how many students think homework is a waste of time

11 Surprising Homework Statistics, Facts & Data

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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The age-old question of whether homework is good or bad for students is unanswerable because there are so many “ it depends ” factors.

For example, it depends on the age of the child, the type of homework being assigned, and even the child’s needs.

There are also many conflicting reports on whether homework is good or bad. This is a topic that largely relies on data interpretation for the researcher to come to their conclusions.

To cut through some of the fog, below I’ve outlined some great homework statistics that can help us understand the effects of homework on children.

Homework Statistics List

1. 45% of parents think homework is too easy for their children.

A study by the Center for American Progress found that parents are almost twice as likely to believe their children’s homework is too easy than to disagree with that statement.

Here are the figures for math homework:

• 46% of parents think their child’s math homework is too easy.
• 25% of parents think their child’s math homework is not too easy.
• 29% of parents offered no opinion.

Here are the figures for language arts homework:

• 44% of parents think their child’s language arts homework is too easy.
• 28% of parents think their child’s language arts homework is not too easy.
• 28% of parents offered no opinion.

These findings are based on online surveys of 372 parents of school-aged children conducted in 2018.

2. 93% of Fourth Grade Children Worldwide are Assigned Homework

The prestigious worldwide math assessment Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) took a survey of worldwide homework trends in 2007. Their study concluded that 93% of fourth-grade children are regularly assigned homework, while just 7% never or rarely have homework assigned.

3. 17% of Teens Regularly Miss Homework due to Lack of High-Speed Internet Access

A 2018 Pew Research poll of 743 US teens found that 17%, or almost 2 in every 5 students, regularly struggled to complete homework because they didn’t have reliable access to the internet.

This figure rose to 25% of Black American teens and 24% of teens whose families have an income of less than $30,000 per year.

4. Parents Spend 6.7 Hours Per Week on their Children’s Homework

A 2018 study of 27,500 parents around the world found that the average amount of time parents spend on homework with their child is 6.7 hours per week. Furthermore, 25% of parents spend more than 7 hours per week on their child’s homework.

American parents spend slightly below average at 6.2 hours per week, while Indian parents spend 12 hours per week and Japanese parents spend 2.6 hours per week.

5. Students in High-Performing High Schools Spend on Average 3.1 Hours per night Doing Homework

A study by Galloway, Conner & Pope (2013) conducted a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California. 

Across these high-performing schools, students self-reported that they did 3.1 hours per night of homework.

Graduates from those schools also ended up going on to college 93% of the time.

6. One to Two Hours is the Optimal Duration for Homework

A 2012 peer-reviewed study in the High School Journal found that students who conducted between one and two hours achieved higher results in tests than any other group.

However, the authors were quick to highlight that this “t is an oversimplification of a much more complex problem.” I’m inclined to agree. The greater variable is likely the quality of the homework than time spent on it.

Nevertheless, one result was unequivocal: that some homework is better than none at all : “students who complete any amount of homework earn higher test scores than their peers who do not complete homework.”

7. 74% of Teens cite Homework as a Source of Stress

A study by the Better Sleep Council found that homework is a source of stress for 74% of students. Only school grades, at 75%, rated higher in the study.

That figure rises for girls, with 80% of girls citing homework as a source of stress.

Similarly, the study by Galloway, Conner & Pope (2013) found that 56% of students cite homework as a “primary stressor” in their lives.

8. US Teens Spend more than 15 Hours per Week on Homework

The same study by the Better Sleep Council also found that US teens spend over 2 hours per school night on homework, and overall this added up to over 15 hours per week.

Surprisingly, 4% of US teens say they do more than 6 hours of homework per night. That’s almost as much homework as there are hours in the school day.

The only activity that teens self-reported as doing more than homework was engaging in electronics, which included using phones, playing video games, and watching TV.

9. The 10-Minute Rule

The National Education Association (USA) endorses the concept of doing 10 minutes of homework per night per grade.

For example, if you are in 3rd grade, you should do 30 minutes of homework per night. If you are in 4th grade, you should do 40 minutes of homework per night.

However, this ‘rule’ appears not to be based in sound research. Nevertheless, it is true that homework benefits (no matter the quality of the homework) will likely wane after 2 hours (120 minutes) per night, which would be the NEA guidelines’ peak in grade 12.

10. 21.9% of Parents are Too Busy for their Children’s Homework

An online poll of nearly 300 parents found that 21.9% are too busy to review their children’s homework. On top of this, 31.6% of parents do not look at their children’s homework because their children do not want their help. For these parents, their children’s unwillingness to accept their support is a key source of frustration.

11. 46.5% of Parents find Homework too Hard

The same online poll of parents of children from grades 1 to 12 also found that many parents struggle to help their children with homework because parents find it confusing themselves. Unfortunately, the study did not ask the age of the students so more data is required here to get a full picture of the issue.

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Interpreting the Data

Unfortunately, homework is one of those topics that can be interpreted by different people pursuing differing agendas. All studies of homework have a wide range of variables, such as:

• What age were the children in the study?
• What was the homework they were assigned?
• What tools were available to them?
• What were the cultural attitudes to homework and how did they impact the study?
• Is the study replicable?

The more questions we ask about the data, the more we realize that it’s hard to come to firm conclusions about the pros and cons of homework .

Furthermore, questions about the opportunity cost of homework remain. Even if homework is good for children’s test scores, is it worthwhile if the children consequently do less exercise or experience more stress?

Thus, this ends up becoming a largely qualitative exercise. If parents and teachers zoom in on an individual child’s needs, they’ll be able to more effectively understand how much homework a child needs as well as the type of homework they should be assigned.

Related: Funny Homework Excuses

The debate over whether homework should be banned will not be resolved with these homework statistics. But, these facts and figures can help you to pursue a position in a school debate on the topic – and with that, I hope your debate goes well and you develop some great debating skills!

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Is Homework a Waste of Students’ Time? Study Finds It’s the Biggest Cause of Teen Stress

It’s the bane of every teen’s existence. After sitting through hours at school, they leave only to get started on mountains of homework. And educators are mixed on its effectiveness . Some say the practice reinforces what students learned during the day, while others argue that it put unnecessary stress on kids and parents , who are often stuck nagging or helping.

According to a new study, conducted by the Better Sleep Council , that homework stress is the biggest source of frustration for teens, with 74 percent of those surveyed ranking it the highest, above self-esteem (51 percent) parental expectations (45 percent) and bullying (15 percent).

Homework is taking up a large chunk of their time , too — around 15-plus hours a week, with about one-third of teens reporting that it’s closer to 20-plus hours.

The stress and excessive homework adds up to lost sleep , the BSC says. According to the survey, 57 percent of teenagers said that they don’t get enough sleep, with 67 reporting that they get just five to seven hours a night — a far cry from the recommended eight to ten hours. The BSC says that their research shows that when teens feel more stressed, their sleep suffers. They go to sleep later, wake up earlier and have more trouble falling and staying asleep than less-stressed teens.

“We’re finding that teenagers are experiencing this cycle where they sacrifice their sleep to spend extra time on homework, which gives them more stress — but they don’t get better grades,” said Mary Helen Rogers, the vice president of marketing and communications for the BSC.

RELATED VIDEO: To Help Or Not To Help: Moms Talk About Whether Or Not They Help Their Children With Homework

Another interesting finding from this study: students who go to bed earlier and wake up earlier do better academically than those who stay up late, even if those night owls are spending that time doing homework.

