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Review: The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning

(An updated version of this piece is available at this link.)

The End of Homework by Etta Kralovec and John Buell offers a succinct and researched account of why homework does little to actually improve academic performance, and instead hurts a family’s overall well-being. Kralovec and Buell analyze and dissect homework studies over the last few decades, finding that most research supports their claims or, at-best, makes dubious claims on the affects of homework. Although written in 2000, The End of Homework makes arguments that are only strengthened today: homework is discriminatory toward the poor (and the wealth gap has grown), it separates families from their children (and families work longer hours, and homework assigned has increased), and academic results are mixed (and recent studies reflect this.)

At Human Restoration Project , one of the core systemic changes we suggest is the elimination of homework. Throughout this piece, I will include more recent research studies that add to this work. I believe that the adverse affects of homework are so strong that any homework assigned, outside of minor catching up or incredibly niche cases, does more harm than good.

Summarized within The End of Homework , as well as developmental psychologists, sociologists, and educators, are the core reasons why homework is not beneficial:

Homework is Inequitable

In the most practical terms, calls for teachers to assign more homework and for parents to provide a quiet, well-lit place for the child to study must always be considered in the context of the parents’ education, income, available time, and job security. For many of our fellow citizens, jobs have become less secure and less well paid over the course of the last two decades.

Americans work the longest hours of any nation . Individuals in 2006 worked 11 hours longer than their counterparts in 1979. In 2020, 70% of children live in households where both parents work. And the United States is the only country in the industrial world without guaranteed family leave. The results are staggering: 90% of women and 95% of men report work-family conflict . According to the Center for American Progress , “the United States today has the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world due to a long-standing political impasse.”

As a result, parents have much less time to connect with their children. This is not a call to a return to traditional family roles, or even to have stay-at-home parents. Rather, our occupational society is structured inadequately to allow for the use of homework, and Americans must change how labor laws demand their time. For those who work in entry level positions, such as customer service and cashiers, there is an average 240% turnover per year due to lack of pay, poor conditions, work-life balance, and mismanagement. Family incomes continue to decline for lower- and middle-class Americans, leaving more parents to work increased hours or multiple jobs. In other words, parents, especially poor parents, have less opportunities to spend time with their children, let alone foster academic “gains” via homework.

In an effort to increase engagement in homework, teachers have been encouraged to create interesting, creative assignments. Although this has good intentions, rigorous homework with increased complexity places more impetus on parents. As Gary Natrillo, an initial proponent of creative homework, stated later:

‘…not only was homework being assigned as suggested by all the ‘experts,’ but the teacher was obviously taking the homework seriously, making it challenging instead of routine and checking it each day and giving feedback. We were enveloped by the nightmare of near total implementation of the reform recommendations pertaining to homework…More creative homework tasks are a mixed blessing on the receiving end. On the one hand, they, of course, lead to higher engagement and interest for children and their parents. On the other hand, they require one to be well rested, a special condition of mind not often available to working parents…’

Time is a luxury to most Americans. With increased working hours, in conjunction with extreme levels of stress, many Americans don’t have the necessary mindset to adequately supply children with the attention to detail for complex homework. As Kralovec and Buell state,

To put it plainly, I have discovered that after a day at work, the commute home, dinner preparations, and the prospect of baths, goodnight stories, and my own work ahead, there comes a time beyond which I cannot sustain my enthusiasm for the math brain teaser or the creative story task.

Americans are some of the most stressed people in the world. Mass shootings, health care affordability, discrimination, sexual harassment, climate change, the presidential election, and literally: staying informed have caused roughly 70% of people to report moderate or extreme stress , with increased rates for people of color, LGBTQIA Americans, and other discriminated groups. 90% of high schoolers and college students report moderate or higher stress, with half reporting depression and lack of energy and motivation .

