The great homework debate

Authors of two new books find little correlation between homework and academic achievement

BY LIZA BURBY | Special to Newsday

September 17, 2006

Last year, my high school sophomore had a minimum of three hours of homework each night. She always had assignments on the weekends, which sometimes meant she couldn't join what was supposed to be family time. And her teachers had a habit of doubling up the workload during vacations. That meant her textbooks went on the same getaways we did.

My daughter's stress level was so high at times that I worried for her health. It didn't help that some nights, especially when she had play rehearsals or dance, she was up until 1 a.m. before I forced her to go to bed. Then she'd set her alarm for 5 a.m. to finish before school. At that point, whatever benefits she was supposed to be gleaning had long been negated by lack of sleep. This year, the homework situation is already shaping up to be similar, not only for her but for my seventh-grader as well.

Is all this homework really worth the impact on children and families? That's the question being asked by other parents, as well as authors of two new books. Even many educators agree that, when it comes to homework, while some has value, there is plenty more that becomes an unnecessary stressor.

When she was in eighth grade, Allison, now 15, had four hours of homework a night. "At the time, I thought that was normal; that teachers wouldn't put us through homework if it wasn't important," says her mother, Nancy Kalish of Brooklyn, co-author with Sara Bennett of "The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It" (Crown). "We started having all these negative interactions, and her homework controlled everything we did in the evenings. And although she slogged through it, she started to say she hated school. If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken action."

Research doesn't support it

What she and fellow Brooklynite Bennett found out is that there's limited verification that the traditional rationales for homework - namely that it increases academic performance and teaches discipline and hard work - actually yield positive results. Even so, children have more of it and at younger ages. A 2004 national survey of 2,900 American children conducted by the University of Michigan found that time spent on homework is up 51 percent since 1981. A 2000 survey showed that students ages 6 to 8 did an average of 52 minutes a week in 1981, and, by 1997, were up to 128 minutes a week, says Alfie Kohn, author of "The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing" (DaCapo Lifelong Books).

Yet, research shows that homework doesn't measurably improve academic achievement for kids in grade school, says Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and director of the Program in Education at Duke University in Durham, N.C. In fact, he found that "there is almost no correlation between homework and academic achievement in elementary school and only a moderate correlation in middle school. Even in high school, any benefits start to decline after kids reach a maximum of two hours a night."

Further, Kohn says, there is no evidence that doing homework builds character or develops good work habits. "If kids dread it and see it only as something to be gotten through as quickly as possible, it's very unlikely it will have a positive effect," he says.

In fact, Bennett says that homework can negatively impact the whole family. "It takes away from family time, puts parents in an adversarial role with kids and interferes with the child's ability to play or have other after-school activities," she says. "For middle school and teens, it limits crucial time with their peers. Students of all ages are getting too little sleep, which then impacts their learning in school."

Ways homework can help

But the right kind of homework does have value, Cooper says. It has the potential "to be a positive experience or a negative experience. The critical issue is how it's used, how much is given and how the assignments will be constructed."

Homework generally falls into two broad categories: busy work and meaningful work, says Martin Brooks, superintendent of the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District. "Busy work is doing 20 math problems after learning it in school. If you can answer the first two correctly, what is the point of doing the next 18? Sometimes teachers give these assignments because they believe it will help the student to internalize mechanisms they want them to learn ... but studies show repetition does not do that and, in fact, children often forget it three weeks after the assignments are complete."

Meaningful homework, says Brooks, is doing assignments that enhance what students learn in school, like research papers, preparing presentations and going online to learn more about an issue they studied in class. "An academic edge comes from work that helps kids get to think beyond what they were taught during the school day."

But, Brooks adds, the homework dilemma isn't always an issue of your child's having too much of it, but how he or she rations time. Sometimes, he says, they have homework late into the night, on weekends and vacations because they didn't get it done when they were supposed to.

What's the right amount?

According to the National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association, the right amount of homework is the 10-minute-per-grade rule. That means for children in grades K to 2, homework is more effective when it doesn't exceed 10 to 20 minutes each school day. Children in grades 3 to 6 can handle 30 to 60 minutes a day.

Harris Cooper, author of "The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents" (Corwin Press), says by high school level, students should have no more than two hours of homework a night. "However, if they take AP [Advanced Placement] or honors classes, they can expect a heavier workload," he says.

Advocating for change

Have you ever actually spoken to your child's teacher about your homework complaints? Most parents don't, says author Sara Bennett. "They think they can't, so a lot of teachers don't know the problem homework causes," she says. "Don't worry about repercussions, because most teachers will be accommodating once they know what the problem is. Teachers essentially have the same goal for your child as you do; sometimes all you have to do is ask."

If that doesn't work or you want to see if you can effect change throughout the school, Bennett recommends parents band together to talk to administrators, guidance counselors or the PTA. Bennett did this in her children's middle school in Brooklyn. The result was appointment of a curriculum coordinator to monitor homework across all subjects and the abolishment of vacation homework and Monday tests.

In the short term, says her co-author, Nancy Kalish, "If you feel a particular assignment is too long, write a note on it that your child didn't do the entire assignment because you saw after the first several that he knew how."

How much should you help?

Frustrated by the amount of time you put into your child's homework or the time wasted arguing about it? It's time to step back, say the experts. All you have to do is establish a quiet, comfortable study area with good lighting and the school supplies that your child needs. The rest is up to your child, says psychologist Michael Salamon, director of the Adult Developmental Center, a comprehensive psychological consulting practice in Hewlett.

"Parents who sit with their kids to make sure they do their homework and do it the right way are not helping," he says. "You're teaching them to be dependent, rather than learn on their own, and that they're not capable of doing it without you."

Not to mention, Salamon says, that if you help, the teacher isn't getting an honest assessment of how much your child really knows. Your children might also become confused if you try to show them a different method than they learned in school.

With elementary school children, Salamon says, it's a good idea to check to be sure your child understands the instructions. Then walk away and check back in about 15 minutes. Older children should be able to work independently without reminders.

If your child is fighting you, author Nancy Kalish says, don't engage. "If you're your child's external motivation to do his homework, he's not motivated," she says. "Let him go to school and experience the consequences."