have fun . When a teachers give us alot of homewok , we cant get to other activity’s like studying or exerciseing or hanging out with our friends .

I believe that some teachers assign a lot of homework but also some don’t. It just depends on what class the student is in. Homework doesn’t cause stress in my family because I do my homework alone in my room or else in the library during school. Sometimes when I have a lot of textbook homework I find myself with less time in the afternoon. I usually get my homework done at home in my room but I also like working in the library. I think students should do projects at school instead of home because we also have so much other homework to do.

Doing homework with your kids is less helpful than you think. You don’t actually, often, remember the material!! Encourage your kids to work with their friends, they will bounce ideas off each other, correct each others work, and learn better overall.

Does your kid have an iPhone? Try HuddleUp, a free homework collaboration app. It allows kids to work together remotely. They will feel like they are getting one over on you, yet instead they are learning and educating themselves.

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Too many teachers in the US are struggling to get by. Here’s what we can do to help.

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We entrust teachers with the world’s most important job: educating our kids, says researcher and dean Gregg Garn. So why aren’t we paying and treating them in a way that shows they’re valued?

In 1892, a man named David Ross Boyd boarded a train and traveled to Oklahoma for the first time. He was showing up for work — he’d taken the job, sight unseen, to be the first president of the University of Oklahoma. When he arrived in Norman, where the school was to be located, he faced an incredible challenge. He had no faculty and no students; he didn’t have a single building where he could teach. At that time, Oklahoma was a territory, so he didn’t have any state government support behind him. However, he wasn’t deterred by the situation. He saw it as an opportunity to create something special.

Today we educators face a different but similarly monumental challenge. People nationwide are asking, “What kinds of schools and teachers are we getting in return for our school tax dollars?” And teachers are wondering, “How can I possibly raise a family on my salary?”

Teacher salaries have not kept pace with those in other occupations. In 1994, the average college graduate with an education degree earned 2 percent less than the average college graduate. By 2015, that gap had grown, with people getting education degrees making 12 percent less. Let me put that into perspective. In 30 states, if I’m a mid-career teacher and the single breadwinner in a family with two kids and a spouse, my children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at the school where I teach; they also qualify for government health care. Teacher salaries have bottomed out. While it’s true that people don’t go into the profession to get rich, it’s alarming and disheartening to realize that the paycheck is so low that your kids will qualify for free or reduced lunch in most of the country.

Here are a few of the fundamental questions that teachers today are struggling to answer. Should they be able to afford a house in the school district where they teach? Should they need to work a second job so they can cover their bills at the end of the month? Should they be able to save enough so they can send their children to college without huge amounts of debt?

It’s not only compensation levels that have gone down — it’s also the perception of educators. If you asked people 20 or 30 years ago, “What do you think of teachers?”, I’d argue that many would talk about how teachers were the respected pillars of the community, and they had a huge impact on those around them. Now teachers are perceived as being part of the problem with the education system in the US. They’re seen as stuck in the status quo, not willing to grow and move forward. Increasingly, teaching is seen as being closer to a service industry job than a profession, and this has devastating consequences on attracting the talented people we need to strengthen our schools and communities.

According to 2016 data from the National Center for Education, my home state of Oklahoma ranks near the bottom in terms of teacher salaries. That’s right: out of 50 states, we’re in 49th place. If you look at total compensation and add in health-care and retirement benefits, Oklahoma goes up to 48. However, I’m afraid that by the time the 2018 data catches up, we’ll be dead last. To give you an example, in 80 percent of the districts in my state, a person with a doctorate in education and 25 years or more of teaching experience makes just $46,000 a year, according to the state salary scale .

Think about that salary for a second. What do you think that does to the number of great people going into the profession? We’re experiencing a teacher shortage in Oklahoma, and the system has responded with a phenomenon called “emergency certifications.” People with emergency certifications are permitted to teach students, even though they are not yet certified to do so. They’re only about as qualified as a substitute teacher. Can you recall a transformational substitute teacher from your own life? I didn’t think so. And yet we had almost 2,000 EC teachers in the fall of 2017. In Oklahoma, most of the emergency certs are working in elementary education, which means unprepared folks are responsible for teaching our children the fundamentals of reading, math and science. This doesn’t add up to a good future for those 50,000 kids in their classrooms.