Perhaps the solution to academic achievement in America isn’t doubling down on test scores or increasing the work students do at home, but solving the underlying systemic inequities : the economic and discriminatory problems that plague our society? Kralovec and Buell note,

Citing the low test scores of American students has become a favorite cocktail party game. However, some scholars have offered a more nuanced explanation for the poor showing by U.S. students in international academic performance comparisons, suggesting that it may have more to do with high levels of childhood poverty and a lack of support for families in the United States than with low academic standards, shorter school days, and fewer hours spent on homework.

Finland, frequently cited as a model education system, enjoys some of the highest standards of living in the world:

• Finland’s life expectancy is 81.8 years, compare to the US’ 78.7 years and a notable difference exists in the US between rich and poor . Further, America’s life expectancy is declining, the only industrialized country with this statistic .
• Finland’s health care is rated best in the world and only spends $3,078 per capita, compared to $8,047 in the US.
• Finland has virtually no homelessness , compared to 500,000 homeless in the United States .
• Finland has the lowest inequality levels in the EU , compared to the United States with one of the highest inequality levels in the world . Research has demonstrated that countries with lower inequality levels are happier and healthier .

Outside of just convincing you to flat-out move to Finland, these statistics reflect that potentially — instead of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in initiatives to increase national test scores , such as homework strategies, curriculum changes, and nationwide “raising the bar” initiatives — the US should invest in programs that universally help our daily lives, such as universal healthcare and housing. The solution to test scores is rooted in solving America’s underlying inequitable society — shining a light on our core issues — rather than making teachers solve all of our community’s problems.

But Wait, Despite All This…Does Homework Even Work!?

‘Extensive classroom research of ‘time on task’ and international comparisons of year-round time for study suggest that additional homework might promote U.S. students’ achievement.’ This written statement by some of the top professionals in the field of homework research raises some difficult questions. More homework might promote student achievement? Are all our blood, sweat, and tears at the kitchen table over homework based on something that merely might be true? Our belief in the value of homework is akin to faith. We assume that it fosters a love of learning, better study habits, improved attitudes toward school, and greater self-discipline; we believe that better teachers assign more homework and that one sign of a good school is a good, enforced homework policy.

Numerous studies of homework reflect an inconsistent result. Not only does homework rarely demonstrate large, if any, academic gains for testing, there are many negative impacts on the family that are often ignored.

• Countries that assigned the least amount of homework: Denmark, Czech Republic, had higher test scores than those with the most amount of homework: Iran, Thailand .
• Quality of instruction, motivation, and ability are all correlated with student success in school. Yet homework may be marginal or counterproductive .
• Of all homework assigned, homework only saw marginal increases in math and science standardized testing , and had no bearing on grades.
• Homework added pressure and societal stress to those who already experienced the same at home , causing a further divide in academic performance (due to lack of time and financial stress.)

By bringing schoolwork home, the well-intentioned belief of promoting equity through high standards has the adverse affect of causing further inequity. Private and preparatory schools are notorious for extreme levels of homework assignment . Yet, many progressive schools assign no homework and achieve the same levels of college and career success . Again, the biggest predictor of college success has nothing to do with rigorous preparation, and everything to do with family income levels. 77% of students from high income families graduated from a highly competitive college, whereas 9% of students from low income families did the same .

School curriculum obsession in homework is likely rooted in studies that demonstrate increased test scores as a result of assigned homework. The End of Homework deciphers this phenomena:

Cooper’s work provides us with one more example of a problem that routinely bedevils all the sciences: the relationship between correlation and causality. If A and B happen simultaneously, we do not know whether A causes B or B causes A, or whether both phenomena occur casually together or are individually determined by another set of variables…Thus far, most studies in this area have amounted to little more than crude correlations that cannot justify the sweeping conclusions some have derived from them.

If other countries demonstrate educational success (albeit measured through standardized testing) with little to no assigned homework and limited school hours , shouldn’t we take a step back and analyze the system as a whole, rather than figure out better homework schemes?

A Reflection of Neoliberal Society

According to New York State’s Teacher of the Year in 1990:

‘[Schools] separate parents and children from vital interaction with each other and from true curiosity about each other’s lives. Schools stifle family originality by appropriating the critical time needed for any sound idea of family to develop — then they blame the family for its family to be a family. It’s like a malicious person lifting a photograph from the developing chemicals too early, then pronouncing the photographer incompetent.’

