LIMITS ON HOW MUCH HOMEWORK COUNTS

                                               

                                                                by Jim Buxton

              In 2011, Los Angeles, which has the second largest school system in the country, passed a decree that homework cannot count for more than 10% of the grade in a given course.  (The term homework, in this sense, would not include projects, papers or book reports.)  This decree applied to grades K through 12.  (LA Times: 6/27/11; Howard Blume)  This policy seems to be spreading as there are a number of RI high schools which have adopted similar policies.  South Kingstown HS has a 15% limit.  At Exeter-West Greenwich, it seems to be 10%.     The logic for this policy in many instances is sound, but I would argue that there are many situations where this policy is inappropriate.

               

                I’ll quote from a couple of defenders of this policy, who offer the following arguments:

                1) Judy Elliott, LAUSD’s Chief Academic Officer, stated that “some teachers weighted homework for as much as 60 percent of the grade. This led to an imbalance. Students who studied and received A’s in the classroom failed standardized tests. In turn, students who didn’t do their work failed the classes, and yet did extremely well on standardized test scores. Therefore, students and their families were not receiving a true measure of a child’s abilities.”  She continued, asserting that “many students, due to family issues, from babysitting for their siblings, working to help the family or having no area to do their homework – were punished tremendously in the classroom when homework was an unusually high part of their marks. It didn’t matter how well they did in the classroom or on classroom tests, they were still being dramatically marked down for lacking their homework.” (LA Times; 6/27/2011)

                2) Dr Cathy Vatterott, in her Blog, contends that “many well-established homework traditions just don't make sense in today's world, yet tradition dies hard.  We know that students differ in their ‘working speed’, yet many teachers assign the same amount of work to all students, expecting slower students to simply take the extra time to finish the task.”   She continues: “We know that students have responsibilities and activities after school, yet many teachers assign homework at the end of one day and expect it back the next day.”

                Vatterott also takes issue with the weight it carries in the grade:  “Most U.S. teachers grade homework. In other countries homework is graded much less often.  Within a single school the percentage homework counts in a student's grade can vary from 10% to 80%! Yet teachers have no way of knowing if the student actually did the work, or if they have favorable conditions at home to do homework.   Failing students for not completing homework unfairly punishes students who may be unable to work at home.”

               

                I can see the legitimacy in many of the arguments posed by Elliott and Vatterott.  Certainly, there would be situations where a 10% limit might be very reasonable.  However, I firmly believe that a one-size fits all policy” would hold back all too many capable students.  In my critique of the 10% limit, I will resign myself to high school Social Studies classes in communities very different than Los Angeles.

                I agree with Wheelock College associate professor, Janine Bempechat, who stated that “to make homework worthy of only 10% of a student's grade sends a message that it is not important."  Chris Johnson, who teaches Advanced Placement English in the LA system stated that “students need to realize that they're held accountable. They have to organize their time and be much more mature at a younger age than many students," Johnson said. "If it takes till midnight, then you burn the midnight oil."  Another issue I would bring up is if a teacher assigns a fair amount of homework and is limited to it counting 10%, then each individual homework counts minimally.  Therefore, inevitably, students will not do the homework consistently.  Hence, a teacher who  is planning the next day’s lesson cannot count on the majority of students being prepared for class.

                Aside from stressing the numerical importance of homework, I would suggest that a Social Studies teacher should do the following:

                1) Avoid the routine of walking from desk to desk, merely checking whether students did the homework and perhaps giving them a Check, Check-minus or Check-plus depending on how much was written on the page.  Not only does this routine make a mockery of the importance of homework, it also encourages cheating, as the teacher cannot discern cheating through a mere walk-by

                2) I’d recommend almost always collecting Social Studies homework, grading it to the level of a quiz grade, and returning  it with a lot of content and mechanics feedback. This was my routine, and by second quarter, in my mid-level classes, I would get about 85% of homework handed in on time.  The percentage was not as high first quarter, because it took some kids 3-4 weeks to realize that I do, indeed,  “quality control.”  There are those who contend that homework is a formative assessment, and that it should not be graded.  I’ll deal with that argument in a future post.  (See my post on “Flexible Deadlines” for further defense of my homework policies.) 

