A recent survey makes it seem that most parents, teachers, and students are on board for homework and don't feel overwhelmed. More than 1,000 teachers, 501 parents, and 2,101 K-12 students participated in the online survey.
Most of the time I found that the kids who consistently turned in quality homework assignments were the ones who also worked hard in class. Homework assignments should reinforce classroom instruction, but a lot of kids choose not to do homework. Usually, they are the ones that would benefit most from the work.
A perennial parade of authors, newspaper stories, and parents have raised questions over whether the nation’s schoolchildren are doing too much homework, or doing it at too young an age, and whether too much of it is busywork.
In contrast, the MetLife poll
uncovered widespread support for the practice among teachers, parents, and students. According to the survey, 77 percent of students and more than 80 percent of teachers and parents say homework is important or very important.
Overall, the survey found, three-quarters of students say they do at least 30 minutes of homework on a typical school day, and 45 percent spend an hour or more cracking the books each weeknight.
That’s slightly less time, though, than their teachers spend on homework-related work. Teachers said they spend an average of 8.5 hours per week preparing or grading homework.
Most of the parents I know would laugh at the 30 minutes to an hour amount of nightly homework reported in the survey. I know families that struggle with hours and hours of nightly homework, and parents are worried that their children aren't getting enough sleep. The pressure of standardized testing only makes the situation worse since a lot of the homework is review for test preparation.
I hope that the results of this survey are taken with a grain of salt. I think I'll go with something a bit stronger.