I know we all want to live in stable, thriving communities. A thriving community is connected to a strong school system, and a strong school system depends on good teachers — professionals who have deep knowledge about the subject they teach, a scientific understanding of how people learn, and an ability to manage and motivate kids in a classroom. Great teachers are also important for our democracy. People need to be able to read and think in order to be active, thoughtful participants in a democratic society.

I’ve been studying education policy for 20 years, and I’ve come up with a few ideas for how we can attract and retain smart, caring people in the teaching profession . However, I want to stress that there is no single recipe for success that will fit every single community, because every community is different, with its own strengths, resources and connections. Instead, we need a buffet of different ideas that communities can draw from and adjust to their needs. I also think we can’t expect teachers to solve these complex problems on their own. We need public-private partnerships, people from a variety of perspective coming together to tackle challenges. Finally, we must do a better job of trying out new ideas — and then of spreading what works and pivoting away from what doesn’t. “We’ve always done it this way” cannot be our answer to problems.

The first idea is about reducing the student-loan debt that burdens many teachers after going to graduate school. At the Rainbolt College of Education, where I serve as dean, we have a program called Debt-Free Teachers. It’s a simple concept: you graduate from the College of Education, you become a teacher in a high-need area in Oklahoma, and we’ll forgive up to $5,000 of your higher-ed investment each year for four years (and up to $20,000). In those four years, people put down roots, and they end up staying in the state and becoming our best teachers. We have 60 participants in this program, and we are helping the University of Central Oklahoma design a similar initiative. Communities thinking about competitive ways to attract and retain great teachers could do a variation on this program.

The second idea is about assisting teachers with housing . A hundred years ago in Oklahoma and other states, educators received a place to live as part of their compensation. What would that look like in the 21st century? How can we connect teachers in our communities to houses? We have a pilot program at the College in which 17 students are participating in a United Way financial boot camp. When they graduate, and as long they have a 660 credit score, they qualify for the Oklahoma Housing Finance Authorities Dream Home Act. They’re eligible to buy a house that costs up to $250,000, and they’re required to put down only a 3 to 5 percent down payment. Young teachers can immediately begin building their personal wealth by investing in a house. What other possible variations could exist? Could a community foundation provide a down payment match to help recruit a teacher into that community? What if cities where houses are frequently condemned started a Habitat for Humanity-type program where volunteers fixed up the houses for great teachers? There are all kinds of ideas to imagine, but the fundamental concept is that communities need to think of creative ways to lure teachers and encourage them to stay.

The third idea is about creating what we call community schools. In the field of education policy, we can get so focused on complex concepts that we miss this very simple idea: if a kid’s basic needs are not being met, how can you can address their academic needs? If a child is being abused, chronically hungry, or dealing with mental health or physical health issues, you can’t give them a sheet of algebra homework and expect them to learn. What if we thought about schools as a hub that connected professionals to the kids, instead of it being the responsibility of the kid or the family to find those people in their communities? We have a study now where 36 community schools in the Tulsa area are doing this. It’s early on in the research, but we’ve seen some really amazing outcomes. Teacher satisfaction has risen, because teachers actually get to teach — they don’t have to be the parent, the physician and the social worker. Another result that’s surprised us is a dramatic decrease in student mobility. Many families with kids live on the edge — they’re constantly moving around when they can’t make rent. In our study, we’ve seen that even when families are pushed out of the place they’re living, they’re making the conscious decision to make sure their kid remains in the boundaries of their elementary school. That’s totally different than what we see happening with lots of other families whose children bounce across multiple schools in multiple districts in a single year. It has a tragic impact on a kid’s academic performance when a teacher doesn’t have the sustained ability to work with them.

While I don’t want our federal and state governments to abdicate their responsibility in providing our children with a good education, I’ve become increasingly convinced that we’ll find the solutions in our communities. It will take people connecting with the schools and teachers in their areas that will allow them to thrive. So, get involved in your schools. Visit them, get a sense of what their opportunities and challenges are, and then jump in and start to solve them.

This piece was adapted from talk given at a TEDxOU event.

Watch the entire talk here:

About the author

Gregg Garn is the Dean of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education as well as the executive director of the K20 Center for Educational and Community Renewal. He also holds the Linda Clarke Anderson Presidential Professorship and serves as professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. His research focuses on school choice, policy development and implementation and the politics of education.