To end this cycle of sleep deprivation and stress, the BSC recommends that students try setting a consistent time to go to sleep each night, regardless of leftover homework. And their other sleep tips are good for anyone, regardless of age — keep the temperature between 65 and 67 degrees, turn off the electronic devices before bed, make sure the mattress is comfy and reduce noise with earplugs or sound machines.

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Three Penny Press

Students spend three times longer on homework than average, survey reveals

Sonya Kulkarni and Pallavi Gorantla | Jan 9, 2022

Graphic by Sonya Kulkarni

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association have suggested that a healthy number of hours that students should be spending can be determined by the “10-minute rule.” 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).

As ‘finals week’ rapidly approaches, students not only devote effort to attaining their desired exam scores but make a last attempt to keep or change the grade they have for semester one by making up homework assignments.

High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, according to a study by the Washington Post from 2018 to 2020 of over 50,000 individuals. A survey of approximately 200 Bellaire High School students revealed that some students spend over three times this number.

The demographics of this survey included 34 freshmen, 43 sophomores, 54 juniors and 54 seniors on average.

When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours. In contrast, polled students said that about one hour of homework would constitute a healthy number of hours.

Junior Claire Zhang said she feels academically pressured in her AP schedule, but not necessarily by the classes.

“The class environment in AP classes can feel pressuring because everyone is always working hard and it makes it difficult to keep up sometimes.” Zhang said.

A total of 93 students reported that the minimum grade they would be satisfied with receiving in a class would be an A. This was followed by 81 students, who responded that a B would be the minimum acceptable grade. 19 students responded with a C and four responded with a D.

“I am happy with the classes I take, but sometimes it can be very stressful to try to keep up,” freshman Allyson Nguyen said. “I feel academically pressured to keep an A in my classes.”

Up to 152 students said that grades are extremely important to them, while 32 said they generally are more apathetic about their academic performance.

Last year, nine valedictorians graduated from Bellaire. They each achieved a grade point average of 5.0. HISD has never seen this amount of valedictorians in one school, and as of now there are 14 valedictorians.

“I feel that it does degrade the title of valedictorian because as long as a student knows how to plan their schedule accordingly and make good grades in the classes, then anyone can be valedictorian,” Zhang said.

Bellaire offers classes like physical education and health in the summer. These summer classes allow students to skip the 4.0 class and not put it on their transcript. Some electives also have a 5.0 grade point average like debate.

Close to 200 students were polled about Bellaire having multiple valedictorians. They primarily answered that they were in favor of Bellaire having multiple valedictorians, which has recently attracted significant acclaim .

Senior Katherine Chen is one of the 14 valedictorians graduating this year and said that she views the class of 2022 as having an extraordinary amount of extremely hardworking individuals.

“I think it was expected since freshman year since most of us knew about the others and were just focused on doing our personal best,” Chen said.

Chen said that each valedictorian achieved the honor on their own and deserves it.

“I’m honestly very happy for the other valedictorians and happy that Bellaire is such a good school,” Chen said. “I don’t feel any less special with 13 other valedictorians.”

Nguyen said that having multiple valedictorians shows just how competitive the school is.

“It’s impressive, yet scary to think about competing against my classmates,” Nguyen said.

Offering 30 AP classes and boasting a significant number of merit-based scholars Bellaire can be considered a competitive school.

“I feel academically challenged but not pressured,” Chen said. “Every class I take helps push me beyond my comfort zone but is not too much to handle.”

Students have the opportunity to have off-periods if they’ve met all their credits and are able to maintain a high level of academic performance. But for freshmen like Nguyen, off periods are considered a privilege. Nguyen said she usually has an hour to five hours worth of work everyday.

“Depending on the day, there can be a lot of work, especially with extra curriculars,” Nguyen said. “Although, I am a freshman, so I feel like it’s not as bad in comparison to higher grades.”

According to the survey of Bellaire students, when asked to evaluate their agreement with the statement “students who get better grades tend to be smarter overall than students who get worse grades,” responders largely disagreed.

Zhang said that for students on the cusp of applying to college, it can sometimes be hard to ignore the mental pressure to attain good grades.

“As a junior, it’s really easy to get extremely anxious about your GPA,” Zhang said. “It’s also a very common but toxic practice to determine your self-worth through your grades but I think that we just need to remember that our mental health should also come first. Sometimes, it’s just not the right day for everyone and one test doesn’t determine our smartness.”

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Comments (8).

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Anonymous • Jul 16, 2024 at 3:27 pm

didnt realy help

Anonymous • Nov 21, 2023 at 10:32 am

It’s not really helping me understand how much.

josh • May 9, 2023 at 9:58 am

Kassie • May 6, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Im using this for an English report. This is great because on of my sources needed to be from another student. Homework drives me insane. Im glad this is very updated too!!

Kaylee Swaim • Jan 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I am also using this for an English report. I have to do an argumentative essay about banning homework in schools and this helps sooo much!

Izzy McAvaney • Mar 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

I am ALSO using this for an English report on cutting down school days, homework drives me insane!!

E. Elliott • Apr 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm

I’m from Louisiana and am actually using this for an English Essay thanks for the information it was very informative.

Nabila Wilson • Jan 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm

Interesting with the polls! I didn’t realize about 14 valedictorians, that’s crazy.

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Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

Posted in Voices+Opinion

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Homework is a waste of time, new studies say

A new group of studies finds that homework in a variety of subjects has little impact on test grades, although math homework was the exception to the findings.

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Is Homework Valuable or Not? Try Looking at Quality Instead

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Is there an end in sight to the “homework wars?”

Homework is one those never-ending debates in K-12 circles that re-emerges every few years, bringing with it a new collection of headlines. Usually they bemoan how much homework students have, or highlight districts and even states that have sought to cap or eliminate homework .

Now, a new analysis from the Center for American Progress suggests a more fruitful way of thinking about this problem. Maybe, it suggests, what we should be doing is looking at what students are routinely being asked to do in take-home assignments, how well that homework supports their learning goals (or doesn’t), and make changes from there.

The analysis of nearly 200 pieces of homework concludes that much of what students are asked to do aligns to the Common Core State Standards—a testament to how pervasive the standards are in the U.S. education system, even though many states have tweaked, renamed, or replaced them. However, most of the homework embodied basic, procedural components of the standards, rather than the more difficult skills—such as analyzing or extending their knowledge to new problems.

“We were surprised by the degree of alignment. And we were also surprised by the degree that the homework was rote, and how much some of this stuff felt like Sudoku,” said Ulrich Boser, a senior fellow at CAP. “It made the homework debate make a lot more sense about why parents are frustrated.”

It is also similar to the findings of groups like the Education Trust, which have found that classwork tends to be aligned to state standards, but not all that rigorous.

Collecting Homework Samples

The CAP analysis appears to be one of the first studies to look at homework rigor using a national survey lens. Many studies of homework are based on one school or one district’s assignments, which obviously limits their applicability. Attempts to synthesize all this research have led to some hard-to-parse conclusions. One of the most cited studies concludes there’s some connection for grades 6-12 between homework and test scores, but less so for elementary students, and less of an impact on actual grades.

Another problem is that students’ experiences with homework seem to vary so dramatically: A Brookings Institution report based on survey data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress concluded that, while on average students aren’t overburdened by homework, a subset of students do appear to get hours upon hours.

The CAP analysis, instead, was based on getting a sample of parents from across the country to send in examples of their children’s homework. The researchers used MTurk, a crowdsourcing service offered by Amazon.com to recruit parents. Of the 372 parents who responded, the researchers got a pile of 187 useable assignments. Next, John Smithson, an emeritus researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had teams grade them on a taxonomy looking at both the content and the “cognitive demand,” or difficulty, of the work. The index fell on a 1 to 10 scale, with a score 4 to 6 range considered as “good” alignment.

