Homework: A Too-Heavy Burden?

by Susan Salter

In an October 2003 article in Time magazine, a working mother described what awaits her, and her daughter, when school lets out: "Nightly reading and math problems, spelling and handwriting homework due each Friday and a mix of other assignments to be turned in at the end of each month." The daughter was in kindergarten.

Are today's K-12 students - and, increasingly, their parents - overburdened by homework? That highly debated topic has grown in the American consciousness over the past few years due in part to such developments as the No Child Left Behind legislation and two widely reported (and conflicting) studies on how much time students must actually devote to homework.

Certainly you'd be hard-pressed to find a child who enjoys doing assignments after six hours a day in school - or perhaps a teacher who enjoys evaluating all that extra work. With today's standardized tests providing the impetus, homework has evolved from primarily book-based studies of decades past to a more diverse regimen involving everything from oral reports and dioramas for younger children to PowerPoint presentations for their older peers. At the same time, homework must compete with extracurriculars like sports and music, social activities, part-time jobs and, for many students, household responsibilities like caring for younger siblings.

"Overbooked"

The popular media has been quick to reinforce the notions of a study-saturated home life. In a 2003 People article titled "Overbooked," reporter Pam Lambert described Lisa, an eighth-grader who had a multimedia project on the Revolutionary War. The project was assigned at the start of Christmas break and was due when school resumed in January. "Instead of ice fishing or sledding," Lambert wrote, Lisa "spent much of her 'vacation' doing research, writing, making posters and a videotape." In the same article, a mother said that homework had contributed to her son's excess weight; as a fifth grader, she said, Jason faced an hours-long daily workload that included such tasks as solving 75 long-division problems. A Newsweek piece wrote of a fourth-grader in the gifted program who faced three hours of homework a night.

But are such descriptions typical of all students? A 2003 study released by the Brookings Institution suggests not. According to that report, most American high-school students spend no more than one hour a day on homework, and that the actual burden of work is no larger than it was a half century ago.

The statistic flies in the face of a previous time study conducted by the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center. That study noted that homework time had increased by 23 minutes per week from 1981 to 1997. But what was less widely reported, according to Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy, is that much of that increase came from a previously unrepresented group - children 6 to 8 years old. The emphasis on at-home reading that began in the 1990s bolstered the amount of homework for kindergarten through second grade, Loveless noted in an Education Week article.

Homework's low rank in high school

And for all the emphasis on the time spent doing homework, studying still ranks low among other after-school activities. The Brown Center study noted a 2002 survey of high-school seniors conducted by the University of Southern California's Higher Education Research Institute. That survey charted the percentage of students reporting on activities of more than five hours per week. "Socializing with friends" was the most-cited extracurricular activity (75.8 %), followed by working (58.3%) and exercise/sports (49.9%). Study came in fourth, at 33.4%.

"So where has the notion of a crushing homework burden come from?" the Brown Center report asks. "There are children with too much homework. There are parents who believe, correctly, that their children are overworked. Generalizations, however, are meant to apply generally. Anecdotes can be woven together." As for articles like "Overbooked," the stories "are misleading," as the report continued. "They do not reflect the experiences of a majority - or even a significant minority - of American school children."

A controversial call for reform

Others, however, hold the opinion that homework is in need of reform. When a New Jersey school board voted to limit homework time, the story made national news. In their 2000 book, "The End of Homework," professor of education Etta Kralovec and editor John Buell say that a too-rigorous program puts parents in the role of the teacher, and cuts into family time that is already stretched thin. The authors also contend that home assignments underline a gap between affluent and the low-income families - pointing out that in the inner cities, for example, children may not have the time, resources or parental support to handle the extra work. The authors' solution? As a Wilson Quarterly reviewer puts it, "drop the homework, lengthen the school day, and leave students free after the bell rings to pursue outside interests and spend time with their families."

What do you think?

As a teacher, are you assigning more homework than you used to? As a parent, do you think your children are overburdened - and are you participating in their assignments? E-mail us with your opinion or experience. Your response will be included in a future article.

Does homework help?

The Brookings Institution and University of Michigan studies call attention to the increased homework given to students in the K-5 grades. But does all that extra reading, deciphering and poster-making help young children learn … and foster a love of learning? Not according to psychologist Harris Cooper of the University of Missouri. In the late 1980s, Cooper led an analysis of elementary-school students and concluded "the effect of homework on achievement is trivial, if it exists at all," as Cooper was quoted in a 1998 Newsweek article. However, the study found, when students reach middle-school, homework does raise achievement levels.

A presidential vision for schools

In his 2004 State of the Union address, President Bush reiterated his support for No Child Left Behind, saying it brought important reforms to America's schools. At the same time, the president proposed more than $500 million for a series of measures called Jobs for the 21st Century, designed to help students who fall behind in reading and math, expand Advanced Placement programs in low-income schools and invite math and science professionals from the private sector to teach part-time in high schools.