Broward County School board voted to limit homework for students. The new policy urges teachers to assign academically relevant homework while remaining conscious of assigning too much homework.
The school board set limits of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Read the full article here. The policy also requires teachers to provide "timely and appropriate" feedback. I can see where the feedback would be very beneficial. How do you feel about limiting homework?
Read the specific homework plan here.
13 comments:
As a 4th grade teacher, I give homework approx. 4 nights a week. The homework is relevant to the concepts learned that day. I have had parents tell me that I do not give enough homework while a select few have expressed a concern because "it took Johnny 2 hours to complete his homework last night." Setting a specific time limit per grade doesn't take into consideration that some students cannot remain on task.
I think limiting homework through legislation is a good thing. After all, it reflects real life situations such as how one will be treated to homework in college or how much work someone takes home. Think about it, your college professors are very concerned about not overwhelming students after class. Your future boss will be ever so considerate not to over burden you with work after five. Anyone who has ever been to college or had a job knows neither of these is true. Therefore, what are we preparing students for when they grow up?
Are we teaching students about real life or are we coddling them into overprotection? Do we show students a way of life they will only receive in school or do we prepare them for what they will encounter in the work a day world? We already let them get away with far too much misbehavior in class. Now, we want to coddle them even more after class. Leave homework to the purview teachers and stop constraining them from doing their jobs of teaching students about real life.
I think homework limits are definitely needed in elementary school. However, as children mature, expectaions need to as well, to prepare them for the rigors of higher education. I'm all for "letting the teacher teach", but some teachers really need guidelines. The dedicated teachers will recognize that any efforts in this area are aimed at the students' well being, and will embrace them.
My first reaction to this question is to discern why is this now a concern of the Board.
The current HCPS handbook already has this:
Homework
A student has the right to:
meaningful and relevant homework activity that reinforces school learning;
homework that matches their individual abilities and interests to ensure the facilitation of independent, successful completion;
homework that includes varied activities which reinforce the basic skills or extend and enrich concepts learned;
homework that does not introduce new concepts;
assignments that are made according to individual student needs and abilities;
regular feedback to include parents regarding assignments. Parents should be notified when a student routinely does not complete homework.
Homework assignments:
should not be punitive in nature;
should not require students to have specific resources such as internet access;
assignments should be coordinated among team members so as not to exceed the recommended amount of time devoted to homework;
should not exceed a total of fifteen to twenty minutes per night for Kindergarten, a total of thirty minutes per night for students in Grades 1, 2, 3, and forty-five minutes per night in Grades 4 and 5. It is recommended that homework not be assigned on Fridays with special consideration given around testing and holidays;
appropriate completion of homework assignments will be reflected in the Expected Behaviors section of the K-5 Report Card.
A short research provides this:
Current Issues in Education: Volume 6 Number 4: "How School Troubles Come Home: The Impact of Homework on Families of Struggling Learners
Curt Dudley-Marling
Boston College"
"In general, the presence of homework had a disruptive effect on the lives of these families, reducing the time available for family activities and diminishing the quality of family interactions. In these families, homework was a carrier for school troubles, a means by which "school troubles" were transformed into "family troubles."
vs
2003 Brown Center Report on American Education - Brookings Institution:
"After examining several different sources of data on the topic, the study concludes that virtually no evidence exists that homework has increased in recent years, nor that the homework load has become—or ever was—overwhelming. The stories of children laboring under onerous amounts of homework appear to feature a small proportion of children who, though their predicaments are real, are not typical."
The results of these two articles is consistent with a common occurence that "research supports the hypothesis" rather than due diligence to empirical studies.
So, I remain with my original question. Why now and where is the concern coming from?
If the limit to homework policy were to NOT have a teacher component it might not be a bad idea. Too many times students complain that they spent 4 hours on an assignment while they were: watching TV, texting friends, IMing friends, surfing the "net," making cell phone calls, going out for "a while," playing a video game, working out that they didn't learn anything from the assignment anyway, so they just copied it, because the "teacher didn't teach it to me anyway and probably won't grade it."
The value of homework is in practicing lessons learned and learning what needs to be asked next. To punish teachers for not giving prompt feedback is stupid. There are way too many types of homework to put just one description in the handbook. If the student takes the lesson to heart and practices what has been taught, the the homework does not need a red/blue/green star put on it, the value is where it is supposed to be, in the mind and heart of the student.