The results? On average, math assignments fell within this range, while the ELA ones were slightly weaker, in the 3 to 5 range.

But the real eye-opening graphic is this one, which shows that by far the assignments were mostly low-level.

This makes some logical sense when you think about it. Just as with teaching and testing, it is much easier to write homework assignments prioritizing basic arithmetic drills and fill-in-the-blank vocabulary words than ones that get students to “prove” or “generalize” some tenet. (I suspect prepackaged curricula, too, probably lean more toward rote stuff than cognitively demanding exercises.)

Here’s another explanation: Many teachers believe homework should be for practicing known content, not learning something new. This is partially to help close the “homework gap” that surfaces because some students can access parent help or help via technology, while other students can’t. It’s possible that teachers are purposefully giving lower-level work to their students to take home for this reason.

To be sure, Boser said, it’s not that all lower-level work is intrinsically bad: Memorization does have a place in learning. But assignments like color-in-the-blank and word searches are probably just a waste of students’ time. “Homework assignments,” the study says, “should be thought-provoking.”

Study Limitations

The study does come with some significant limitations, so you must use caution in discussing its results. The surveyed population differs from the population at large, overrepresenting mothers over fathers and parents of K-5 students, and underrepresenting black parents. Also, the majority of the assignments the parents sent in came from the elementary grades.

The report makes suggestions on how districts can strategically improve the quality of their homework, rather than deciding to chuck it out altogether.

One is to is to audit homework assignments to make sure they’re actually useful at building some of the more difficult skills. Another is to extend the “curriculum revolution” of the last decade, which has focused more attention on the quality and alignment of textbooks and materials, to homework. A third is to use appropriate technology so students can access out-of-school supports for challenging homework.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.

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• The Highlight

Nobody knows what the point of homework is

The homework wars are back.

by Jacob Sweet

As the Covid-19 pandemic began and students logged into their remote classrooms, all work, in effect, became homework. But whether or not students could complete it at home varied. For some, schoolwork became public-library work or McDonald’s-parking-lot work.

Luis Torres, the principal of PS 55, a predominantly low-income community elementary school in the south Bronx, told me that his school secured Chromebooks for students early in the pandemic only to learn that some lived in shelters that blocked wifi for security reasons. Others, who lived in housing projects with poor internet reception, did their schoolwork in laundromats.

According to a 2021 Pew survey , 25 percent of lower-income parents said their children, at some point, were unable to complete their schoolwork because they couldn’t access a computer at home; that number for upper-income parents was 2 percent.

The issues with remote learning in March 2020 were new. But they highlighted a divide that had been there all along in another form: homework. And even long after schools have resumed in-person classes, the pandemic’s effects on homework have lingered.

Over the past three years, in response to concerns about equity, schools across the country, including in Sacramento, Los Angeles , San Diego , and Clark County, Nevada , made permanent changes to their homework policies that restricted how much homework could be given and how it could be graded after in-person learning resumed.

Three years into the pandemic, as districts and teachers reckon with Covid-era overhauls of teaching and learning, schools are still reconsidering the purpose and place of homework. Whether relaxing homework expectations helps level the playing field between students or harms them by decreasing rigor is a divisive issue without conclusive evidence on either side, echoing other debates in education like the elimination of standardized test scores from some colleges’ admissions processes.

I first began to wonder if the homework abolition movement made sense after speaking with teachers in some Massachusetts public schools, who argued that rather than help disadvantaged kids, stringent homework restrictions communicated an attitude of low expectations. One, an English teacher, said she felt the school had “just given up” on trying to get the students to do work; another argued that restrictions that prohibit teachers from assigning take-home work that doesn’t begin in class made it difficult to get through the foreign-language curriculum. Teachers in other districts have raised formal concerns about homework abolition’s ability to close gaps among students rather than widening them.

Many education experts share this view. Harris Cooper, a professor emeritus of psychology at Duke who has studied homework efficacy, likened homework abolition to “playing to the lowest common denominator.”

But as I learned after talking to a variety of stakeholders — from homework researchers to policymakers to parents of schoolchildren — whether to abolish homework probably isn’t the right question. More important is what kind of work students are sent home with and where they can complete it. Chances are, if schools think more deeply about giving constructive work, time spent on homework will come down regardless.

There’s no consensus on whether homework works

The rise of the no-homework movement during the Covid-19 pandemic tapped into long-running disagreements over homework’s impact on students. The purpose and effectiveness of homework have been disputed for well over a century. In 1901, for instance, California banned homework for students up to age 15, and limited it for older students, over concerns that it endangered children’s mental and physical health. The newest iteration of the anti-homework argument contends that the current practice punishes students who lack support and rewards those with more resources, reinforcing the “myth of meritocracy.”

But there is still no research consensus on homework’s effectiveness; no one can seem to agree on what the right metrics are. Much of the debate relies on anecdotes, intuition, or speculation.

Researchers disagree even on how much research exists on the value of homework. Kathleen Budge, the co-author of Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools and a professor at Boise State, told me that homework “has been greatly researched.” Denise Pope, a Stanford lecturer and leader of the education nonprofit Challenge Success, said, “It’s not a highly researched area because of some of the methodological problems.”

Experts who are more sympathetic to take-home assignments generally support the “10-minute rule,” a framework that estimates the ideal amount of homework on any given night by multiplying the student’s grade by 10 minutes. (A ninth grader, for example, would have about 90 minutes of work a night.) Homework proponents argue that while it is difficult to design randomized control studies to test homework’s effectiveness, the vast majority of existing studies show a strong positive correlation between homework and high academic achievement for middle and high school students. Prominent critics of homework argue that these correlational studies are unreliable and point to studies that suggest a neutral or negative effect on student performance. Both agree there is little to no evidence for homework’s effectiveness at an elementary school level, though proponents often argue that it builds constructive habits for the future.

For anyone who remembers homework assignments from both good and bad teachers, this fundamental disagreement might not be surprising. Some homework is pointless and frustrating to complete. Every week during my senior year of high school, I had to analyze a poem for English and decorate it with images found on Google; my most distinct memory from that class is receiving a demoralizing 25-point deduction because I failed to present my analysis on a poster board. Other assignments really do help students learn: After making an adapted version of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book for a ninth grade history project, I was inspired to check out from the library and read a biography of the Chinese ruler.

For homework opponents, the first example is more likely to resonate. “We’re all familiar with the negative effects of homework: stress, exhaustion, family conflict, less time for other activities, diminished interest in learning,” Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, which challenges common justifications for homework, told me in an email. “And these effects may be most pronounced among low-income students.” Kohn believes that schools should make permanent any moratoria implemented during the pandemic, arguing that there are no positives at all to outweigh homework’s downsides. Recent studies , he argues , show the benefits may not even materialize during high school.

In the Marlborough Public Schools, a suburban district 45 minutes west of Boston, school policy committee chair Katherine Hennessy described getting kids to complete their homework during remote education as “a challenge, to say the least.” Teachers found that students who spent all day on their computers didn’t want to spend more time online when the day was over. So, for a few months, the school relaxed the usual practice and teachers slashed the quantity of nightly homework.

Online learning made the preexisting divides between students more apparent, she said. Many students, even during normal circumstances, lacked resources to keep them on track and focused on completing take-home assignments. Though Marlborough Schools is more affluent than PS 55, Hennessy said many students had parents whose work schedules left them unable to provide homework help in the evenings. The experience tracked with a common divide in the country between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

So in October 2021, months after the homework reduction began, the Marlborough committee made a change to the district’s policy. While teachers could still give homework, the assignments had to begin as classwork. And though teachers could acknowledge homework completion in a student’s participation grade, they couldn’t count homework as its own grading category. “Rigorous learning in the classroom does not mean that that classwork must be assigned every night,” the policy stated . “Extensions of class work is not to be used to teach new content or as a form of punishment.”

