(Barkley, 2008)
(Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006)
(Olympia & Andrews,1994)
1
10 Minutes
--
10-45 Minutes
2
20 Minutes
--
10-45 Minutes
Despite the differences in the recommendations from these sources, the table shows broad agreement about how much homework to assign at each grade. At grades 1-3, homework should be limited to an hour or less per day, while in grades 4-6, homework should not exceed 90 minutes. The upper limit in grades 7-8 is 2 hours and the limit in high school should be 2.5 hours.
Teachers can use the homework time recommendations included here as a point of comparison: in particular, schools should note that assigning homework that exceeds the upper limit of these time estimates is not likely to result in additional learning gains--and may even be counter-productive (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006).
It should also be remembered that the amount of homework assigned each day is not in itself a sign of high academic standards. Homework becomes a powerful tool to promote learning only when students grasp the purpose of each homework assignment, clearly understand homework directions, perceive that homework tasks are instructionally relevant, and receive timely performance feedback (e.g., teacher comments; grades) on submitted homework (Jenson, Sheridan, Olympia, & Andrews, 1994).
Research suggests that while homework can be an effective learning tool, assigning too much can lower student performance and interfere with other important activities.
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Homework: effective learning tool or waste of time?
Since the average high school student spends almost seven hours each week doing homework, it’s surprising that there’s no clear answer. Homework is generally recognized as an effective way to reinforce what students learn in class, but claims that it may cause more harm than good, especially for younger students, are common.
Here’s what the research says:
Homework can boost learning, but doing too much can be detrimental. The National PTA and National Education Association support the “10-minute homework rule,” which recommends 10 minutes of homework per grade level, per night (10 minutes for first grade, 20 minutes for second grade, and so on, up to two hours for 12th grade) (Cooper, 2010). A recent study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90–100 minutes of homework per day, their math and science scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015). Giving students too much homework can lead to fatigue, stress, and a loss of interest in academics—something that we all want to avoid.
Homework has many benefits, ranging from higher academic performance to improved study skills and stronger school-parent connections. However, it can also result in a loss of interest in academics, fatigue, and a loss of important personal and family time.
Although the debate about homework generally falls in the “it works” vs. “it doesn’t work” camps, research shows that grade level makes a difference. High school students generally get the biggest benefits from homework, with middle school students getting about half the benefits, and elementary school students getting few benefits (Cooper et al., 2006). Since young students are still developing study habits like concentration and self-regulation, assigning a lot of homework isn’t all that helpful.
Well-designed homework not only strengthens student learning, it also provides ways to create connections between a student’s family and school. Homework offers parents insight into what their children are learning, provides opportunities to talk with children about their learning, and helps create conversations with school communities about ways to support student learning (Walker et al., 2004).
However, parent involvement can also hurt student learning. Patall, Cooper, and Robinson (2008) found that students did worse when their parents were perceived as intrusive or controlling. Motivation plays a key role in learning, and parents can cause unintentional harm by not giving their children enough space and autonomy to do their homework.
OECD , the developers of the international PISA test, published a 2014 report looking at homework around the world. They found that 15-year-olds worldwide spend an average of five hours per week doing homework (the U.S. average is about six hours). Surprisingly, countries like Finland and Singapore spend less time on homework (two to three hours per week) but still have high PISA rankings. These countries, the report explains, have support systems in place that allow students to rely less on homework to succeed. If a country like the U.S. were to decrease the amount of homework assigned to high school students, test scores would likely decrease unless additional supports were added.
Whether you’re pro- or anti-homework, keep in mind that research gives a big-picture idea of what works and what doesn’t, and a capable teacher can make almost anything work. The question isn’t homework vs. no homework ; instead, we should be asking ourselves, “How can we transform homework so that it’s engaging and relevant and supports learning?”
Cooper, H. (1989). Synthesis of research on homework . Educational leadership, 47 (3), 85-91.
Cooper, H. (2010). Homework’s Diminishing Returns . The New York Times .
Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003 . Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1-62.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Ifill-Lynch, O. (2006). If They'd Only Do Their Work! Educational Leadership, 63 (5), 8-13.
Eren, O., & Henderson, D. J. (2011). Are we wasting our children's time by giving them more homework? Economics of Education Review, 30 (5), 950-961.