This just sounds like one more "let's get the lazy teachers out" routine. I would like to see another group of "professionals" work as many hours as teachers with as many distractors and rules for the same pay.
I think its a great idea! I dont assign homework because
1. Most kids don't do it
2. Teacher don't have the time to grade it?
3. We cant grade a kid down if they don't do it and even good kids resent that. Dont let them tell you this is not true. If a teachers students overall GPA is too low, that teacher will get marked down in their evaluation. We not-so-subtly encouraged to give them grades they don't deserve to keep the heat off us.
Next week I turn in my paperwork to take personal leave. My principal thoughtfully gave me the document to begin the process when she threatened me with a poor evaluation for being sick 25.5 days this year. 16 years of exemplary service to the school district and I get threatened because I got sick. I hope she is treated with more compassion when she gets sick.
She told me that Mr. Dan Valdez told an assembly of teachers at a "brown bag" meeting to "hold teachers feet to the fire". Mind you it is students whose feet need to be held to the fire but they cant blame students and parents.
Hey..I get it, my feet are hot and I am out of here.
Nothing I wrote here is untrue and
If they try to retaliate against me I will scream bloody murder and sue them.
Good luck Ms. Griffin. The Emperor wears no clothes, Soon it will be all to clear to all.
Kids need homework, and they need to be held accountable for doing it. For the kids who don't have a decent environment to do homework in, there should be a place for them to do it - local branch of the library, local church, community center, and so forth with community volunteers to help out.
Voting to limit homework is just another way of wimping out instead of doing your actual job. And anoynmous 9:47, ask that parent if it took Johnny 2 hours to complete his homework because he had the TV on or was IM'ing his friends or was dragging his feet because he was pouting at having to postpone something more fun.
This probably isn't the place but, I believe it is the time. April, and other school board members, will you accept the challenge to cut your pay by 10% until we are out of this "situation?" Perhaps the leadership at SDHC could "lead" by taking a 10% cut in pay if they are already making over $100k. As I have said before, I think I could still pay my basic bills on $90K or more and this would be much better than putting a custodian or 1st year teacher out in the cold.
Too much homework is a symptom of poor teaching. And I don't mean that teachers can't make kids learn, so it takes more homework.
What I do mean is that there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what homework is. Why do we give completion grades? What do they do to help a kid learn? The kids writes ANYTHING on the page and we give them credit. As a result, grades don't measure mastery of content, but they measure work ethic.
Work ethic IS important, but not what grades measure. Teachers need to remember that they need to give assessments (tests, projects or otherwise) that measure the student's mastery of the subject.
But teachers don't know how to assess in this fashion. More training on assessment, and the assessment process would help teachers hone their skills in assessment and take the focus off of homework as a method to create grades.
This is what Professional Study Day is for. We have lots of cutesy little sessions, but none that really get into the science of teaching.
April - Thank you for all that you do ! This request is off topic. Could you please explain the "pool" procedures. My principal says he is not sure if I can volunteer to go into the pool or not. Does not know who I should email or call. But, told me to put my intentions in writing which I did. And acts like he wants me to leave. I plan on moving anyway due to a "landlord/forclosure" issue. Transfering is not a simple as it sounds because I plan to move to the other side of the county. I would have to take half days off to interview. Please advise. Thank you!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT SPRINGBOARD? The Tampa Trib just did another article and there are about 50+ posts online against it!
April, please help us! This isn't right!
Should we do away with football practice? Baseball practice? Marching practice? Music practice? Dance practice.
The skills I learned required practice...even social skills. We practice for interviews, auditions, and everything we care about! It's not always fun and sometimes downright embarrassing.
Homework is practice. There should be enough for review and reinforcement. It should be purposeful and support specific and measurable skill acquisition.
It should be counted. I prefer in a testing situation - just like a game or concert.
I am a student at Middleton High School. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I like the concept of homework. I'm on math team, and I do a practice test every night. It helps my scores in competition. If we had decent homework - stuff that actually made us think - I would do it. Because all we have are these mindless worksheets and pointless exercises, I don't do my homework. I get A's on tests and quizzes, so it doesn't matter so much to me. It's not that there's too much of a good thing, but, rather, too much repetition disguised as a good thing.
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