Canceling homework might not do anything for the achievement gap

The critiques of homework are valid as far as they go, but at a certain point, arguments against homework can defy the commonsense idea that to retain what they’re learning, students need to practice it.

“Doesn’t a kid become a better reader if he reads more? Doesn’t a kid learn his math facts better if he practices them?” said Cathy Vatterott, an education researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. After decades of research, she said it’s still hard to isolate the value of homework, but that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned.

Blanket vilification of homework can also conflate the unique challenges facing disadvantaged students as compared to affluent ones, which could have different solutions. “The kids in the low-income schools are being hurt because they’re being graded, unfairly, on time they just don’t have to do this stuff,” Pope told me. “And they’re still being held accountable for turning in assignments, whether they’re meaningful or not.” On the other side, “Palo Alto kids” — students in Silicon Valley’s stereotypically pressure-cooker public schools — “are just bombarded and overloaded and trying to stay above water.”

Merely getting rid of homework doesn’t solve either problem. The United States already has the second-highest disparity among OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations between time spent on homework by students of high and low socioeconomic status — a difference of more than three hours, said Janine Bempechat, clinical professor at Boston University and author of No More Mindless Homework .

When she interviewed teachers in Boston-area schools that had cut homework before the pandemic, Bempechat told me, “What they saw immediately was parents who could afford it immediately enrolled their children in the Russian School of Mathematics,” a math-enrichment program whose tuition ranges from $140 to about $400 a month. Getting rid of homework “does nothing for equity; it increases the opportunity gap between wealthier and less wealthy families,” she said. “That solution troubles me because it’s no solution at all.”

A group of teachers at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, made the same point after the school district proposed an overhaul of its homework policies, including removing penalties for missing homework deadlines, allowing unlimited retakes, and prohibiting grading of homework.

“Given the emphasis on equity in today’s education systems,” they wrote in a letter to the school board, “we believe that some of the proposed changes will actually have a detrimental impact towards achieving this goal. Families that have means could still provide challenging and engaging academic experiences for their children and will continue to do so, especially if their children are not experiencing expected rigor in the classroom.” At a school where more than a third of students are low-income, the teachers argued, the policies would prompt students “to expect the least of themselves in terms of effort, results, and responsibility.”

Not all homework is created equal

Despite their opposing sides in the homework wars, most of the researchers I spoke to made a lot of the same points. Both Bempechat and Pope were quick to bring up how parents and schools confuse rigor with workload, treating the volume of assignments as a proxy for quality of learning. Bempechat, who is known for defending homework, has written extensively about how plenty of it lacks clear purpose, requires the purchasing of unnecessary supplies, and takes longer than it needs to. Likewise, when Pope instructs graduate-level classes on curriculum, she asks her students to think about the larger purpose they’re trying to achieve with homework: If they can get the job done in the classroom, there’s no point in sending home more work.

At its best, pandemic-era teaching facilitated that last approach. Honolulu-based teacher Christina Torres Cawdery told me that, early in the pandemic, she often had a cohort of kids in her classroom for four hours straight, as her school tried to avoid too much commingling. She couldn’t lecture for four hours, so she gave the students plenty of time to complete independent and project-based work. At the end of most school days, she didn’t feel the need to send them home with more to do.

A similar limited-homework philosophy worked at a public middle school in Chelsea, Massachusetts. A couple of teachers there turned as much class as possible into an opportunity for small-group practice, allowing kids to work on problems that traditionally would be assigned for homework, Jessica Flick, a math coach who leads department meetings at the school, told me. It was inspired by a philosophy pioneered by Simon Fraser University professor Peter Liljedahl, whose influential book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics reframes homework as “check-your-understanding questions” rather than as compulsory work. Last year, Flick found that the two eighth grade classes whose teachers adopted this strategy performed the best on state tests, and this year, she has encouraged other teachers to implement it.

Teachers know that plenty of homework is tedious and unproductive. Jeannemarie Dawson De Quiroz, who has taught for more than 20 years in low-income Boston and Los Angeles pilot and charter schools, says that in her first years on the job she frequently assigned “drill and kill” tasks and questions that she now feels unfairly stumped students. She said designing good homework wasn’t part of her teaching programs, nor was it meaningfully discussed in professional development. With more experience, she turned as much class time as she could into practice time and limited what she sent home.

“The thing about homework that’s sticky is that not all homework is created equal,” says Jill Harrison Berg, a former teacher and the author of Uprooting Instructional Inequity . “Some homework is a genuine waste of time and requires lots of resources for no good reason. And other homework is really useful.”

Cutting homework has to be part of a larger strategy

The takeaways are clear: Schools can make cuts to homework, but those cuts should be part of a strategy to improve the quality of education for all students. If the point of homework was to provide more practice, districts should think about how students can make it up during class — or offer time during or after school for students to seek help from teachers. If it was to move the curriculum along, it’s worth considering whether strategies like Liljedahl’s can get more done in less time.

Some of the best thinking around effective assignments comes from those most critical of the current practice. Denise Pope proposes that, before assigning homework, teachers should consider whether students understand the purpose of the work and whether they can do it without help. If teachers think it’s something that can’t be done in class, they should be mindful of how much time it should take and the feedback they should provide. It’s questions like these that De Quiroz considered before reducing the volume of work she sent home.

More than a year after the new homework policy began in Marlborough, Hennessy still hears from parents who incorrectly “think homework isn’t happening” despite repeated assurances that kids still can receive work. She thinks part of the reason is that education has changed over the years. “I think what we’re trying to do is establish that homework may be an element of educating students,” she told me. “But it may not be what parents think of as what they grew up with. ... It’s going to need to adapt, per the teaching and the curriculum, and how it’s being delivered in each classroom.”

For the policy to work, faculty, parents, and students will all have to buy into a shared vision of what school ought to look like. The district is working on it — in November, it hosted and uploaded to YouTube a round-table discussion on homework between district administrators — but considering the sustained confusion, the path ahead seems difficult.

When I asked Luis Torres about whether he thought homework serves a useful part in PS 55’s curriculum, he said yes, of course it was — despite the effort and money it takes to keep the school open after hours to help them do it. “The children need the opportunity to practice,” he said. “If you don’t give them opportunities to practice what they learn, they’re going to forget.” But Torres doesn’t care if the work is done at home. The school stays open until around 6 pm on weekdays, even during breaks. Tutors through New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development programs help kids with work after school so they don’t need to take it with them.

As schools weigh the purpose of homework in an unequal world, it’s tempting to dispose of a practice that presents real, practical problems to students across the country. But getting rid of homework is unlikely to do much good on its own. Before cutting it, it’s worth thinking about what good assignments are meant to do in the first place. It’s crucial that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds tackle complex quantitative problems and hone their reading and writing skills. It’s less important that the work comes home with them.

Jacob Sweet is a freelance writer in Somerville, Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, among other publications.

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Why Homework Is a Waste of Time

Why do we even need homework? To practice? We do that enough already.  Homework is a waste of time. It takes the enjoyment out of school and it takes up teacher time. Students need more free time for other activities such as sports, homework takes it away from spending time with family and friends.