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Homework: A New User's Guide

Cory Turner

If you made it past the headline, you're likely a student, concerned parent, teacher or, like me, a nerd nostalgist who enjoys basking in the distant glow of Homework Triumphs Past (second-grade report on Custer's Last Stand, nailed it!).

Whoever you are, you're surely hoping for some clarity in the loud, perennial debate over whether U.S. students are justifiably exhausted and nervous from too much homework — even though some international comparisons suggest they're sitting comfortably at the average.

Well, here goes. I've mapped out six, research-based polestars that should help guide you to some reasonable conclusions about homework.

How much homework do U.S. students get?

The best answer comes from something called the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP . In 2012, students in three different age groups — 9, 13 and 17 — were asked, "How much time did you spend on homework yesterday?" The vast majority of 9-year-olds (79 percent) and 13-year-olds (65 percent) and still a majority of 17-year-olds (53 percent) all reported doing an hour or less of homework the day before.

Another study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that high school students who reported doing homework outside of school did, on average, about seven hours a week.

If you're hungry for more data on this — and some perspective — check out this exhaustive report put together last year by researcher Tom Loveless at the Brookings Institution.

An hour or less a day? But we hear so many horror stories! Why?

The fact is, some students do have a ton of homework. In high school we see a kind of student divergence — between those who choose or find themselves tracked into less-rigorous coursework and those who enroll in honors classes or multiple Advanced Placement courses. And the latter students are getting a lot of homework. In that 2012 NAEP survey, 13 percent of 17-year-olds reported doing more than two hours of homework the previous night. That's not a lot of students, but they're clearly doing a lot of work.

Source: Met Life Survey of the American Teacher, The Homework Experience, 2007. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

That also tracks with a famous survey from 2007 — from MetLife — that asked parents what they think of their kids' homework load. Sixty percent said it was just right. Twenty-five percent said their kids are getting too little. Just 15 percent of parents said their kids have too much homework.

Research also suggests that the students doing the most work have something else in common: income. "I think that the debate over homework in some ways is a social class issue," says Janine Bempechat, professor of human development at Wheelock College. "There's no question that in affluent communities, children are really over-taxed, over-burdened with homework."

But the vast majority of students do not seem to have inordinate workloads. And the ones who do are generally volunteering for the tough stuff. That doesn't make it easier, but it does make it a choice.

Do we know how much homework students in other countries are doing?

Sort of. Caveats abound here. Education systems and perceptions of what is and isn't homework can vary remarkably overseas. So any comparison is, to a degree, apples-to-oranges (or, at least, apples-to-pears). A 2012 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development pegged the U.S. homework load for 15-year-olds at around six hours per week. That's just above the study's average. It found that students in Hong Kong are also doing about six hours a week. Much of Europe checks in between four and five hours a week. In Japan, it's four hours. And Korea's near the bottom, at three hours.

Source: OECD, PISA 2012 Database, Table IV.3.48. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

How much homework is too much?

Better yet, how much is just right? Harris Cooper at Duke University has done some of the best work on homework. He and his team reviewed dozens of studies, from 1987 to 2003, looking for consensus on what works and what doesn't. A common rule of thumb, he says, is what's called the 10-minute rule. Take the child's grade and multiply by 10. So first-graders should have roughly 10 minutes of homework a night, 40 minutes for fourth-graders, on up to two hours for seniors in high school. A lot of of schools use this. Even the National PTA officially endorses it.

Homework clearly improves student performance, right?

Not necessarily. It depends on the age of the child. Looking over the research, there's little to no evidence that homework improves student achievement in elementary school. Then again, the many experts I spoke with all said the same thing: The point of homework in those primary grades isn't entirely academic. It's about teaching things like time-management and self-direction.

But, by high school the evidence shifts. Harris Cooper's massive review found, in middle and high school, a positive correlation between homework and student achievement on unit tests. It seems to help. But more is not always better. Cooper points out that, depending on the subject and the age of the student, there is a law of diminishing returns. Again, he recommends the 10-minute rule.

What kinds of homework seem to be most effective?

This is where things get really interesting. Because homework should be about learning, right? To understand what kinds of homework best help kids learn, we really need to talk about memory and the brain.

Let's start with something called the spacing effect . Say a child has to do a vocabulary worksheet. The next week, it's a new worksheet with different words and so on. Well, research shows that the brain is better at remembering when we repeat with consistency, not when we study in long, isolated chunks of time. Do a little bit of vocabulary each night, repeating the same words night after night.