Fernández-Alonso, R., Suárez-Álvarez, J., & Muñiz, J. (2015, March 16). Adolescents’ Homework Performance in Mathematics and Science: Personal Factors and Teaching Practices . Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication.
OECD (2014). Does Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education? PISA in Focus , No. 46, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008). Parent involvement in homework: A research synthesis . Review of Educational Research, 78 (4), 1039-1101.
Van Voorhis, F. L. (2003). Interactive homework in middle school: Effects on family involvement and science achievement . The Journal of Educational Research, 96 (6), 323-338.
Walker, J. M., Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Whetsel, D. R., & Green, C. L. (2004). Parental involvement in homework: A review of current research and its implications for teachers, after school program staff, and parent leaders . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.
Do kids have too much homework.
Across the United States, parents, teachers and administrators alike are rethinking their approach to after-school assignments
LynNell Hancock
Homework horror stories are as timeworn as school bullies and cafeteria mystery meat. But as high-stakes testing pressures have mounted over the past decade—and global rankings for America’s schools have declined—homework has come under new scrutiny.
Diane Lowrie says she fled an Ocean County, New Jersey, school district three years ago when she realized her first grader’s homework load was nearly crushing him. Reading logs, repetitive math worksheets, and regular social studies reports turned their living room into an anguished battleground. “Tears were shed, every night,” says Lowrie, 47, an environmental educator, who tried to convince school district administrators that the work was not only numbing, but harmful. “Iain started to hate school, to hate learning, and he was only 6 years old,” she told me in a recent interview.
A 2003 Brookings Institution study suggests that Iain’s experience may be typical of a few children in pressure-cooker schools, but it’s not a widespread problem. Still, a 2004 University of Michigan survey of 2,900 six- to seventeen-year-old children found that time spent each week on homework had increased from 2 hours 38 minutes to 3 hours 58 minutes since 1981. And in his 2001 and 2006 reviews of academic studies of homework outcomes, Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, found little correlation between the amount of homework and academic achievement in elementary school (though higher in middle school and high school). Cooper supports the influential ten-minute homework rule, which recommends adding ten daily minutes of homework per grade beginning in first grade, up to a maximum of two hours. Some districts have added no homework on weekends to the formula.
The question of how much homework is enough is widely debated and was a focus of the 2009 documentary Race to Nowhere , a galvanizing cri de coeur about the struggles of kids in high-performing schools. “I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to go in the backyard and just run around,” a teenage girl laments in the film. “I’ve gone through bouts of depression” from too much homework, another confesses. A bewildered-looking third girl says: “I would spend six hours a night on my homework.”
The results of international tests give the homework skeptics ammunition. David Baker and Gerald LeTendre, professors of education at Penn State, found that in countries with the most successful school systems, like Japan, teachers give small amounts homework, while teachers in those with the lowest scores, such as Greece and Iran, give a lot. (Of course the quality of the assignment and the teacher’s use of it also matter.) The United States falls somewhere in the middle—average amounts of homework and average test results. Finnish teachers tend to give minimal amounts of homework throughout all the grades; the New York Times reported Finnish high-school kids averaged only one-half hour a night.
Sara Bennett, a Brooklyn criminal attorney and mother of two, began a second career as an anti-homework activist when her first-grade son brought home homework only a parent could complete. The 2006 book she co-wrote, The Case Against Homework , is credited with propelling a nationwide parent movement calling for time limits on homework.
Last year, the affluent village of Ridgewood, New Jersey, was shaken by two young suicides, causing school officials to look for ways they could ease kids’ anxieties. Anthony Orsini, principal of Ridgewood’s Benjamin Franklin Middle School, eliminated homework for elective courses and set up an online system that lets families know how long many homework assignments should take. “We have a high-powered district,” says Orsini. “The pressures are palpable on these students to succeed. My community is not ready to eliminate homework altogether.”
The trend, instead, is to lessen the quantity while improving the quality of homework by using it to complement classroom work, says Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education at University of Missouri at St. Louis and author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs (2009). Cynthia Schneider, principal of World Journalism Preparatory school in Queens for 570 sixth through twelfth graders, plans to encourage all students to read for pleasure every night, then write a thoughtful response. There are also initiatives to “decriminalize” not finishing homework assignments.