     Is homework a waste of time ? The study of 18,000 schoolchildren finds no relationship between working hard at home and better grades. More  homework assignments  didn’t translate into better grades. Next time you hear a child complaining that their science and math homeworks are wastes of time they might have a point. Young children spend enough of their day at school. When they come home, they should be free to dump the school bag and get busy doing non academic stuff such as getting a job and starting on something to pursue their career.

        Students need more free time for other activities. Education isn’t the only important activity in everyone’s life. We all need some time to ourselves to prevent stress or blow off from some steam. It can damage family relationships and stresses parents out as well  as their children. School takes up a lot of time that children can be using to do something more productive.

Homework takes up teacher time. Teachers would have more time if they didn’t assign homework.  The teacher  needs to design the homework, explain it , mark each piece individually and tell everyone if they got it right or wrong. Teachers could as easily use the classwork to find out who knows what they are doing. We aren’t the only ones who take a lot of time on homework, our teachers do as well. Homework loses it’s value because we need to be told individually what our mistakes are.

It takes the enjoyment out of school. We would enjoy school more if we didn’t have any homework. When we only get homework occcassionally we will consider that piece more important. Especially if we get too much homework it can take the enjoyment out of learning. No matter how engaging the teacher is in class , homework will almost certainly  be stressful , boring and tiring. We know that there is no direct link between how much homework is set and grades.             

Some people believe that homework isn't a waste of time. You have to try your best to do the homework that's given to you. Millions of people work for themselves or work from home. The main aim of education is to prepare us for the rest of their lives. Homework is teaching us a key skill that we will need in the future . When we do homework we are learning on our own.                 Homework is a responsibility. We should expect to get a certain amount of homework per day. Homework aids class work by providing a space for those who haven't finished the work. Teachers will need to mark and go through work whether it's classwork or homework . Whether homework puts us off learning will always depend on what the homework we are given is.            

This paragraph presents that homework is a responsibility for high school kids and students. The importance of this argument is that homework takes away time from spending it with family and friends.  The reader should take homework away from this because it's it takes a long time to do and it's a waste of time.

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TEACHING TECHNIQUES

Homework: Useful Teaching Tool or Waste of Time?

• May 18, 2021

• Helpful or harmful?

How is homework helpful?

• Does homework promote learning?

Downsides of homework

• Should students have homework?
• Stress free homework tips

Homework. How can one little word cause so much trouble? Almost all schools require homework , but should they? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of homework, plus what the research says you should really be doing after school. 

As a pupil in the UK, you will without a doubt encounter homework during your school years. Some kids love it, others… not so much! Many parents struggle to make their child complete their homework and to fit it into their family’s busy schedule, and many kids and teens find homework quite boring. But let’s put our feelings about homework to the side, and focus on a more important question – is homework really necessary?

Is homework helpful or harmful?

Well, it depends. There’s loads of debate about homework and whether or not it helps you learn. Researchers have been trying to find the answer to this question since your parents were in school!

It all comes down to the purpose of the homework and the age of the student, as well as their interest in the topic at hand. 

For secondary students, homework is useful as a "short and focused intervention .” That means something like a research project that you complete at home. 💻

For primary students, homework can help reinforce skills students are learning in school. It makes sense to practice spelling words at home or working on reading skills , for example. 

How does homework promote learning?

One way homework can promote learning is by giving older students a chance to read more content than can be covered in class. For example, a Literature student might read a couple of chapters of a novel at home and then spend the class time discussing its themes with peers. This saves classroom time for the part of learning that’s done with other students.

Research shows that the best homework is closely linked to what you’re learning in the classroom. It should expand your learning and always be something you can complete independently. ✔️

It goes without saying that homework takes time. The more homework you have, the less time you can spend outside or relax. 

Homework leaves less time for creative activities that are also very important for brain growth. 🧠

Studies show very little difference in test scores between students who spend lots of time on homework and students who do less homework. For primary school students especially, not many benefits have been found. 

So, should students have homework?

In an ideal world, primary students would not have homework. And secondary students would only have short-term homework assignments with a very specific goal, like a book report or a science project. 

Since students often do have homework, it shouldn’t take much time - the benefits are the same for a few minutes and a few hours of homework!

Stress-free homework tips 

At the end of the day, there may be very little you can do right away about your homework situation. If your teacher assigns it, it must get done – but here are a few tips to make it less stressful:

• It’s a great idea for you to be independent with planning and managing your work time rather than being hounded into starting your homework by your parents. As you get older, it’s up to you to manage yourself – maybe you’d prefer to divide the work up into manageable chunks, for example tackling one subject before dinner and another one after.
• You should have a distraction-free space to work at home. Turn off the television, and keep electronics out of sight to make it easier to stay focused.
• If you’ve had a long school day, it’s a great idea to take some free time after school before starting your homework. You may need a chance to relax and regroup before jumping right into homework. 
• If you find yourself struggling with your workload, you should have a chat with your teacher or speak to your parents about it. Homework should closely follow the in-class learning and shouldn’t take more than an hour.

Homework help with GoStudent

If you’re struggling to manage your homework, a GoStudent tutor can help. Our experienced, friendly tutors have a deep understanding of the content they teach, and your tutor can give you the one-on-one support you need to get back on track and be able to finish that homework in no time! 🚀

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Is Homework a Waste of Time? Teachers Weigh In

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The debate over homework rages on.

In response to an Opinion essay by a teacher titled “ What Do You Mean My Kid Doesn’t Have Homework? ”, many Facebook users took to the comments section to voice their perspectives on whether assigning homework is outdated and unnecessary—especially during a pandemic—or whether it’s a critical step to cultivating learning.

The benefits of homework have long been disputed, especially at the elementary school level. In 2018, Marva Hinton wrote about how homework was assigned at early grades and the potential effects on these young students. Some schools embraced homework, like Arlington Traditional School, a countywide elementary school in Arlington, Va., where kindergartners were expected to complete a minimum of 30 minutes of homework a night, Monday through Thursday. But some teachers such as Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the author of Rethinking Homework worried that adjusting to school routines combined with homework could sour young students on school.

But what about the benefits for older students? In a 2019 article , Education Week Assistant Editor Stephen Sawchuk unpacked the results of a Center for American Progress analysis, which found that while much of the homework assigned to the students in the study aligned with the Common Core State Standards, it did not contribute to building more difficult skills called for in the standards, like analyzing or extending their knowledge to new problems.

Beyond considering the efficacy of homework, the debate over how much time students should spend daily on take-home assignments dates back to the early 1900s. The public furor even led some state lawmakers to ban homework entirely at one point. Multiple studies over the years have examined different angles of the homework debate, including just how much homework students were assigned. In 2003, a pair of national studies found that most American students spent less than an hour daily on homework, and the workload was no bigger than it was 50 years prior.

“There is this view in the popular media that there has been this terrible burden of homework on children, and that the homework is increasing,” said Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution to Education Week’s Debra Viadero in a 2003 article . “That is not the case.”

Fast-forward to the present, teachers and students alike might find themselves at another crossroads in the homework debate. The pandemic brought with it the advent of strategies like “flipped learning” , which relies heavily on homework as an integral component of the lesson. While this might work for some, many students grew weary of the reliance on homework during remote and hybrid learning. This is on top of the potential equity issues arising from lack of internet access affecting students’ ability to complete the steady stream of homework being assigned, and the uptick in mental health issues in students .

So what do teachers really think about homework? Here’s what they had to say in response to the recently resurfaced essay by Samantha Hulsman.

A Disconnect Between Parents and Educators

“i teach 1st grade. i had parents ask for homework. i explained that i don’t give homework. home time is family time. time to play, cook, explore and spend time together. i do send books home, but there is no requirement or checklist for reading them. read them, enjoy them, and return them when your child is ready for more. i explained that as a parent myself, i know they are busy—and what a waste of energy it is to sit and force their kids to do work at home—when they could use that time to form relationships and build a loving home. something kids need more than a few math problems a week.”.