Similarly, a professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, Henry "Roddy" Roediger III , recommends that teachers give students plenty of little quizzes, which he says strengthen the brain's ability to remember. Don't fret. They can be low-stakes or no-stakes, says Roediger: It's the steady recall and repetition that matter. He also recommends, as homework, that students try testing themselves instead of simply re-reading the text or class notes.

There's also something known as interleaving . This is big in the debate over math homework. Many of us — myself included — learned math by focusing on one concept at a time, doing a worksheet to practice that concept, then moving on.

Well, there's evidence that students learn more when homework requires them to choose among multiple strategies — new and old — when solving problems. In other words, kids learn when they have to draw not just from what they learned in class that day but that week, that month, that year.

One last note: Experts agree that homework should generally be about reinforcing what students learned in class (this is especially true in math). Sometimes it can — and should — be used to introduce new material, but here's where so many horror stories begin.

Tom Loveless, a former teacher, offers this advice: "I don't think teachers should ever send brand-new material that puts the parent in the position of a teacher. That's a disaster. My own personal philosophy was: Homework is best if it's material that requires more practice but they've already received initial instruction."

Or, in the words of the National PTA: "Homework that cannot be done without help is not good homework."

How to create digital homework that students love

By Laura McClure on April 26, 2016 in TED-Ed Innovative Educators , TED-Ed Lessons

US History teacher Jennifer Hesseltine combined TED-Ed Lessons with an interactive blackboard to create a digital homework space that students love.

Let’s redesign homework. When’s the last time your students got excited to do homework? Or said things like, “Wow…just WOW. It is amazing how much is out there that we just don’t know about”? What if every homework assignment could expand a student’s worldview while engaging a kid’s natural curiosity? One middle school teacher took on this challenge — so you don’t have to.

For her  TED-Ed Innovation Project , US History teacher  Jennifer Hesseltine  created a digital homework space that students love. Here are her step-by-step instructions on how you can do it too:

1. Go to TED-Ed and create a lesson . This will be your next homework assignment.

You can either create a lesson using any engaging video of your choice, or simply customize an existing TED-Ed Original  or TED-Ed Select  lesson. If you need help creating a lesson, read this . If you need help customizing a lesson, read this .

2. Create space for lessons in your current learning management system. This is your new digital homework space.

Give this homework space a fun title and a quick description. For inspiration, check out mine  on Padlet. You don’t have to use Padlet — your school’s current interactive learning tools will probably work fine for this project. For more options, check out a few teacher-recommended apps  or try the free tools for teachers from Google, Apple and Microsoft.

3. Add your TED-Ed lesson to your digital homework space using the customized lesson link.

If you need help sharing a customized lesson link,  read this . Easy, right? You can complete Steps 1-3 of this project today.

“Wow…just WOW. It is amazing how much is out there that we just don’t know about.” — 8th grade student after watching the  TED-Ed Lesson: “Exploring other dimensions ”

4. Add and remove lessons often from your digital homework space to keep the content fresh and exciting for students.

Students love TED-Ed lessons and the opportunity to learn. Here are a few quotes from my students on a midyear class survey:

• “TED-Ed videos are more fun than normal homework assignments.”
• “One pro about watching a TED-Ed homework video is that you get to answer the questions while you watch the video.”
• “One pro about watching a TED-Ed homework video is that I get to choose what videos to watch. I’m learning about things that interest me.”

5. Take the opportunity in class to highlight the latest lessons.

I always take 5-10 minutes to show students the new lessons I have added (and always make sure to tell them about my favorites).

6. Share the link to your digital homework space once with students at the beginning of the school year.

Your students will have access to any of your recommended TED-Ed Lessons for the remainder of the school year. I gave my students a list of due dates for the entire school year so that students can plan ahead to complete the assignments.

7. Be prepared for student engagement and student feedback.

Students will likely start going directly to the TED-Ed website and giving you ideas of which lessons they would like to see on the homework space, and/or they will want to create some lessons of their own! As a matter of fact…a few of my students have helped to create homework lessons.

An example of a lesson inspired by an 8th grade student (who approached me with the video and created the questions in the “Think” section) is “Francine’s Interview.” This student’s lesson, as one would imagine, is a favorite among her peers.

Send reminders to students about upcoming homework assignments since the assignment due dates are not on a regular schedule (i.e. — due every day, or every other day). Students forget about upcoming assignments since the assignments are all digital, and the due dates are spaced more than one week apart.

