With public schools facing increased pressure to live up to academic standards, people seem to expect teachers to dole out more homework. Under the theory that more is better, assigning lots of homework makes teachers look "tough." But not all teachers agree that more is necessarily better.
Many parents, especially those who are college-educated, want teachers to pile on the homework. They believe it will give their children a competitive edge. "Some parents want work, work, work," says Ailish Johnson, a Silicon Valley first-grade teacher and a member of the Union District Education Association (UDEA). "Some of these parents are workaholics themselves." Others see firsthand the benefit of applying themselves.
William Randall helps 7th grader Kayla Kaufman at the Fairview Middle School homework center in Gonzales.
On the other hand, many parents resent the intrusion on "family time" and feel they spend their evenings being little more than homework monitors.
"Children still need to be children and have lives at home," says Kari Ito, a second-grade teacher in San Jose and a member of UDEA. "They need some homework to reinforce what they are learning at school, but they shouldn't be consumed with homework. They need family time, music lessons and sports."
"It goes both ways," says Jose Govea, a Los Angeles high school teacher and a member of United Teachers-Los Angeles. "Some parents say you're giving my child too much, while others say it's not enough. I guess you know it's the right amount if no one is pleased."
Being caught in the middle of such conflicting philosophies can be frustrating for teachers.
On top of that, now there is pressure from other quarters as well, says Ito. "With the state standards, there are hoops you need to have children jump through to make sure they are learning."
"With the standards, everything has been bumped down to lower grade levels," says Catherine Torres, a fifth-grade teacher and a member of the Santa Maria Elementary Teachers Association. "If kids don't do their homework, they may lag behind by much more than they used to. And students lagging way behind may just give up, feeling like they're never going to get it."
Before academic standards, homework helped students build on what they learned in class. Now, assignments often include things teachers didn't have time to cover.
"We have such a short amount of time with these kids in our classroom and so much ground to cover that sometimes we can only explain things and then have the children go home and try them out," says Maria Castellanoz, a third-grade teacher and a member of the Salinas Elementary Teachers Council. When her students didn't have time to design geometric shapes in class, she gave them the weekend to work on it at home.
In an ideal world, homework is a genuine learning experience. It can help students review and practice what they learned in class, prepare them for the next day's activities, explore subjects more fully than time permits at school, and help them become familiar with resources such as libraries, reference materials, encyclopedias and the Internet.
Homework can also foster good study habits, independence and a sense of responsibility in students, and strengthen parental involvement in learning.
A study by Julian Betts, an associate professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego, found that students who completed an extra half hour of math per night in seventh grade greatly increased achievement in that subject by 11th grade. He concluded that the amount of homework assigned had more impact on student performance than class size or teacher quality.
In another study, University of Missouri psychology professor Harris Cooper concluded that there is no evidence that piling on homework in elementary school will lead to higher standardized test scores. In fact, it could have the opposite effect, producing frustration and poor self-image.
Just about everyone agrees there should be some homework assigned to students. But there is no consensus about how much - and what kind. Is the purpose to increase learning and raise test scores - or is it just to appease those who are attacking public education?
"It's a myth that good teachers are tough and give a ton of homework," says Joe Brackley, a high school English teacher in Bakersfield. "It's a myth that teachers ought to be doing that. And it's a myth that's been circulating so long, people are starting to believe it."
Brackley, who is president of the Kern High School Faculty Association, assigns what he terms a "reasonable" amount of homework that takes students' busy schedules into account. Many of his students have to work after school and on weekends to help support their families. "Contrary to what most people think, high school students don't have a lot of idle time."
"I assign some homework, but not more than I think they have time for. I use my time as efficiently as possible during the five hours a week I have them in class." He hopes they get most of what they need during that time. What homework he assigns is mostly reading. He prefers that his students do writing assignments during class time. "When they write in class, I find their work is more original and contains more critical thinking."
t the opposite end of the scale is affluent Palo Alto High School, where students are being groomed for highly competitive universities. "Kids here are expected to do anywhere from three, four to five hours of homework a night," says Raegen Miller, a math teacher and president of the Palo Alto Educators Association. "In my advanced calculus class, students are expected to work one and a half hours outside of class for every hour they attend class."