- Colleen S.

“I tried the ‘no homework’ policy one year and received so much pushback from my parents that I began sending home a weekly packet. I pass it out on Monday and it is due on Friday. Parents [are] happy, I’m happy, and life goes on. I say pick your battles. Now, I refuse to give packets over school breaks (winter/spring). If a parent asks, I simply tell them to have them work on any app that we use in class.”

“i literally only assign homework because some parents always make a huge deal of it if i don’t.”, “parents are the driving force behind homework ... they demand it and will complain about not receiving it even after explaining your philosophy of education and providing them with pedagogy that refutes the ‘benefits’ of it.”, homework can be useful for certain subjects or grades, “as a teacher of nearly 40 years, i believe homework has its place. especially in math math needs to be practiced to learn it. i don’t believe in giving homework just because. i think it should be purposeful.”.

- Sandra S.

“For those leading the charge against homework, please think about the expectation for students beyond your classroom. If you teach elementary school, will they be asked to do homework in middle school, high school, and beyond? If so, organization, time management, and study skills are not so easily learned at a later age, when the expectation has never been present. I can’t imagine being a student, who enters college, having never had the expectation of nightly HW.”

- Bobbie M.

Is Homework Actually Helpful for Learning?

Some agree that at its core, homework is practice, which is a needed element to achieving learning.

“Homework is practice. Practice the skills we learned about in class so we can review and add to them. My instrumental students are required to practice every day. When they don’t it’s evident.”

Others aren’t as convinced it’s actually a good tool for assessing comprehension.

“As a teacher, if the kids were assigned homework, guess when the papers were graded ... After discovering a Mom had been doing the homework and was making failing grades ... I gave it up ... taught 25 years without it and my students did much better ...”

- Martha H.

Heightens Equity Issues

“no homework ever it is unnecessary it is so elitist and ableist and teaches kids that it is expected to take work home after hours of a job. nope never”, “homework just further separates the students. those who have parents home who understand the work, or can afford a tutor will do so. families already struggling financially tend not to have parents home to help and cannot afford tutors.”.

- Rebecca J.

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

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3 Reasons Why Doing Homework is a Waste of Time

Table of Contents

Not a sign of intelligence, doesn’t make much sense, makes you miss the motivation wave, wrapping up.

Students are often burdened with doing homework assignments that get the better of them and their valuable time. However, it is also possible for these students to use this time instead for doing other productive tasks or even for intended procrastination, which may in-turn help increase productivity. Here’s a viewpoint on why doing homework is a waste of time and how to use this time to better your productivity. ~ Ed. 

Do you know people who always have tons of motivation to do homework ?

I haven’t come across such people. Though there might be a few, I guess majority want to avoid doing homework.

Me too! But it turns out that it`s okay to be a bit lazy. It’s okay not to have motivation for doing homework.

Let me bring it down real quick. It is okay to have zero desire to do homework and to procrastinate for hours instead of being all energetic and productive.

No, it doesn’t mean that you’re lazy or foolish; this phenomenon has many explanations. But the thing you’ve got to remember for sure is that it is fine if you can’t catch up with the A-students.

First and foremost, you’ve got to face reality here. How important are the grades for you?

If you want to receive a grand to get a master’s degree in another country, then, of course, grades are important. When all you need is a diploma which you will proudly hand over to your mom and never use it again, then you have the right to dedicate some time to procrastination .

Don’t you dare to think that I’m trying to lure you into the world of drop-outs and couch potatoes? I only want you to learn how to set your priorities right.

Success in life cannot be determined by the number of essays that you wrote at the university. You may not even write them at all. The simplest way to avoid all that stress is by addressing a good homework doer service.

I’m going to calm down your stressed out nervous system and conscience, and tell you why you shouldn’t be all anxious about having zero motivation to do homework.

But before we do that, please note that such an emotional state when you have little desire to do anything, not just your homework, may be a sign of such serious mental condition as clinical depression. So, please be careful with that and never hesitate to ask for professional help.

Okay, so as per my thoughts, here are the three main reasons why doing homework is a waste of time:

As I’ve mentioned above, a state of procrastination doesn’t necessarily point out to your inability to study.

A scientific study reports that people who have a higher intellectual level tend to procrastinate more . Just don’t perceive this information as an excuse for your social media addiction, it doesn’t work this way. How is that even related?

It’s believed that very smart people are thinking all the time, even without realizing it. They have very active brain activity, and they may even try to solve the world issues on the subconscious level.

The moments of procrastination are highly important for people of this type. It gives their brains a chance to cool off and relax a little bit. Because, yes, our brain does get tired from time to time, and it can switch off your concentration and attention when it feels like having a little rest so that you can go on with all the thinking processes.

No matter how much you love studying, and no matter how great your university is, still there is no way of avoiding some absurd and senseless assignments. You have no idea why you would do this or why such a huge piece of work is assessed with so few points.

Your logic isn’t as dead as you may think. It’s still somewhere in there, and it can give you a hint that you really shouldn’t do this task because it’s nothing but a complete waste of time. Of course, you lose any kind of motivation with such assignment.

Don’t worry. Just think whether this homework will have a big impact on your final score and then make a decision.

One of the biggest mistakes that you can do while feeling all down and unmotivated is looking at other people, who seem extremely productive and compare your pitiful self to those walking energizers.

We all may feel that way from time to time – mainly because our powers aren’t infinite. We get tired and worn out. So, just stop sobbing and go out for a walk. You’ll be surprised how inspirational one single stroll around the town can be. Your demotivation just a phase, and you’ve got to get over it.

And while you’re still in the moment when you can get nothing done, make a list of activities and tasks that you need to finish.

Then you have to learn how to be a surfboarder. No need to buy a ticket to Australia, you just need to learn how to catch the waves. One “wave of motivation,” to be precise.

Have you noticed that sometimes the feeling of productivity and endless energy rushes through your veins, and you just get everything done in no time?

Congrats, you`re just an average human being. You need to learn how to spot those moments of motivation and get as much work done as it’s humanly possible.

And when you have a day or two of no motivation at all, you won’t feel so frustrated because you know for sure that the productivity will eventually come back.

Doing homework is not a sign of intelligence. It’s okay to procrastinate at times if it helps you relax and solve bigger issues.

If you think your homework doesn’t make much sense or it’s not worth spending your valuable time that you can use elsewhere for more worthy tasks, then you may think of using any homework services.

Missing out on the homework may give you the opportunity not to miss the motivation wave that can help you become more productive .

Over to you –

Have you ever felt that doing homework is a waste of time? Share in the comments.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are entirely of the author.

Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you're suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected] . Thanks.

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Exploring 10 Reasons Why School is A Waste of Time: Reevaluating Education

• Post author By admin
• October 18, 2023

Explore the debate: Are schools a waste of time? Discover 10 reasons why school is a waste of time and the call for improvements.

Imagine this: we’re hurtling through a world of constant change and mind-boggling innovation. In the midst of it all stands our dear old friend, school. It’s been our go-to for learning since forever, but is it really the best use of our precious time?

Hold on to your hats because in this article, we’re not out to dismantle the education system. No, we’re setting out on a quest to shake things up a bit.

We’ve got ten compelling reasons why the traditional school setup might not be the best fit for our fast-paced, modern lives. 