As for Diane Lowrie, who left Ocean County because of too much homework, she says Iain, now 10 and heading for fifth grade in Roosevelt, New Jersey, is less stressed out. He recently spent 40 hours working on a book report and diorama about the Battle of Yorktown. “But,” says his mother, “it was his idea and he enjoyed it.”
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Homework; the term elicits a myriad of responses. Students are naturally opposed to the idea of homework. No student ever says, “I wish my teacher would assign me more homework.” Most students begrudge homework and find any opportunity or possible excuse to avoid doing it.
Educators themselves are split on the issue. Many teachers assign daily homework seeing it as a way to further develop and reinforce core academic skills, while also teaching students responsibility. Other educators refrain from assigning daily homework. They view it as unnecessary overkill that often leads to frustration and causes students to resent school and learning altogether.
Parents are also divided on whether or not they welcome homework. Those who welcome it see it as an opportunity for their children to reinforce critical learning skills. Those who loathe it see it as an infringement of their child’s time. They say it takes away from extra-curricular activities, play time, family time, and also adds unnecessary stress.
Research on the topic is also inconclusive. You can find research that strongly supports the benefits of assigning regular homework, some that denounce it as having zero benefits, with most reporting that assigning homework offers some positive benefits, but also can be detrimental in some areas.
Since opinions vary so drastically, coming to a consensus on homework is nearly impossible. We sent a survey out to parents of a school regarding the topic, asking parents these two basic questions:
The responses varied significantly. In one 3 rd grade class with 22 students, the responses regarding how much time their child spends on homework each night had an alarming disparity. The lowest amount of time spent was 15 minutes, while the largest amount of time spent was 4 hours. Everyone else fell somewhere in between. When discussing this with the teacher, she told me that she sent home the same homework for every child and was blown away by the vastly different ranges in time spent completing it. The answers to the second question aligned with the first. Almost every class had similar, varying results making it really difficult to gauge where we should go as a school regarding homework.
While reviewing and studying my school’s homework policy and the results of the aforementioned survey, I discovered a few important revelations about homework that I think anyone looking at the topic would benefit from:
1. Homework should be clearly defined. Homework is not unfinished classwork that the student is required to take home and complete. Homework is “extra practice” given to take home to reinforce concepts that they have been learning in class. It is important to note that teachers should always give students time in class under their supervision to complete class work. Failing to give them an appropriate amount of class time increases their workload at home. More importantly, it does not allow the teacher to give immediate feedback to the student as to whether or not they are doing the assignment correctly. What good does it do if a student completes an assignment if they are doing it all incorrectly? Teachers must find a way to let parents know what assignments are homework and which ones are classwork that they did not complete.
2. The amount of time required to complete the same homework assignment varies significantly from student to student. This speaks to personalization. I have always been a big fan of customizing homework to fit each individual student. Blanket homework is more challenging for some students than it is for others. Some fly through it, while others spend excessive amounts of time completing it. Differentiating homework will take some additional time for teachers in regards to preparation, but it will ultimately be more beneficial for students.
The National Education Association recommends that students be given 10-20 minutes of homework each night and an additional 10 minutes per advancing grade level. The following chart adapted from the National Education Associations recommendations can be used as a resource for teachers in Kindergarten through the 8 th grade.
|
|
Kindergarten | 5 – 15 minutes |
1 Grade | 10 – 20 minutes |
2 Grade | 20 – 30 minutes |
3 Grade | 30 – 40 minutes |
4 Grade | 40 – 50 minutes |
5 Grade | 50 – 60 minutes |
6 Grade | 60 – 70 minutes |
7 Grade | 70 – 80 minutes |
8 Grade | 80 – 90 minutes |
It can be difficult for teachers to gauge how much time students need to complete an assignment. The following charts serve to streamline this process as it breaks down the average time it takes for students to complete a single problem in a variety of subject matter for common assignment types. Teachers should consider this information when assigning homework. While it may not be accurate for every student or assignment, it can serve as a starting point when calculating how much time students need to complete an assignment. It is important to note that in grades where classes are departmentalized it is important that all teachers are on the same page as the totals in the chart above is the recommended amount of total homework per night and not just for a single class.