Parents, most of whom have advanced college degrees, are generally supportive of this, says Miller. "Our policy is a reflection of the community's desires." The school offers peer tutoring for struggling students, but parents frequently pay private tutors to help their children with homework, if necessary.
Such an environment produces an abundance of overachievers, but also raises the possibility of burnout, says Miller. "These are kids who feel the need to do it all." With homework, extracurricular activities and sometimes part-time jobs, "some of them are spread pretty thinly. We see the consequences of that. They fall prey to stress-induced illnesses. They don't get enough sleep. They fall apart. They may drop a class or get mono."
Teachers in Palo Alto have spent a great deal of time coming up with creative homework assignments to alleviate some of the pressure. It is not unusual for teachers to collaborate on joint homework assignments reflecting two disciplines, like math and biology, or English and history.
Students can demonstrate that they "get it" without having to plow through so many problems that it's overkill, says Margarita Milnes, a high school math teacher and member of the Baldwin Park Education Association in Los Angeles County. "I try not to assign more than 30 or 40 minutes of homework a night. My students have six classes."
If she's teaching calculations, "I might assign only seven or eight problems a night. I want them to get it right and demonstrate to me that they understand the concept without feeling like they're drowning. For me, it's quality rather than quantity."
"The kids who do well in class do their homework and the kids who aren't doing well don't do their homework," adds Milnes. "I tell them it's one-fourth of their grade. They won't fail the class if they don't do their homework, but they have to do really well on the tests to pass. Knowing they have to ace the test to get a C in the class is incentive for most students to do their homework."
She usually gives math homework everyday, "but sometimes I'll give them Friday off."
"We need to be consistent, but we should not assign homework just out of obligation," says Kathy Falco, a fourth-grade teacher in Stockton.
While some districts leave the amount and type of homework up to individual teachers, other districts have strict mandates. "My district requires that teachers assign a certain amount of homework, increasing gradually over a certain amount of time," says Falco, a member of the Stockton Education Association. "In the lower primary grades, we are supposed to assign 20 minutes to a half hour of reading per night. By fourth grade, it should average out to about 45 minutes a night."
"You're kidding yourself if you think giving kids a pile of papers to take home to meet a homework quota will help," says Rob Baptie, a fifth-grade teacher and member of the Winton Teachers Association.
He rarely gives homework. "A kid who is already performing at grade level doesn't need it," he reasons. "And kids who need homework the most have trouble getting it done. Most of their parents don't speak English and can't help them. To help these kids succeed, I work with them at lunchtime and after school."
Some teachers give the same assignment to the entire class, while others tailor homework to individual needs.
"I try to make sure homework is assigned with each child's ability level in mind," says Ito, who teaches second grade in San Jose. "There are so many developmental levels, intellectual levels and socioeconomic levels involved that I want to make sure each child can work independently on his or her homework."
Her goal is to level the playing field in class.
"Of course," she admits, "it takes me extra hours every week to make sure things run smoothly."
"I try to tweak homework to a child's area of weakness," says Govea, a former bilingual elementary teacher now working as an independent study teacher at the high school level. "It's like doing judo - turning the momentum back to what the child needs - through homework."
Homework should be meaningful work rather than drudgery or punishment, most teachers agree.
"It shouldn't just be busywork," says Castellanoz, who teaches third grade in Salinas. "Sometimes teachers may feel they have to assign busywork, but for me homework must be connected with something we have done that day in class."
"Some of the more affluent parents want their children to be busy all the time, but I don't want homework to be a babysitter," says Betty Ann James, a kindergarten teacher and member of the Rowland Educators Association. "I want homework to foster interaction between parent and child. Our children need help in language development, and what better teacher than a parent? I ask parents to read to their children, and children to read to their parents, even if it's in a language other than English."
Homework is an extension of what students do in the classroom, says Jimmy Ellis, who teaches learning disabled kids at the high school level and serves as president of the Inglewood Teachers Association. "It has to be done on a consistent basis, so it becomes second nature. In special ed, you can have students who are five or six levels apart in one class, so you need a lot of time to plan for their homework. They may not be able to do as much as other students, but you want to challenge them as much as possible."
"Homework has been done for years, but it has not outlived its time," says Ellis. "It is more important than ever. It brings families together. I see it as a positive thing."
"Meaningful homework provides a link between two different worlds - home and school," says Govea in Los Angeles. And it helps parents assume their share of accountability for their child's learning.