Education often equates learning with work. I have to stop myself from behaving like an economics analysist: telling students to quit “wasting time”, stating that the purpose of the lesson is useful for future earnings, seeing everything as prep for college and career (and college is ultimately just for more earnings in a career), and making blanket assumptions that those who aren’t motivated will ultimately never contribute to society, taking on “low levels” of work that “aren’t as important” as other positions.

Since the nineteenth century, developmental psychology has been moving away from the notion that children are nothing more or less than miniature adults. In suggesting that children need to learn to deal with adult levels of pressure, we risk doing them untold damage. By this logic, the schoolyard shootings of recent years may be likened to ‘disgruntled employee’ rampages.

This mentality is unhealthy and unjust. The purpose of education should be to develop purpose. People live happier and healthier lives as a result of pursuing and developing a core purpose. Some people’s purpose is related to their line of work, but there is not necessarily a connection. However, the primary goal stated by districts, states, and the national government of the education system is to make “productive members of society.” When we double down on economic principles to raise complex individuals, it’s no wonder we’re seeing such horrific statistics related to childhood .

Further, the consistent pressure to produce for economic gain raises generations of young people to believe that wealth is a measurement of success and that specific lines of work create happiness. Teachers and parents are told to make their children “work hard” for future success and develop “grit.” Although grit is an important indicator of overcoming obstacles , it is not developed by enforcing grit through authoritarian classrooms or meaningless, long tasks . In fact, an argument could be made that many Americans accept their dramatically poor work-life balance and lack of access to needs such as affordable health care by being brought up in a society that rewards neoliberal tendencies of “working through it” to “eventually achieve happiness.”

Kralovec and Buell state,

Many of us would question whether our fighting with our children for twelve years about homework could possibly foster good habits. In contrast, participating in the decisions of the household and collaborating with others on common chores, from cooking to cleaning to doing routine repairs, are important life skills that also require good work habits. For many children, these habits are never learned because homework gets in the way of that work.

Americans have more difficulty than ever raising children, with increasing demands of time and rising childcare costs . Children often need to “pick up the slack” and help taking care of the home. In fact, children with chores show completely positive universal growth across the board . When teachers provide more and more homework, they take away from the parents’ ability to structure their household according to their needs. As written in The End of Homework ,

Most of us find we do not have enough time with our children to teach them these things; our ‘teaching’ time is instead taken up with school-mandated subjects. We often wonder if we wouldn’t have less tension in our society over prayer in schools if our children had more time for religious instruction at home and for participation in church activities. When school is the virtually exclusive center of the child’s educational and even moral universe, it is not surprising that so many parents should find school agendas (with which they may or may not agree) a threat to their very authority and identity.

Of course, this is not to say that it is all the teacher’s fault. Educators face immense pressure to carry out governmental/school policies that place test scores at the forefront. Many of these policies require homework , and an educator’s future employment is centered on enacting these changes:

As more academic demands are placed on teachers, homework can help lengthen the school day and thus ensure ‘coverage’ — that is, the completion of the full curriculum that each teacher is supposed to cover during the school year…This in itself places pressure on teachers to create meaningful homework and often to assign large amounts of it so that the students’ parents will think the teacher is rigorous and the school has high academic standards. Extensive homework is frequently linked in our minds to high standards.

Therefore, there’s a connection to be made between “work”-life balance of children and the people who are tasked with teaching them. 8% of the teacher workforce leaves every year , many concerned with work-life balance . Perhaps teachers see an increased desire to “work” students in their class and at home due to the pressures they face in their own occupation?

We have little opportunity to enjoy recreation, community events, local politics, or family life. Our diminished possibilities in this regard in turn reinforce our reliance on wages and the workplace. And even the family time that remains after the demands of work and commuting are met is increasingly structured by the requirements of the workplace and school.