                Numbers 1 and 2 above may not apply in Honors or AP courses where the students clearly see the value in doing the homework because they are intrinsically curious, or because they see the connection with test grades.  

                3) Work hard to make all or parts of your homework intriguing.  Avoid busy work.  My son had a teacher in high school who merely assigned outlining the text for homework.  Tragically, grading seemed to be based on who had the most notes.  There was serious competition between the students as to who could come up with the most notes.  The homework policy didn’t promote learning; it promoted madness!  It was a travesty!  Again, avoid busy work!

                4)  One way to get around the limits on homework, which seems to be employed in schools with limits, is to give quizzes based upon the reading homework assignment.  It seems to have a positive effect on kids coming to class prepared, however it takes up class time, leading to less breadth of content covered.

                Additionally, I would argue for greater flexibility in the Social Studies realm vis-à-vis Math, for example, because homework for Social Studies often has a different purpose than homework for Math.  In Math class, you learn new concepts during class time, and then you practice those new concepts at home.  Social Studies, generally, is not as dependent on practice.  Thus, in History class, the student might learn about the long term causes of World War 1.  For homework, he reads and analyzes the short term causes (such as the assassination), and he prepares for a discussion the next day.  Indeed, the next day there is a discussion/debate as to which country was most at fault for causing the outbreak of the “Great War.”  That discussion/debate was only possible if at least three-quarters of the students did the homework. 

                So, in math class, you learn A, and then practice A at home, and the next day you learn B.   In History class, you learn A, for homework you learn B, and the next class you learn C.  Hence, homework can be used by the History teacher to cover more breadth.

                My view regarding the breadth of content covered is influenced by the following:

                                1)  The USA has just about the shortest school year in the industrialized world, which I consider to be completely irresponsible, seeing as how we are the most influential country on Earth.  The “world’s policeman” should have a citizenry that is the most knowledgeable.  If anything, we should have the longest school year.

Here are the school years of a variety of different countries:

220: South Korea 

216: Luxembourg and Israel

211: Russia

200: South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Netherlands, Australia, Iran, Japan and Thailand

195: Hong Kong, United Kingdom and Germany

190-191: New Zealand, Nigeria, Switzerland and Finland

187: Canada

180: Sweden, Portugal, Costa Rica and Spain

180: most of the USA, although Maine has 175, and Michigan 170.

                               

                Lengthening the school year was proposed in the Nation at Risk report in 1983, and also by the Obama administration.  (“Should the School year be longer”; Amy Crawford; Boston Globe; June 2, 2013)

                Now, granted, just because a country has a longer school year, it does not mean the students learn more.  You’d have to take into consideration length of the school day, efficiency of the teaching, and many other factors.

                                2) A second influence on me is the drastic reduction in the breadth of Social Studies content delivered to students in the past 10 years.  For further thoughts on this issue, see my post on the loss of breadth of content in high school Social Studies classes.  You will find that post in the post archive.

                                3)  Lastly, a major concern is in regard to our democracy.  I think we’d all agree that an educated citizenry is vital to a successful democracy.  Polls measuring American political, historical and geographical illiteracy would indicate that we are far from an educated citizenry.  (See the post listing videos dealing with American illiteracy in these matters.)  Our low voter turnout rate is a significant indicator here.  (to be a subject for a future post)

                So, who does the policy help?  It certainly can help the student who, for no fault of his own, cannot spend more than an hour on homework per night, or who does not have the support at home which other students do. 

Who does it hurt?  It probably doesn’t hurt the AP students.  Most high schools, I would think, have a hands-off policy regarding AP workload.   It’s left up to the teacher, and if the teacher gets good AP scores, then that’s all that matters.  The students hurt the most, in my opinion, are the “upper-middles”, those not in AP courses, but who are capable of so/ much more, but who are held back by homework limits.  Who or what is the biggest loser?  I would argue that, from a Social Studies standpoint, it’s our democracy!!

                Bottom line:  I would argue that increasing the value of homework in many high school Social Studies classes, combined with intriguing assignments which are “quality controlled”, might well lead to greater breadth of content knowledge, and more legitimacy to our democracy!  Idealistic?   Yes, I won’t apologize for that!