|
|
Single Math Problem | 2 minutes |
English Problem | 2 minutes |
Research Style Questions (i.e. Science) | 4 minutes |
Spelling Words – 3x each | 2 minutes per word |
Writing a Story | 45 minutes for 1-page |
Reading a Story | 3 minutes per page |
Answering Story Questions | 2 minutes per question |
Vocabulary Definitions | 3 minutes per definition |
*If students are required to write the questions, then you will need to add 2 additional minutes per problem. (i.e. 1-English problem requires 4 minutes if students are required to write the sentence/question.)
|
|
Single-Step Math Problem | 2 minutes |
Multi-Step Math Problem | 4 minutes |
English Problem | 3 minutes |
Research Style Questions (i.e. Science) | 5 minutes |
Spelling Words – 3x each | 1 minutes per word |
1 Page Essay | 45 minutes for 1-page |
Reading a Story | 5 minutes per page |
Answering Story Questions | 2 minutes per question |
Vocabulary Definitions | 3 minutes per definition |
*If students are required to write the questions, then you will need to add 2 additional minutes per problem. (i.e. 1-English problem requires 5 minutes if students are required to write the sentence/question.)
It is recommended that 5 th graders have 50-60 minutes of homework per night. In a self-contained class, a teacher assigns 5 multi-step math problems, 5 English problems, 10 spelling words to be written 3x each, and 10 science definitions on a particular night.
|
|
|
|
Multi-Step Math | 4 minutes | 5 | 20 minutes |
English Problems | 3 minutes | 5 | 15 minutes |
Spelling Words – 3x | 1 minute | 10 | 10 minutes |
Science Definitions | 3 minutes | 5 | 15 minutes |
|
|
3. There are a few critical academic skill builders that students should be expected to do every night or as needed. Teachers should also consider these things. However, they may or may not, be factored into the total time to complete homework. Teachers should use their best judgment to make that determination:
4. Coming to a general consensus regarding homework is almost impossible. School leaders must bring everyone to the table, solicit feedback, and come up with a plan that works best for the majority. This plan should be reevaluated and adjusted continuously. What works well for one school may not necessarily be the best solution for another.
A common question that parents always ask is, “How much time should my child dedicate to homework every day?” It’s not an easy question to answer. As we all know, every student learns differently from each other. While some kids do, substantially, better in school, by completing one hour of homework every day. There might be some others, who require two hours of homework, but only see a slight improvement in their grades.
To get to the bottom of this, we went to the experts for the answers! So here’s a break down of how much time your child should spend on homework according to their grade.
So before we give you a solid figure. We took a look at the results of a May 2012 study from the Los Angeles Unified School District . (Figure 1 below)
If your child is starting out in kindergarten and they receive some basic worksheets to complete for homework, the standard time they should spend on completing homework is 10 minutes per night.
Keep in mind, kindergarten childen might have shorter attention spans, than older kids, and might need a few intervals in between to complete their homework. So let them do it for 5 minutes, then take a 5 minute break, then continue for another 5 minutes to complete.
Usually, Grade 1 – 3 students receive one to three homework assignments per week. They suggest that your child spend at least 20 – 30 minutes per night on homework.
Grade 4 – 5 students who receive two to four assignments per week, should focus between 40 – 50 minutes on completing each assignment.
As your child enters middle and high school, naturally, their home work time will increase. As subjects get harder and more information needs to be retained for exams, more time is needed to practice. Here are the home work time estimations for older students from the Los Angeles Unified School District . (Figure 2 below)
Students in middle school are from Grades 6 – 8. As class subjects require more attention and practice, middle school students get assigned three to five sets of assignments per week. We recommend that your child spend between 45 – 75 minutes per night.
Once your child is in highschool, Grade 9 – 12 students usually receive four to five sets of homework per week. According to Figure 2, high school students should focus about 25-30 minutes on each subject.
For example, if your child is in Grade 10 and has a Math and English assignment to do for homework, they should spend at least 30 minutes on English and 30 minutes on Math. If they take one or two short breaks, it works out to be 75 – 150 minutes per set to complete both assignments.
Does your child need help completing their homework? ICan Education can help as we offer flexible Homework Help with tutors in Brampton, Mississauga, Milton, and Burlington!
ICAN Education tutoring centre has several locations in the GTA West, Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, and Burlington. To locate the closest ICAN Education centre near you, click here .