The more we equate work with learning, and the more we accept a school’s primary purpose to prepare workers, the less we actually succeed at promoting academics. Instead, we bolster the neoliberal tendencies of the United States to work hard, yet comparably to other countries’ lifestyle gains, achieve little. The United States must examine the underlying inequities of peoples’ lives, rather than focus on increasing schools’ workloads and lessening children’s free time for mythical academic gains that lead to little change. Teacher preparation programs and popular authors need to stop promoting “ interesting and fun ways to teach ‘x’! ” and propose systemic changes that radically change the way education is done, including systemic changes to society at large. Only then will the United States actually see improved livelihoods and a better education system for all.

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And I think another thing, in terms of academics in the classroom, the value of going into a class and walking out of it, maybe tired, like, "Oh, that was a lot of work." But feeling like you really took something from it, like an accomplishment, like you literally just built something in your brain, like a new piece of knowledge, it's like, "Oh, yes." It's satisfying. It's an achievement.

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Jay Caspian Kang

The movement to end homework is wrong.

By Jay Caspian Kang

Opinion Writer

Do students really need to do their homework?

As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?”

I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.”

The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Put a bit more simply: The quality of students’ homework production is linked to their socioeconomic status. This alone doesn’t seem particularly controversial. As I’ve discussed in this newsletter, many measures of academic achievement wind up being linked to wealth. The authors go on to argue that since this is the case, teachers should “interpret differences in students’ homework production through a structural inequalities frame.” What they have found, however, is that teachers don’t think of homework this way. Instead, they tend to rely on the “myth of meritocracy” to explain “homework inequalities.”

Calarco, Horn and Chen are all respected scholars at top-tier universities. Their paper was published in Educational Researcher, a journal of the American Educational Research Association, one of the pre-eminent research organizations in the education space. Homework reduction, or abolition, is part of an emerging educational movement. And while the authors acknowledge that eliminating homework would be difficult in the short term, given how rooted it is in American pedagogy, I imagine that many public schools over the next decade or so will start to de-emphasize homework as these ideas start to make their way to school boards and curriculum writers.

Trying to assess the value of homework, reduce it or at least make less of it busywork might very well be a useful endeavor. But Calarco, Horn and Chen are questioning something much more fundamental to the American educational system than homework. Whether they intend to or not, they are, in effect, reframing the purpose of schooling itself. Is school a place where a select group of children can distinguish themselves from their peers through diligence, talent and the pursuit of upward mobility? Is it a place where everyone should have equal access to learning and opportunity, whatever that might mean? And are these two ideals mutually exclusive?

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The end of homework : how homework disrupts families, overburdens children, and limits learning

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The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children and Limits Learning Hardcover – 17 July 2000

• ISBN-10 0807042188
• ISBN-13 978-0807042182
• Publisher Beacon Press
• Publication date 17 July 2000
• Language English
• Dimensions 13.97 x 1.27 x 21.59 cm
• Print length 192 pages
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press (17 July 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807042188
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807042182
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 1.27 x 21.59 cm
• 3,966 in Study & Learning Skills for Educational Students
• 4,040 in Educational Psychology

About the author

Etta kralovec.

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The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning Tapa blanda – 1 Agosto 2001

• Número de páginas 136 páginas
• Idioma Inglés
• Fecha de publicación 1 Agosto 2001
• Dimensiones 5.5 x 0.33 x 8.5 pulgadas
• ISBN-10 0807042196
• ISBN-13 978-0807042199
• Ver todos los detalles

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Biografía del autor, extracto. © reimpreso con autorización. reservados todos los derechos., the end of homework, beacon press.