Table of Contents

10 Reasons Why School is A Waste of Time

Certainly, it’s important to note that while school has its merits, there are some common criticisms that have led people to view it as a potential waste of time. Here are ten reasons why some individuals may consider school as such:

1. One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Traditional schools usually stick to a one-size-fits-all method with the same lessons for everyone. But here’s the hitch: it doesn’t always fit!

Not Everyone Learns the Same

Some people love to read, others like to see things visually, and some want to dive in and get hands-on. The old way of teaching might not match these different styles.

Learning Speeds Vary

Think of it like a race – some students sprint ahead, while others prefer a steady jog. One-size-fits-all lessons can make the fast learners bored and the slow ones feel left behind.

Special Needs Get Overlooked

Some students need extra help due to disabilities or they’re super talented in certain areas. Standard lessons often don’t account for these unique needs.

Missing Out on Creativity

Imagine only memorizing facts and never getting to use your imagination. That’s what can happen when lessons are all about regurgitating information.

If you’re stuck learning something you find boring, you might zone out or not bother showing up to class. This can make school less fun and less effective.

So, there’s a push in education to change things up. They’re trying to make learning more personalized, where you can learn at your own speed, in a way that suits you best. It’s like getting a tailor-made education instead of trying to fit into one-size-fits-all clothing!”

2. Rote Learning

Rote learning is all about memorizing stuff like a robot, but it doesn’t help you understand why things work or how to use what you’ve learned in real life.

No Room for Smart Questions

It doesn’t encourage asking questions or thinking critically. You might just know facts but not how to use them or why they matter.

Creativity Gets Stuck

If you’re stuck in memorization mode, your creative side doesn’t get a chance to shine. You’re just repeating what’s already known, not coming up with new ideas.

Facts Fade Fast

When you memorize for a test and then move on, those facts tend to disappear from your memory. It’s like all that effort was just for a short-term fix.

Curiosity Takes a Hit

Rote learning can kill your curiosity because it’s all about cramming facts for an exam, not exploring new stuff.

The better way? Learning that’s about understanding, asking questions, and getting creative. It’s like putting on a superhero cape for your brain!

3. Lack of Practical Skills

Sometimes, schools miss out on teaching us important real-life stuff. Here are a few things they might not cover:

Handling Money

Many schools don’t give you the lowdown on managing your finances. So, when you get that first paycheck or need to budget for bills, it can be like stepping into a financial jungle without a map.

Talking the Talk

While they teach you to write essays and read books, they might not spend enough time on everyday communication skills. Things like speaking clearly, writing emails, or even public speaking can get left behind.

Solving Real Problems

School often focuses on memorizing facts rather than helping you become a pro at solving real-life puzzles. Whether it’s fixing a broken sink or dealing with a complicated work issue, these practical skills can be a bit undercooked.

Tech Savviness

Being a tech whiz is crucial in today’s world. But some schools don’t give you much hands-on experience with technology. So when you’re out there job-hunting, you might be missing some important tech tricks.

Basic life skills like managing your time, handling stress, or solving conflicts can be overlooked. These skills are just as important as anything you’ll find in a textbook.

Entrepreneurship and Creativity

Some schools don’t always encourage thinking outside the box or pursuing your own ideas. But these skills can open doors to exciting opportunities in the real world.

The good news is, there’s a push in education to make sure you’re not just book-smart but real-life smart. So, you might see more of these practical skills showing up in your classroom soon!”

4. Overemphasis on Grades

Sometimes, when schools put too much stress on getting perfect grades, it can lead to some problems:

Stress and Anxiety

All that pressure to get top grades can make students super stressed and anxious. They worry about every test and assignment, and that’s not good for their mental health.

Memorizing, Not Learning

Instead of really understanding a subject, students might just memorize facts and formulas to ace exams. It’s like studying for a test, not for the love of learning.

Missing the Fun

Learning should be fun, but the grade-chasing game can take away that joy. Students may study just to get good grades, not because they’re genuinely curious about the topic.

Unhealthy Competition

The race for high grades can lead to unhealthy competition among students. They’re more focused on beating their classmates than on real learning.

Limited View of Success

If grades are the only measure of success, it can narrow down what success really means. Being creative, thinking critically, and problem-solving are just as important but often overlooked.

So, there’s a shift in education to value not just the grades but also the love of learning and personal growth. It’s about enjoying the journey of learning, not just obsessing over the destination of a perfect score.

5. Limited Individual Growth

Sometimes, schools can be a bit too rigid, and that can hold back students in a few ways:

Creativity Gets Crushed

When everything’s too structured, there’s not much room for creativity. Kids thrive when they can explore their own ideas.

Everyone’s Treated the Same

Rigid systems often treat every student like a copy of the next. But everyone’s different! Some students have hidden talents and unique interests that these systems might ignore.

No Personal Touch

Every student has their own pace and style of learning. But rigid systems don’t always adapt to that, which can make some students feel left behind.

Hidden Talents

Sometimes, students have cool talents or passions that don’t fit into the usual school subjects. Rigid systems might not let them shine in those areas.

Not So Great at Problem-Solving

Problem-solving and critical thinking are important life skills, but rigid systems often focus on memorization rather than teaching these vital abilities.

So, education is changing. More and more, it’s about letting students be themselves, explore their interests, and learn in their own way. It’s not about fitting everyone into the same box, but helping each student grow as an individual.”

6. Standardized Testing

Sometimes, we put a lot of weight on standardized tests as the big measure of a student’s skills. But there are some issues with that:

Limited View

These tests mainly check a student’s ability to remember facts and take tests. They don’t tell us much about creativity, critical thinking, or real-life problem-solving.

All the focus on these tests can really stress students out. The fear of not doing well can make them super anxious, and that’s not good for their performance.

Learning Just for the Test

Some students end up studying just to pass the test, not to really understand the subject. It’s like teaching for the test, not for true learning.

Different Talents

Not all talents show up on these tests. Some students are amazing at arts, sports, or creative writing, but that doesn’t get recognized.

Not So Equal

These tests can sometimes highlight inequalities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds might not have the same resources to prepare, creating an unfair advantage.

Teacher Frustration

Teachers might feel forced to only teach what’s on the test, which can get pretty boring.

So, education is changing. Now, we’re looking at a wider range of ways to see how students are doing. We want a more complete picture that includes things like projects, portfolios , and what teachers think, not just a single test score.”

7. Large Class Sizes

Having too many students crammed into one classroom can cause some problems:

Not Enough Attention

With so many students, teachers can’t give each one the attention they need. Some might feel left behind.

Different Learning Speeds

Students learn at their own pace, but in a big class, it’s hard for teachers to adapt to everyone. So, some might get bored, and others might struggle to keep up.

Less Teacher-Student Time

It’s tough for teachers to connect with students when there are so many in the class. Building those relationships is important for learning.

Managing Chaos

Keeping order in a big class can be a challenge. This means less time for actual teaching.

Limited Feedback

With lots of assignments to grade, teachers might not have time to give detailed feedback. That’s important for students to improve.

Stressed Teachers

Handling a large class can be stressful for teachers, and that can affect the quality of education.

That’s why many are pushing for smaller class sizes. It allows for more individual attention and better learning environments.”

8. Inefficient Use of Time

Spending too many hours in school can lead to a few problems for students:

Less Fun Stuff

With long school hours, there’s not much time left for fun stuff like sports, arts, or clubs. These things help you grow and enjoy life.

Balancing Act

It’s hard to find a balance between school and personal interests when you’re at school for so long. You might feel tired and have little time for your hobbies.

Less Time with Friends and Family

School hours can cut into your time with friends and family, which is super important for staying happy and healthy.

Stress and Burnout

If you’re stuck in school for too many hours, it can get stressful. You might feel overwhelmed by homework, activities, and not having time for yourself.