Prepare for students who either do not have internet access, or have a difficult time accessing a working computer/piece of technology outside of school. We need to work together to figure out times each week for them to access their homework. I have been very flexible with students in this regard, and will continue to work with these students to be sure that they have a fair opportunity to complete the homework assignments.

• If you have questions about how to replicate this project , please reach out to me on Twitter. 

This article is part of the TED-Ed Innovation Project series, which highlights 25+  TED-Ed Innovation Projects  designed by educators, for educators, with the support and guidance of the  TED-Ed Innovative Educator  program. You are welcome to share, duplicate and modify projects under  this Creative Commons license  to meet the needs of students and teachers. To get started, click here to take the first step.

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

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Why more and more teachers are joining the anti-homework movement

The word homework doesn’t just elicit groans from students. Many veteran educators aren’t fans of it either.

Barbara Tollison, a high school English teacher with nearly four decades in the classroom, stopped assigning homework five years ago. In lieu of writing papers, she asks her 10th graders in San Marcos, California, to read more books before bed.

“For the kids who understand the information, additional practice is unnecessary,” she told TODAY Parents . “The kids who need more support are going to go home and not do it right. It's just going to confuse them more. They don’t have the understanding and they need guidance.”

Tollison is part of a growing movement that believes learners can thrive academically without homework. According to Alfie Kohn, author of “ The Homework Myth ,” there’s never a good excuse for making kids work a second shift of academics in elementary and middle school.

“In high school, it’s a little more nuanced,” Kohn told TODAY Parents . “Some research has found a tiny correlation between doing more homework and doing better on standardized tests . But No. 1, standardized tests are a lousy measure of learning. No. 2, the correlation is small. And No. 3, it doesn’t prove a causal relationship. In other words, just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.”

Kohn noted that “newer, better” studies are showing that the downside of homework is just as profound in 16-year-olds as it is in 8-year-olds, in terms of causing causing anxiety, a loss of interest in learning and family conflict.

Parents Is homework robbing your family of joy? You're not alone

“For my book, I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside,” he shared.

“There just isn’t a good argument in favor of homework,” Kohn said.

Katie Sluiter, an 8th grade teacher in Michigan, couldn’t agree more. She believes that the bulk of instruction and support should happen in the classroom.

“What I realized early on in my career is that the kids who don’t need the practice are the only ones doing their homework,” Sluiter told TODAY Parents .

Sluiter added that homework is stressful and inequitable. Many children, especially those from lower-income families, have little chance of being successful with work being sent home.

“So many things are out of the student’s control, like the ability to have a quiet place to do homework,” Sluiter explained. “In my district, there are many parents that don’t speak any English, so they’re not going to be able to help with their child’s social studies homework. Some kids are responsible for watching their younger siblings after school.”

Parents Too much homework? Study shows elementary kids get 3 times more than they should

Sluiter also doesn’t want to add “an extra pile of stress” to already over-scheduled lives.

“Middle school is hard enough without worrying, ‘Did I get my conjunctions sheet done?’” she said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s just too much. We need to let them be kids."

Kohn, who has written 14 books on parenting and education, previously told TODAY that moms and dads should speak up on behalf of their children.

"If your child's teacher never assigns homework, take a moment to thank them for doing what's in your child's best interest — and for acknowledging that families, not schools, ought to decide what happens during family time," he said. "If your child is getting homework, organize a bunch of parents to meet with the teacher and administrators — not to ask, 'Why so much?' but, given that the research says it's all pain and no gain, to ask, 'Why is there any?'"

Related video:

Rachel Paula Abrahamson is a lifestyle reporter who writes for the parenting, health and shop verticals. Her bylines have appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and elsewhere. Rachel lives in the Boston area with her husband and their two daughters. Follow her on Instagram .

Watch CBS News

How teachers may be failing students with excessive homework

By Rebecca Lee

August 24, 2016 / 12:41 PM EDT / CBS News

After a long day of school and work, children and parents alike are unlikely to want to come home to a pile of homework. But America’s homework load is higher than ever. 

According to the American Journal of Family Therapy, the amount of homework for some young elementary school students is almost three times the recommended levels. For kids between kindergarten and second grade, the American Institutes for Research says most educators agree no more than 10 to 20 minutes of homework each day is appropriate.