Do you have any tips to share with other parents and students about completing homework? Let us know by posting your comments below and let’s move the conversation to our Twitter Page @icanedu. Don’t forget to ‘Like’ ICAN Education’s Facebook and say ‘hi!’!
How long should homework actually take? Should your 2nd grader have 3 hours of homework? Does your high school student have to stay up all night doing homework to be on honor roll?
These are questions I get asked a lot. As a starting point, it’s helpful to review the general guidelines for homework for each grade level that many schools follow. The expectation is that students will receive, on average, about 10 minutes of homework per grade level. So a 2nd grader would have 20 minutes of homework and a 6th grader could be expected to have 60 minutes of homework. This is of course on average, and some nights this might be slightly more or less.
Some schools have also made a conscious effort to dramatically reduce homework, particularly in the lower elementary grades, so don't be concerned if your child has far less homework than these guidelines suggest. In fact, the research shows that at the elementary level, homework is not beneficial (but that’s a topic for another day!)
So if your child is spending far more time on his or her assignments than the 10 minute per grade level guideline would suggest, then we need to take a look at the possible causes and plan our approach accordingly.
1. Too much homework is being assigned. This is a conversation to be had with the teacher and perhaps even the administrators at your child’s school. It could be that the teacher is not aware of just how long homework assignments take. Teachers might also not be aware of assignments students are receiving from other teachers. Many schools encourage teachers to work together to schedule projects and tests so that they do not all fall on the same day. Finally, it can also be a part of a child’s IEP or 504 plan to have reduced or modified homework assignments.
2. Your child is struggling with the content. If an assignment is difficult for your child, it is not surprising that it might take him or her longer than the teacher might have expected. This is another time when a conversation with the teacher is warranted. Let the teacher know just how long the assignment is taking, since that is important feedback for the teacher to have in order to support your child. The teacher might suggest your child attends extra help sessions or works with a tutor to fill in any gaps in understanding.
3. Your child is distracted and not actually working on the assignment the whole time. Children and teens often aren’t even aware of just how much time they might be spending not actually working. It can help to limit distractions by placing phones and other electronic devices out of reach. Fidget toys can be helpful for some students to improve focus. Finally, try asking your child to estimate how long an assignment should take then set a timer and challenge her to get it done before the timer goes off.
4. Assignments take a long time because your child keeps redoing them to make them perfect. This is another case where a timer can be useful. Ask your child to estimate how long an assignment should take (and use your judgment to see if that seems reasonable), then set a timer and when it goes off, the assignment gets put away. Some children let assignments take however long they have, so by limiting that time, we can help them work more efficiently.
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Hi! I'm Emily Hawe. I'm a certified teacher and passionate about helping ALL students succeed. After teaching 7th grade ELA for many years, I left the classroom to become an executive function skills coach. I work with students, parents, and teachers to bring executive function skills, growth mindset, social emotional learning, and mindfulness into the classroom and home.
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August 10, 2017
Researchers have struggled for decades to identify a causal, or even correlational, relationship between time spent in school and improved learning outcomes for students. Some studies have focused on the length of a school year while others have focused on hours in a day and others on hours in the week .
In this blog post, we will look at time spent outside of school–specifically time spent doing homework–among different racial and socio-economic groups. We will use data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to shed light on those differences and then attempt to explain those gaps, using ATUS data and other evidence.
Measuring the relationship between out-of-school time and outcomes like test scores can be difficult. Researchers are primarily confounded by an inability to determine what compels students to choose homework during their time off over other activities. Are those who spend more time on homework just extra motivated? Or are they struggling students who need to work harder to keep up? What role do social expectations from parents or peers play?
Previous studies have examined the impact of this outside time use on educational outcomes for students. A 2007 study using data from Berea College in Kentucky identified a causal relationship between hours spent studying and a student’s academic performance through an interesting measure. The researchers took advantage of randomly assigned college roommates, paying attention to those who came to campus with a video game console in tow. They hypothesized students randomly assigned to a roommate without a video game console would study more, since all other factors remained equal. That hypothesis held up, and that group also received significantly higher grades, demonstrating the causal relationship.