    Our hope is that by asking readers to contemplate the connectionsbetween such seemingly disparate topics as hours at work,the global economy, homework, and the quality of family life, wemay initiate a broadly democratic discussion of some of our mostfundamental practices and the ways in which they do or do notserve our best interests. If there is one thing we are sure about, it isthis: homework has not always played the same role in Americanlife, and the demands we make of our children often reflect theworst as well as the best in ourselves. Continues... Excerpted from The End of Homework by Etta Kralovec Copyright © 2001 by Etta Kralovec. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Detalles del producto

• Editorial ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press (1 Agosto 2001)
• Idioma ‏ : ‎ Inglés
• Tapa blanda ‏ : ‎ 136 páginas
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807042196
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807042199
• Dimensiones ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.33 x 8.5 pulgadas
• nº3,049 en Libros de Currículos
• nº20,696 en Libros de Trabajo Educativos
• nº21,679 en Métodos de Enseñanza

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• Corpus ID: 142679124

The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning

• E. Kralovec , John Buell
• Published 1 July 2000

142 Citations

In search of the epiphany of homework assignments: a model of evaluating local schools' homework practices., the homework pendulum: teachers’ perspectives on the costs and benefits of assigning homework.

• Highly Influenced

Are We Seeing the End of Homework?

Does homework deliver academic benefits or just create added stress? Educators have been mulling that question for decades.

Jeff Nilsson

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Generations of children have shared a dream that might be realized in our lifetime: Homework might be abolished.

At present, homework, which author Alfie Kohn, author of “The Case Against Homework,” describes as second shift work for schoolchildren, is entrenched in our education system. According to one study from 2016, 95 percent of grade school children and just over 91 percent of high school students report they have homework.

How much? Grade schools like to follow the “ 10-minute rule ”— 10 minutes for each grade level the student has passed. High school students took home an average of 7.5 hours of assignments every week. Students generally accept homework as a necessary part of their schooling (77 percent say homework is “important” or “very important”).

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However, when students were asked what they considered a primary source of stress in learning, 56 percent said “homework.” Homework was viewed as a primary stressor more than taking tests or trying to get good grades.

But educators wouldn’t assign it if it didn’t serve a good purpose. Teachers give several reasons for handing out at-home assignments, including developing students’ critical thinking, assessing their skills and knowledge, and motivating them to learn. The most popular response was “helping students practice skills or to prepare for tests.” But studies haven’t proven it’s useful for these goals. A complicating factor is that there are too many variables to prove that it’s homework, specifically, that delivers academic benefits.

In addition to teachers, parents often are strong proponents of homework. Eighty percent of parents say they think homework is important. When schools and teachers have chosen not to assign homework, moms and dads grow concerned about their children’s future and insist they bring homework back. They believe kids need the challenge of homework to be successful and prepared for college and career.

Critics of homework have their own arguments. None is more effective than the fact that homework can’t be proven to be helpful. In elementary school, according to Kohn, no correlation has been found between homework and test scores. In high school, it appears to provide only a slight benefit.

Moreover, a study of schools in 47 countries found that school systems that assigned the least amount of homework (Denmark and Czech Republic) had much higher test scores than countries with the most homework assigned (Iran and Thailand).

A study of 28,000 high school seniors found three things correlated to academic success: quality of instruction, motivation, and ability. Homework’s contribution was marginal and sometimes led to more academic problems that it solved. So, we’ve come to a point where educators are considering the idea of homework-free schooling.

Schools have tried to go homework-free in past generations. In 1901, California banned homework for students 14 years and younger. The ban remained in effect until 1917. In the 1930s, the American Child Health Association branded homework as a form of child labor, which had recently been outlawed for many industries. Over the next several decades, the amounts of homework given to students declined.

Some teachers complained about this trend toward little homework. In the pages of the February 1, 1941, issue of The Saturday Evening Post , one grumbled that if the teacher assigns a reasonable amount of good hard homework, it would be met by a “storm of protests from the parents.” They would rather have Johnny spend his free time enjoying wholesome recreation.

But then, in 1957, Russia launched the first man-made satellite into space. Americans knew the Soviets already had an atomic bomb. Now they were winning the space race. Here was proof that the country was falling behind at the height of the Cold War.

To regain the technical lead, we needed smarter Americans, which meant more rigorous curricula. Congress passed a billion-dollar package to improve teaching of science, math, and foreign languages. A return to homework was part of the plan. Homework once again increased.