While homework can help establish a daily routine and sense of responsibility, psychologist Lisa Damour said more work does not necessarily mean more achievement. In fact, up until the seventh grade, there is no correlation between homework and academic achievement. For grades seven to 12, it can help with performance, but only to a certain degree – anything more than 90 minutes for middle school students, and between one and a half to two hours for high schoolers, could diminish the positive effects of homework. 

So why do teachers assign so much work? Damour attributes this to the increased pressures on teachers as a result of “high-stake testing.” 

“Teachers are under pressure, which means students will be under pressure,” Damour told “CBS This Morning” Wednesday. 

But one second-grade teacher in Godley, Texas, is not giving in to the pressure. Brandy Young decided to scrap homework altogether. 

“There will be no formally assigned homework this year. Spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success,” Brandy Young wrote in a letter to parents, posted by a mother on Facebook that’s now gone viral.

Young said she made the bold decision after realizing that the extra work “wasn’t right anymore” for her students. 

“If something’s not working as an educator, you need to change it. You’re here to help these kids,” Young said. “Young elementary students don’t need pencil and paperwork after they leave the classroom.”

Instead, Young advised parents to spend the time doing things that are proven to be beneficial to children’s development, including family dinners, playtime and earlier bedtimes. Meanwhile, excessive homework can have detrimental effects, creating tensions at home and conflicts between school and home. 

For families that do have to deal with homework, Damour advised parents to reach out to teachers for help if their children appear overwhelmed by the work load. 

“I think if things are not going well at home, families should reach out to the teacher,” Damour said. “If you and your children every night approach like this terrible battle that is about to unfold, it’s time to call the teacher and it’s time to ask for help.”

More from CBS News

The Worsening Homework Problem

My son does an average of five or six hours of homework every night. Is this normal?

Editor’s Note: Every Tuesday, Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer take questions from readers about their kids’ education. Have one? Email them at [email protected].

Dear Abby and Brian,

My son, who is in ninth grade, is a really good student, but I’m worried he’s working far too much. He does an average of five or six hours of homework every weeknight, and that’s on top of spending most of the weekend writing essays or studying for tests. His school says that each of his five main classes (English, history, math, language, and science) can assign no more than 30 minutes a night and that electives can assign no more than one hour a week. That should look like something around three hours a night, which is a lot but at least more manageable.

On some nights, a math problem set can take him more than two hours, and then, after 8 p.m. and sometimes after 9, he turns to his English reading, science textbook, Spanish paragraph, or history outline. He’s working until after midnight and then up at 6 a.m. to get ready for school, beyond exhausted. Is this normal?

How much homework should students be assigned?

Margaret Denver

Dear Margaret,

Homework—when assigned in appropriate amounts and with the right goals in mind—is an indispensable tool for educators. But students should never be put in the position of having to choose between their academic success and their overall well-being.

To understand what constitutes the right amount of homework, we should be clear on what it’s meant to accomplish. We believe it should perform four basic functions. First, homework should be assigned in order to make the most of class time. In an English class, for example, teachers need to ask students to read at home in order to do the important work of leading in-class discussions. Second, at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts. Third, these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum. Finally, homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.

Unfortunately, many schools assign homework for its own sake, in amounts that are out of proportion to these basic functions—a problem that seems to have gotten worse over the past 20 years . This isn’t necessarily intentional. Some of your son’s teachers probably underestimate the time it takes their students to complete assignments. But your description makes clear that homework has taken over your son’s life. That’s why he should make sure to tell his teachers that he’s been working past the nightly limits prescribed by the school.

Additionally, he should use those limits for his own well-being: If he can’t get through a math worksheet in half an hour, he should stop, draw a line after the final problem he was able to complete, and talk with his teacher the following day. That way he will be able to spread his time more evenly among classes, and his teachers will get a better sense of how long their homework is taking. Sometimes teachers aren’t aware of how much other work our students have on their plate, not to mention their extracurricular responsibilities. Fill us in! Most teachers would prefer to recalibrate our students’ workload than find ourselves responsible for keeping them up so late.

But the goodwill of individual teachers may not be enough to solve the issue. Schools have any number of incentives to assign a lot of work, one of which is the pernicious assumption that “good” schools provide as much of it as their students can pack into a day. If your son’s workload doesn’t get lighter after he talks with his teachers, contact the administration and explain the situation. Hopefully this will prompt a larger conversation within the school about the reasons to assign homework in the first place—and the reasons not to.