Miss Out on Exploring

Having limited time for your personal interests can stop you from trying new things and being creative.

So, some folks are trying to change things up, like adjusting school schedules to make sure you have time for both learning and other cool stuff that makes life awesome.”

9. Lack of Engagement

In a world where everything’s moving at a fast digital pace, traditional schools can sometimes feel a bit old-school. Here’s what’s happening:

The Digital Race

Technology is sprinting ahead like Usain Bolt. New gadgets, apps, and all sorts of cool tech things are popping up left and right. But traditional schools? Well, they might not always keep up, which means students can miss out on learning the latest digital skills.

Digital Smarts Are a Must

It’s not just about reading and writing nowadays. Being tech-savvy is a big deal. Traditional schools might not provide students with enough hands-on experience in the digital world, making it tricky to navigate this tech-filled universe.

Jobs Are Going Digital

Many jobs these days require digital skills. But traditional schools might not be fully preparing students for these tech-driven workplaces they’re about to enter.

Engagement Dilemma

We’re living in an era of YouTube, interactive apps, and virtual reality. These are super engaging. Traditional teaching methods? Well, let’s just say they can feel a bit ‘blah’ in comparison. And that can make learning less fun.

Adapt or Get Left Behind

The digital world doesn’t wait for anyone. It’s like a high-speed train. But traditional school curricula? They can be a bit like ancient scrolls, not really teaching students how to keep up with the latest tech trends.

So, people are reimagining how we do education. They’re bringing in more tech-based learning tools, offering coding classes, and designing flexible curricula to help students stay ahead in this digital game. The goal is to ensure students are well-prepared for the fast-paced digital age.”

10. Digital Age Relevance

In today’s speedy digital world, traditional schools can sometimes feel a bit out of touch. Here’s the deal:

Tech is Racing Ahead

The digital landscape is changing all the time. New gadgets, apps, and cool stuff pop up constantly. But traditional schools might not always catch up, so students miss out on learning the latest digital skills.

Digital Know-How Matters

It’s not just about reading and writing anymore. Being comfortable with digital stuff is a big deal. Traditional schools might not give students enough hands-on experience in the digital world, making it tricky to navigate.

Jobs are Shifting

Lots of jobs now need digital skills. Traditional school might not be preparing students for the tech-driven workplaces they’re stepping into.

Engagement Challenge

YouTube, interactive apps, and VR are all the rage. Traditional methods can feel a bit boring in comparison, and that can make learning less exciting.

The digital world moves fast. Traditional school curricula, often set in stone, might not teach students how to quickly adapt to new tech trends.

So, people are rethinking how we do education. They’re bringing in more tech-based learning tools, coding classes, and flexible curricula to help students stay on top of the digital game. The goal is to make sure students are ready for the digital age.”

It’s important to note that while these criticisms exist, they don’t necessarily apply to all schools, and many educational institutions are continually evolving to address these concerns and provide a more enriching learning experience.

Alright, when we talk about why school is a waste of time. But keep in mind that school can’t be considered as a total waste of your time. The reason being that it allows us to learn and explore so many things. It also varies from school to school.

Such as some schools are based on textbooks and tests therefore they are offering limited learning to the students. On the other hand some schools are also working on social skills to help the students to grow as a person. So you can’t say that school is a total waste of time.

So it completely depends on school to school. Apart from that students should also try to address the problems and bring in some positive changes. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this article suggesting that traditional schools are entirely ineffective.

Not at all. It highlights areas where traditional schooling may fall short and suggests ways to complement it with more effective learning approaches.

What are some practical real-world skills that should be taught in schools?

Skills like financial literacy, problem-solving, and effective communication are invaluable for life beyond school.

How can personalized education be implemented in traditional schools?

It involves tailoring teaching methods to individual learning styles and strengths, allowing students to learn at their own pace.

Is online learning suitable for all students?

Online learning offers flexibility, but it may not be ideal for everyone. It depends on the student’s learning preferences and needs.

Should students completely disregard their grades?

Not necessarily. Grades can be important for certain goals, but fostering a love for learning should be the primary focus.

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Does homework help students learn? Establishing strong study habits is essential for long-term success. Home assignment plays a key role in enhancing these habits through regular practice. Here are reasons why students should have homework:

•  Routine Building: Independent work creates a consistent study routine, helping learners form daily study habits. This consistency is crucial for maintaining progress and avoiding last-minute cramming. 
•  Time Management: Managing home assignments teaches students to balance academic duties with other activities and personal time. 
•  Self-Discipline: Finishing assignments requires resisting distractions and staying focused, fostering the self-discipline needed for success in and out of college or school. 
•  Organization: Home task involves tracking preps, deadlines, and materials, improving students' organizational skills. 

These points underscore why homework is good for boosting study habits that lead to academic success. Regular home assignments help learners manage time, stay organized, and build the discipline necessary for their studies.

Facilitates Goal Setting

Setting and achieving goals is vital for student success. Homework assists in this by providing possibilities for setting both short-term and long-term academic objectives. Here’s why is homework beneficial for goal-setting: 

•  Short-Term Objectives: Homework encourages immediate targets, like finishing assignments by deadlines, and helping students stay focused and motivated. 
•  Long-Term Aspirations: Over time, preps contribute to broader accomplishments, such as mastering a subject or improving grades, providing direction in their studies. 
•  Motivation: Completing home tasks boosts motivation by demonstrating results from their effort. Achieving targets reinforces the importance of perseverance. 
•  Planning: Homework teaches essential planning and prioritization skills, helping learners approach tasks systematically. 

These aspects demonstrate the reasons why homework is good for setting and achieving educational targets. Regular preps help students establish clear objectives, plan effectively, and stay motivated.

Improves Concentration

Attention is vital for mastering any subject. Homework offers an opportunity to develop this ability. Here’s why homework is important for boosting attention:

•  Increased Focus: Regular assignments require sustained attention, improving mental engagement over time, benefiting both academic and non-academic tasks. 
•  Better Task Management: Homework teaches managing multiple tasks, enhancing the ability to concentrate on each without becoming overwhelmed. 
•  Mental Endurance: Completing home tasks builds stamina for longer study sessions and challenging tasks, crucial for advanced studies and career success. 
•  Attention to Detail: Home assignments promote careful attention to detail, requiring students to follow instructions and ensure accuracy. 

These elements show ‘why is homework good for students’. Homework aids students in improving their focus, leading to better academic outcomes. Regular practice through homework improves mental engagement.

Reinforces Perseverance

Perseverance is key to success. Homework significantly contributes to teaching this skill. Here are reasons homework is good in supporting the development of perseverance:

•  Problem-Solving: Homework challenges students to tackle difficult problems, fostering perseverance as they approach challenges with determination. 
•  Resilience: Regular homework helps build resilience against academic challenges, developing mental toughness. 
•  Persistence: Homework encourages persistence, teaching students to complete tasks despite difficulties, which is crucial for long-term goals. 
•  Confidence: Completing assignments boosts confidence, motivating students to tackle new challenges with determination. 

These reasons highlight ‘Why is homework good for fostering perseverance?’ Engaging with home tasks consistently helps students overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.

Final Consideration

To recap, the motivating reasons for homework extend well beyond the classroom. From improving study habits and mental engagement to fostering goal-setting and perseverance, the advantages are clear. Preps equip students with skills necessary for personal and academic growth. What do you think are the top 10 reasons why students should have homework among the ones we listed? Discuss with your peers. To refine your homework or essays, consider using tools like the AI Essay Detector and College Essay Generator to boost your academic performance.

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