Other research has relied on data collected through the American Time Use Survey, a study of how Americans spend their time, and shown the existence of a gender gap and a parental education gap in homework time. Other studies have looked at the relationship between holding a job and student’s time use in discretionary activities , like sleep, media consumption, and time spent on homework. We are curious about out-of-school differences in homework time by race and income.
We began with a general sample of 2,575 full-time high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 from the ATUS, restricting the sample to their answers about time spent on homework during weekdays and school months (September to May). Among all high school students surveyed (those that reported completing their homework and those that did not), the time allocated to complete homework amounted to less than an hour per day, despite the fact that high school teachers report they assign an average of 3.5 hours of homework per day.
To explore racial or income-based differences, in Figure 1, we plot the minutes that students reporting spending on homework separately by their racial/ethnic group and family income. We observed a time gap between racial groups, with Asian students spending the most time on homework (nearly two hours a day). Similarly, we observe a time gap by the students’ family income.
We can also use ATUS data to isolate when students do homework by race and by income. In Figure 2, we plot the percentage of high school students in each racial and income group doing homework by the time of day. Percentages remain low during the school day and then expectedly increase when students get home, with more Asian students doing more homework and working later into the night than other racial groups. Low-income students reported doing less homework per hour than their non-low-income peers.
We hypothesized that these racial and income-based time gaps could potentially be explained by other factors, like work, time spent caring for others, and parental education. We tested these hypotheses by separating groups based on particular characteristics and comparing the average number of minutes per day spent on homework amongst the comparison groups.
Students who work predictably reported spending less time on educational activities, so if working disproportionately affected particular racial or income groups, then work could help explain the time gap. Students who worked allocated on average 20 minutes less for homework than their counterparts who did not work. Though low-income students worked more hours than their peers, they largely maintained a similar level of homework time by reducing their leisure or extracurricular activities. Therefore, the time gap on homework changed only slightly with the inclusion of work as a factor.
We also incorporated time spent taking care of others in the household. Though a greater percentage of low-income students take care of other household members, we found that this does not have a statistically significant effect on homework because students reduce leisure, rather than homework, in an attempt to help their families. Therefore, this variable again does not explain the time gaps.
Finally, we considered parental education, since parents with more education have been shown to encourage their children to value school more and have the resources to ensure homework is completed more easily. Our analysis showed students with at least one parent with any post-secondary degree (associate or above) reported spending more time on homework than their counterparts whose parents do not hold a degree; however, gaps by race still existed, even holding parental education constant. Turning to income levels, we found that parental education is more correlated with homework time among low-income students, reducing the time gap between income groups to only eight minutes.
Our analysis of ATUS could not fully explain this gap in time spent on homework, especially among racial groups. Instead, we believe that viewing homework as an outcome of the culture of the school and the expectations of teachers, rather than an outcome of a student’s effort, may provide some reasons for its persistence.
Many studies, including recent research , have shown that teachers perceive students of color as academically inferior to their white peers. A 2016 study by Seth Gershenson et al. showed that this expectations gap can also depend on the race of the teacher. In a country where minority students make up nearly half of all public school students, yet minority teachers comprise just 18 percent of the teacher workforce, these differences in expectations matter.
Students of color are also less likely to attend high schools that offer advanced courses (including Advanced Placement courses) that would likely assign more homework, and thus access to rigorous courses may partially explain the gaps as well.
Research shows a similar, if less well-documented, gap by income, with teachers reporting lower expectations and dimmer futures for their low-income students. Low-income students and students of color may be assigned less homework based on lower expectations for their success, thus preventing them from learning as much and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy .
In conclusion, these analyses of time use revealed a substantial gap in homework by race and by income group that could not be entirely explained by work, taking care of others, or parental education. Additionally, differences in educational achievement, especially as measured on standardized tests, have been well-documented by race and by income . These gaps deserve our attention, but we should be wary of blaming disadvantaged groups. Time use is an outcome reflecting multiple factors, not simply motivation, and a greater understanding of that should help raise expectations–and therefore, educational achievement–all around.
Sarah Novicoff contributed to this post.
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Homework lets kids practice skills, prepares them to learn new things, and expands on ideas introduced in class.
Many schools use the “10-minute rule” — that’s 10 minutes per grade level.
There are ways to help with homework without doing it for your child.
Getting kids to do their homework can be a hassle in any household. It’s even more challenging if your child struggles with the work.