B y submitting a letter, you are agreeing to let The Atlantic use it—in part or in full—and we may edit it for length and/or clarity.

Do Schools Give Out Too Much Homework Now? Yes, They Do, and it Needs to Stop

• By Emily Summers
• January 14, 2020

With more than 60% of students from high school and college seeking counseling for a variety of conditions ranging from general anxiety to clinical depression, all of which induced by school and studies, it’s safe to say that our country’s children are stressed out more than they should be. In fact, more and more students in the high school level are starting to report stress levels that rival that of adults working in officers, in some cases even exceeding those stress levels.

But what’s got them so riled up? The answer: Homework. Now, before you go full boomer and say “homework was more difficult back in my day!”, let’s make one thing clear: today’s educational system is far more advanced , complex, and even more difficult than it was a couple of decades ago.

Is There Too Much Homework in High School?

Of course, sometimes homework is necessary, but if it cuts into a child’s social, family, and down time, it borders on the cruel and unnecessary. Children should NOT be subjected to what-is-essentially training to be overworked in the corporate world. But how long does the average high school spend on homework? 3 hours a night. That’s 3 hours a night per class to complete, so it’s no wonder that our high school students are getting less than the National Sleep Foundation’s required 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night, with 68% of high school students reportedly getting less than 7 hours of sleep on the weekdays.

And that’s not even an exaggeration: in between a full day’s worth of school work, extracurricular activities, and homework, a high school student’s life is almost designed to be stressful. Sure, the point of all those activities is to turn them into an educated, well-balanced individual, but at what expense? A modern-day American student might know how to solve for X and throw a pigskin to the end zone, but what good is all of that if they’re haggard all the time and constantly deprived of sleep?

And what of the parents? It’s not like they can just leave their kids to the wolves: most parents (the responsible ones, at least) will want to help their kids with the influx of work they’ll be doing once they hit 9 th grade, as if a full day’s work and commuting wasn’t enough. All to fulfill antiquated ideas of course fulfillments and state-mandated credit requirement.

But rather than focusing on busy work, why not focus on things that actually matter , like fulfilling learning standards while maintaining positive mental health?

Educators across the country need to rethink homework, why they need to give it and what kind of work they should be giving our children.

Is Homework Even Necessary?

With the amount of stress students go through, it’s tempting to curse the person who invented homework . But take note: it’s not all bad.

Homework now can seem like unnecessary busy work instead of actual learning materials, but before we get further into this topic, let’s be clear: some homework is necessary (although researchers are still waiting for conclusive evidence for homework’s necessity).

What researchers can agree on, however, is that any type of school work that is purposeful, appropriately challenging, and aligned with the student’s interest truly is beneficial: not only does it teach the lesson for that subject, it also improves study habits, establishes self-discipline, and develops independent problem-solving skills and critical thinking.

However, if homework is mind-numbingly tedious, without purpose (other than to fulfill a quota), and overwhelming, then it becomes detrimental: not only will it demotivate a student from learning, it can also affect the way they view school, negatively affect their learning retention, and eventually turn them off completely to that subject.

Unfortunately, many schools across the country use homework as a way of creating extra class time beyond what is mandated by the state. Not only is this inefficient, it’s needlessly cruel. If a teacher is using homework as an excuse to make your child do their job for them, you need to contact your child’s school and set up a meeting. Homework should be a tool that supplements lessons, not replace lessons as a whole.

How Can We Make Homework Better?

The National PTA suggests that high school students should have a maximum of 2 hours of homework per night , a far cry from cramming 18 hours’ worth of schoolwork into 4-5 hours after school. We can do better by demanding that schools revisit their requirements for students and reconsider lessening the amount of required homework they give students.

As for the teachers, it’s time to treat homework not as busywork but as actual tools to help students learn more about your subject. It doesn’t have to be fun per se, but it should be inspiring enough for your students to take a more active role in your class the next day. Homework should stoke the fires of creativity and instill a spirit of inquisitiveness; homework shouldn’t be a chore that students dread doing, nor should it be an impossible activity designed to confuse them or punish them.

Homework should include activities that reinforce what they learned throughout the class and not something that combines lessons for the next day with activities designed to test what they’ve learned on their own. Not only is that tedious and inefficient, it’s also a lazy way to teach.