An article in May 14, 1960, issue of The Saturday Evening Post objected to the increased homework trend, saying that “certain schools have answered the challenge of Sputnik with busy work — meaning more history dates to memorize, more arithmetic problems to copy at home. It is homework hysteria. Often it is unplanned and gives students impossible loads of work one night and little the next. Busywork bores the bright student—and overwhelms the average.”

But a few months later, the Post had changed its tune. An in-depth article in the December 24, 1960, issue called “U.S. Schools: Not the Best, But Not So Bad” compared American schools to the curricula from other countries; in addition to little homework, the article fretted over the effects of TV, telephones, and teachers. It concluded with a six-point plan, the first point being “lengthen our school year and increase the amount of homework required.”

Eventually, the enthusiasm for homework flagged, and in the more casual climate of the late 1960s, homework loads grew lighter. The head of California’s Bureau of Elementary Education said no teacher aware of modern methods would assign such meaningless homework as repetitive arithmetic problems. Such an assignment, she said, kills time and “kills the child’s creative urge to intellectual activity.”

There was another attempt to revive homework in the ’80s. A National Commission on Excellence in Education reported on the cold-war dangers confronting America that arose from low-quality education in “ A Nation At Risk ” (1983). The Commission concluded “homework is good and more is better.” Ten years after “A Nation at Risk” was published, it was reported that “more homework has been required in 27 percent of high schools, 30 percent of middle schools, and 32 percent of elementary schools. Thus, while some progress has been made, there is still a long way to go.”

But the Cold War ended, and the national drive for quality in education trailed off.

Yet current studies show a majority of schools are still handing out at-home assignments. And while there is little agreement between proponents and critics of homework, there’s general agreement that homework shows little benefit at the grade school level.

But the desire to assign homework persists. There’s a belief that homework develops a child’s self-discipline. It teaches them good work habits, responsibility, and independence. After all, parents might say, that’s how they acquired those virtues. But whether or not that is the case is unresolved. One thing we know to be true is that parents, politicians, and educators will insist on assigning it, and students will complain, procrastinate, and eventually suffer through it.

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As a former teacher of language arts, I found homework beneficial for my students, particularly for reading. For those who struggled decoding words even on a middle school level, reading together in class and discussing the material made it easier for students of all levels to respond to questions. In addition, assigning responses for homework allowed students to reflect and compose a better answer than if they were hurried to do so in class. For those who really need time to gather thoughts for writing, this gave them the time needed without feeling like they were always the last ones done. I found the answers to critical thinking questions to have more elaboration.

I think homework for high-school and middle school has merrits but it also has burdens. High school students need to be capable of reading novels and longer pieces of literature outside school as well as write longer papers. These skills are a must for further education and jobs.

A good balanced article on the issue of homework. Ditto Bob’s comments.

As a Substitute Teacher for a local rural school district I can see the trend that homework is becoming less and less, especially among those teachers age 35 and under. Oddly enough, I notice the best teachers are those over the age 40 and often with tenure. BTW, since we are in a small rural district, the goons of NEA (National Education Association) are not a factor which is a plus for both students and parents. Bad teachers usually last no more than two years and when they’re fired, they’re outta here!

Yes, homework (pro and con) remains a riddle to this day with almost as many variables as there are students. What’s too much for one, might be fine for another. My own thoughts would ideally be the teacher having the ability to assess each student individually, and have the homework tailored to their specific needs. Basically focusing on the subject they may be weak in, spending more time to be stronger in grasping and understanding it as to not fall behind.

Some students would have math homework on a given day, others history, geography, science, etc. If it’s the day before a history test, the teacher can go over everything that will be on the test the next day with the students taking notes, then the homework for that afternoon/evening would focus on that. Optional open book tests are good for students not wired to memorize as such.

Engaging with the books is a positive thing. If the student isn’t sure of an answer, they can go into whichever chapter and find it. There’s that “I found the answer!” moment which is very positive. For students that want to keep the book closed, that’s their choice. Sufficient time should be given to accommodate the majority.