Homework challenges can leave parents and caregivers with questions. For example, how much help can I give my child without taking away from the learning experience? Why does my child even have homework — and so much of it? What is my role in the homework process?
Here are answers to common questions about homework.
When you watch your child struggling with homework, it’s natural to wonder if those assignments are really necessary. That’s a question parents and teachers often debate.
According to the National Education Association (NEA), teachers shouldn’t give homework just to give homework. The assignments should serve one of three purposes:
Practice: Kids use a new skill they just learned or work on a skill that they need to review.
Preparation: Kids get ready for something they’re going to learn. Maybe kids are reading about butterflies because that’s what the science class will be discussing tomorrow.
Extension: Kids learn more about a topic that was covered in the classroom. They’re doing something like developing a project for the science fair or writing a poem in the same style as one they read in class.
There are guidelines for how much time kids should spend on homework. The NEA recommends something called the “10-minute rule.”
Based on this rule, students should spend about 10 minutes per grade level on homework every night. That means a second grader will usually be able to finish in about 20 minutes. A sixth grader should be able to get homework done in about an hour.
For some kids, it’s not always that simple. When kids have trouble with reading, writing, math, focus, or organization, homework can take longer. Still, keeping up shouldn’t mean they have to spend all their time on homework or lose sleep to finish.
You may be tempted to jump in and help. But avoid doing your child’s homework. Instead, use the “10-minute rule” to decide when it’s time to stop — even if your child hasn’t finished all of their work. Then speak with the teacher about finding ways to get it done, or reducing the amount of homework that’s coming home every night.
Learn more about signs your child may have too much homework .
There are many ways you can ease your child’s homework stress. Begin by helping your child create a homework station and learn how to use a homework planner to organize and manage time.
You can also use this three-point “check” system for homework.
1. Check in. Check-ins give you a chance to talk with your child about what homework support they might need. They also let your child know you think homework is important.
Check in with your child at a consistent time each day that works for your family’s schedule. Talk about the homework together: where to find assignments, where and when to work, and what your child can do if stuck on a problem or task. Discuss any long-term projects and make a plan for when the work will get done.
2. Check up. Find a time that works for you and your child to talk about how the homework is going, and if there are any tricky assignments.
Some kids may want a little space to work through challenges on their own. But if your child needs help with the directions and steps of the homework, you can work through it together. You can also give them tips on how to handle trouble spots independently.
3. Check over. Checking over means looking at your child’s homework when it’s finished. You can ask your child to leave out the completed homework so you can check it when you’re available.
Your job here isn’t to fix mistakes, but to make note of possible issues. Maybe you notice that your child hasn’t followed the directions. Or maybe your child didn’t finish a few problems. Talk about these issues with your child.
A homework contract can outline how and when you’ll help your child with homework. Download the contract and work on it together with your child.
It’s a good idea to keep in touch with your child’s teacher about homework. Teachers are your partners in the homework process.
Talk with the teacher about homework policies, like whether late assignments are accepted. Once you know the expectations, you have a place to start if you need to speak with the teacher about making accommodations for your child.
If your child has trouble with an assignment, you can send a friendly email to let the teacher know. The teacher might be able to share why the task was challenging. The teacher may also suggest tools and strategies that can help.
You may think your child likes it when you step in and take over the homework. But learning to do it independently will teach your child important skills — not to mention the value of perseverance.
Get more tips about how to help kids who learn and think differently approach homework .
Set up a homework station and show your child how to use a planner. These changes can make homework less of a struggle.
If your child is spending more than 10 minutes per grade level on homework, touch base with the teacher. It might make sense to reduce your child’s workload.
Use a check in, check up, and check over system. This can help you be a positive part of the homework process.
COMMENTS
This means that each grade level should have a maximum homework time incrementing by 10 minutes depending on their grade level (for instance, ninth-graders would have 90 minutes of homework, 10th-graders should have 100 minutes, and so on). ... High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, ...
The National PTA and the National Education Association support the " 10-minute homework guideline "—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students' needs, not the amount of time spent on it.
From kindergarten to 5th grade, it was just under three hours per week; from 6th to 8th grade, it was 3.2 hours; and from 9th to 12th grade, it was 3.5 hours. There are two points to note.
For decades, the homework standard has been a "10-minute rule," which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 ...