For parents, get a better idea of what your child is going through by taking the time to sit down with them to listen to their concerns . Keep an open mind and avoid being dismissive; this is the best way for your teenage child to open up and is an opportunity for them to practice critical communication skills with people they can trust (i.e. their parents).

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How Much Homework Is Too Much?

Are schools assigning too much homework.

Posted October 19, 2011

Timothy, a fifth grader, spends up to thirteen hours a day hunched over a desk at school or at home, studying and doing homework. Should his parents feel proud? Now imagine, for comparison's sake, Timothy spending thirteen hours a day hunched over a sewing machine instead of a desk.

Parents have the right to complain when schools assign too much homework but they often don't know how to do so effectively.

Drowning in Homework ( an excerpt from Chapter 8 of The Squeaky Wheel )

I first met Timothy, a quiet, overweight eleven-year-old boy, when his mother brought him to therapy to discuss his slipping grades. A few minutes with Timothy were enough to confirm that his mood, self-esteem , and general happiness were slipping right along with them. Timothy attended one of the top private schools in Manhattan, an environment in which declining grades were no idle matter.

I asked about Timothy's typical day. He awoke every morning at six thirty so he could get to school by eight and arrived home around four thirty each afternoon. He then had a quick snack, followed by either a piano lesson or his math tutor, depending on the day. He had dinner at seven p.m., after which he sat down to do homework for two to three hours a night. Quickly doing the math in my head, I calculated that Timothy spent an average of thirteen hours a day hunched over a writing desk. His situation is not atypical. Spending that many hours studying is the only way Timothy can keep up and stay afloat academically.

But what if, for comparison's sake, we imagined Timothy spending thirteen hours a day hunched over a sewing machine instead of a desk. We would immediately be aghast at the inhumanity because children are horribly mistreated in such "sweatshops." Timothy is far from being mistreated, but the mountain of homework he faces daily results in a similar consequence- he too is being robbed of his childhood.

Timothy's academics leave him virtually no time to do anything he truly enjoys, such as playing video games, movies, or board games with his friends. During the week he never plays outside and never has indoor play dates or opportunities to socialize with friends. On weekends, Timothy's days are often devoted to studying for tests, working on special school projects, or arguing with his mother about studying for tests and working on special school projects.

By the fourth and fifth grade and certainly in middle school, many of our children have hours of homework, test preparation, project writing, or research to do every night, all in addition to the eight hours or more they have to spend in school. Yet study after study has shown that homework has little to do with achievement in elementary school and is only marginally related to achievement in middle school .

Play, however, is a crucial component of healthy child development . It affects children's creativity , their social skills, and even their brain development. The absence of play, physical exercise, and free-form social interaction takes a serious toll on many children. It can also have significant health implications as is evidenced by our current epidemic of childhood obesity, sleep deprivation, low self- esteem, and depression .

A far stronger predictor than homework of academic achievement for kids aged three to twelve is having regular family meals. Family meals allow parents to check in, to demonstrate caring and involvement, to provide supervision, and to offer support. The more family meals can be worked into the schedule, the better, especially for preteens. The frequency of family meals has also been shown to help with disordered eating behaviors in adolescents.

Experts in the field recommend children have no more than ten minutes of homework per day per grade level. As a fifth- grader, Timothy should have no more than fifty minutes a day of homework (instead of three times that amount). Having an extra two hours an evening to play, relax, or see a friend would constitute a huge bump in any child's quality of life.

So what can we do if our child is getting too much homework?

1. Complain to the teachers and the school. Most parents are unaware that excessive homework contributes so little to their child's academic achievement.

2. Educate your child's teacher and principal about the homework research-they are often equally unaware of the facts and teachers of younger children (K-4) often make changes as a result.

3. Create allies within the system by speaking with other parents and banding together to address the issue with the school.

You might also like: Is Excessive Homework in Private Schools a Customer Service Issue?

View my short and quite personal TED talk about Psychological Health here:

Check out my new book, Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt and Other Evreyday Psychological Injuries (Hudson Street Press).

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Copyright 2011 Guy Winch

Follow me on Twitter @GuyWinch

Guy Winch, Ph.D. , is a licensed psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts.

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By: Nesiah This podcasts talks about other countries and their amounts of homework, a student opinion, stress among teens, and health affects.

Do Teachers Assign Too Much Homework: Nesiah Nesiah Yee

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Do Teachers Assign Too Much Homework?

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