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May 6, 2009

Homework put to the test

Studies: Homework may bring frustration, not education

By STEPHEN BARTLETT

PLATTSBURGH — Brianna Lareau sobbed as she struggled with homework until midnight.

It was October, and already the high-honors student hated school.

"I have two to three hours of homework per night," said the Stafford Middle School eighth-grader. "I get way too much homework."

Educators may want to listen to Lareau and other young people, as an array of studies have found little to no correlation between the amount of homework and student success.

Some suggest that the United States, in an attempt to keep up with other nations' standardized test scores, has piled on the homework, to the detriment of students.

"I don't think there is any reason for it," Brianna's mother, Kelly, said of the amount of homework her daughter is assigned.

The United States has long struggled with concerns because its students lag behind many countries academically, and as a result, teachers assign more homework, according to national statistics presented in a joint study by researchers at Binghamton University and the University of Nevada. Researchers found that overloading students with math homework only slightly helps high and low achievers and does little for average students.

"I find that my daughter has too much math homework on many nights," Mrs. Lareau said. "It's also heavy in science on some nights."

A study of global homework patterns found that the benefits of increasing homework to boost student test scores varied widely according to grade level.

"More standardized testing drives educators to give more homework in order to prepare for these exams," said Penn State's Dr. Gerald LeTendre, lead author of the study. "Homework has moved to center stage in the debate over how nations can improve their economic competitiveness by boosting student scores.

"Yet, national policies aimed at simply increasing homework amounts are unlikely to produce increases in average student achievement scores."

For U.S. schools, the study found a negative relationship between greater homework amounts and student achievement in elementary schools.

In middle schools, students who did some homework scored significantly better than their counterparts who did excessive amounts.

PRACTICE
Many teachers are conscious of the strain homework can produce. Maureen King teaches fifth grade at Oak Street Elementary School and assigns less than an hour of homework. When she taught third grade, she gave about a half-hour of homework.

King tells parents that if their children are struggling too long with an assignment to write a note and send it to school.

She also restricts homework to about three nights per week.

"Homework gives them a chance for independent practice and reinforces the concepts I taught," King said. "I also use homework as an opportunity to teach organizational skills and responsibility. They learn to budget their time and take ownership for that."

Keri Mack appreciates a reasonable amount of homework.

"It allows them to think about the things they learned at school and do independent work themselves," said the mother of two school-aged children.

DIFFERING VIEW
Not all studies bash homework.

The American Psychological Association reported that homework, especially in grades 6 to 12, does increase students' academic performance. That study also suggested that parental attitudes toward homework play an important role in children's education.

Still, studies that weigh against too much homework seem to far outweigh those that defend the practice.

Duke University professor Harris Cooper reported in his book "The Battle of Homework" that for elementary students, the average correlation between time spent on homework and achievement was zero.

And a Canadian study, the first of its kind there, found homework is of little benefit to students from kindergarten to grade 6. Professors Linda Cameron and Lee Bartel of the University of Toronto found that homework is often the source of stress and burnout in children and causes conflict for many families.

Brianna can relate.

"One week, I had projects and I was up until midnight for three nights in a row. It makes me not like school, and I used to love school."

Her mother is worried about the change she has noticed in her daughter and says too much homework is to blame.

"These kids get no break all day long, and then they have to come home and do hours of homework," Mrs. Lareau said. "We've had many tearful nights."

E-mail Stephen Bartlett at: sbartlett@pressrepublican.com

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