Many districts follow the guideline of 10 minutes per grade level. This is a good rule of thumb and can be modified for specific students or subjects that need more or less time for assignments. This can also be helpful to gauge if you are providing too much (or too little) homework. Consider surveying your students on how much time is needed ...
A widely endorsed metric for how much homework to assign is the 10-minute rule. It dictates that children should receive 10 minutes of homework per grade level—so a 1st grader would be given 10 ...
These Are the Hours Your Kid Should Be Homeschooling Per Day Based on Their Grade. The pressure to homeschool is at a fever pitch, particularly as more and more states are announcing sweeping ...
A high school boy doing an extra ten hours of homework per school night is unlikely to improve his grades by 15 percentage points. There is a simple explanation for this: doing an extra ten hours ...
The standard homework guideline recommended by the National Parent Teacher Association and the National Education Association is the "10-minute rule" - 10 minutes of nightly homework per grade ...
At grades 1-3, homework should be limited to an hour or less per day, while in grades 4-6, homework should not exceed 90 minutes. The upper limit in grades 7-8 is 2 hours and the limit in high school should be 2.5 hours.
In that poll teens reported spending, on average, more than three hours on homework each school night, with 11th graders spending more time on homework than any other grade level. By contrast ...
Homework can boost learning, but doing too much can be detrimental. The National PTA and National Education Association support the "10-minute homework rule," which recommends 10 minutes of homework per grade level, per night (10 minutes for first grade, 20 minutes for second grade, and so on, up to two hours for 12th grade) (Cooper, 2010).
Cooper supports the influential ten-minute homework rule, which recommends adding ten daily minutes of homework per grade beginning in first grade, up to a maximum of two hours.
hours spent per week doing homework Percentage distribution by how frequently they do homework Percent whose parents 1 check that homework is done Percentage distribution by how frequently their parents 1 help with homework; Less than once per week 1 or 2 days per week 3 or 4 days per week 5 or more ... through grade 8) 96.3 (0.29) 4.7 (0.06) 4 ...
The following chart adapted from the National Education Associations recommendations can be used as a resource for teachers in Kindergarten through the 8 th grade. Grade Level. Recommended Amount of Homework Per Night. Kindergarten. 5 - 15 minutes. 1 st Grade. 10 - 20 minutes. 2 nd Grade. 20 - 30 minutes.
We recommend that your child spend between 45 - 75 minutes per night. Once your child is in highschool, Grade 9 - 12 students usually receive four to five sets of homework per week. According to Figure 2, high school students should focus about 25-30 minutes on each subject. For example, if your child is in Grade 10 and has a Math and ...
The expectation is that students will receive, on average, about 10 minutes of homework per grade level. So a 2nd grader would have 20 minutes of homework and a 6th grader could be expected to have 60 minutes of homework. This is of course on average, and some nights this might be slightly more or less. Some schools have also made a conscious ...
Average hours spent on homework per week and percentage of 9th- through 12th-grade students who did homework outside of school and whose parents checked that homework was done, by frequency of doing homework and race/ethnicity: 2007 ... in 2007, parents reported that about 7 percent of 9th- through 12th-grade students did not do homework ...
We observed a time gap between racial groups, with Asian students spending the most time on homework (nearly two hours a day). Similarly, we observe a time gap by the students' family income.
At a glance. Homework lets kids practice skills, prepares them to learn new things, and expands on ideas introduced in class. Many schools use the "10-minute rule" — that's 10 minutes per grade level. There are ways to help with homework without doing it for your child. Getting kids to do their homework can be a hassle in any household.
After-Hours Fear & Greed Investing ... 10 minutes per grade level per night. That translates into 10 minutes of homework in the first grade, 20 minutes in the second grade, all the way up to 120 ...
Number of students in kindergarten through grade 12 (thousands) Frequency with which student does homework outside of school Mean hours per week spent doing homework 1; Less than once a week 1-2 days per week 3-4 days per week 5 or more days per week Never Child does not have homework; Number (thousands) Percent Number (thousands) Percent ...
This is all new and uncharted, so it's great when resources like this are available for parents to help guide us through. This article was originally published on April 15, 2020. A chart from the Illinois State Board of Education lays out by grade level the minimum and maximum number of hours a child should be homeschooling.