So homework should be about learning and not regurgitating for taking tests. There is some crossover, of course. That’s the tricky part that still hasn’t changed much since the 19th century. Striking that elusive balance of time and learning. Are we seeing the end of homework? Possibly, but probably not.

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The end of homework? Why some schools are banning homework

Fed up with the tension over homework, some schools are opting out altogether.

No-homework policies are popping up all over, including schools in the U.S., where the shift to the Common Core curriculum is prompting educators to rethink how students spend their time.

“Homework really is a black hole,” said Etta Kralovec, an associate professor of teacher education at the University of Arizona South and co-author of “The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning.”

“I think teachers are going to be increasingly interested in having total control over student learning during the class day and not relying on homework as any kind of activity that’s going to support student learning.”

College de Saint-Ambroise, an elementary school in Quebec, is the latest school to ban homework, announcing this week that it would try the new policy for a year. The decision came after officials found that it was “becoming more and more difficult” for children to devote time to all the assignments they were bringing home, Marie-Ève Desrosiers, a spokeswoman with the Jonquière School Board, told the CBC .

Kralovec called the ban on homework a movement, though she estimated just a small handful of schools in the U.S. have such policies.

Gaithersburg Elementary School in Rockville, Maryland, is one of them, eliminating the traditional concept of homework in 2012. The policy is still in place and working fine, Principal Stephanie Brant told TODAY Parents. The school simply asks that students read 30 minutes each night.

“We felt like with the shift to the Common Core curriculum, and our knowledge of how our students need to think differently… we wanted their time to be spent in meaningful ways,” Brant said.

“We’re constantly asking parents for feedback… and everyone’s really happy with it so far. But it’s really a culture shift.”

It was a decision that was best for her community, Brant said, adding that she often gets phone calls from other principals inquiring how it’s working out.

The VanDamme Academy, a private K-8 school in Aliso Viejo, California, has a similar policy , calling homework “largely pointless.”

The Buffalo Academy of Scholars, a private school in Buffalo, New York, touts that it has called “a truce in the homework battle” and promises that families can “enjoy stress-free, homework-free evenings and more quality time together at home.”

Some schools have taken yet another approach. At Ridgewood High School in Norridge, Illinois, teachers do assign homework but it doesn’t count towards a student’s final grade.

Many schools in the U.S. have toyed with the idea of opting out of homework, but end up changing nothing because it is such a contentious issue among parents, Kralovec noted.

“There’s a huge philosophical divide between parents who want their kids to be very scheduled, very driven, and very ambitiously focused at school -- those parents want their kids to do homework,” she said.

“And then there are the parents who want a more child-centered life with their kids, who want their kids to be able to explore different aspects of themselves, who think their kids should have free time.”

So what’s the right amount of time to spend on homework?

National PTA spokeswoman Heidi May pointed to the organization’s “ 10 minute rule ,” which recommends kids spend about 10 minutes on homework per night for every year they’re in school. That would mean 10 minutes for a first-grader and an hour for a child in the sixth grade.

But many parents say their kids must spend much longer on their assignments. Last year, a New York dad tried to do his eight-grader’s homework for a week and it took him at least three hours on most nights.

More than 80 percent of respondents in a TODAY.com poll complained kids have too much homework. For homework critics like Kralovec, who said research shows homework has little value at the elementary and middle school level, the issue is simple.

“Kids are at school 7 or 8 hours a day, that’s a full working day and why should they have to take work home?” she asked.

Follow A. Pawlowski on Google+ and Twitter .

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The End of Homework

How homework disrupts families, overburdens children, and limits learning.

• Description
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• In 1901, homework was legally banned in parts of the U.S. There are no studies showing that assigning homework before junior high school improves academic achievement.
• Increasingly, students and their parents are told that homework must take precedence over music lessons, religious education, and family and community activities. As the homework load increases (and studies show it is increasing) these family priorities are neglected.
• Homework is a great discriminator, effectively allowing students whose families “have” to surge ahead of their classmates who may have less.
• Backpacks are literally bone-crushing, sometimes weighing as much as the child. Isn’t it obvious we’re overburdening our kids?

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