Too much homework? Not really, studies say

By Ben Feller
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — It's a troubling story: Public school students get so loaded with homework that they stress out and lose out on chances to be playful kids.

But that story is largely wrong, two new studies contend.

Most students have less than an hour of homework a night, said Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Compelling anecdotes of overwhelmed kids and exasperated parents don't reflect what most families face, according to a Brookings analysis of a broad range of homework research.

"People are unduly alarmed over the amount of homework," Loveless said. "They should realize kids are not overworked — and indeed, there is room for even more work."

For example, when asked how much homework they were assigned the day before, most students age 9, 13 and 17 all reported less than an hour, according to a federal long-term survey in 1999. The share of students assigned more than an hour of homework has dropped for all three age groups since 1984.

Only about one in 10 high school students does a substantial amount of homework — more than two hours a night — according to a separate study co-authored by Brian Gill of the RAND Corporation, another nonprofit research group. The figure has held fairly stable for the past 50 years.

"It's important to acknowledge that this is not true for everybody," Gill said. "All those stories about overloaded kids — we're not suggesting that kids and parents are lying. It's just that it's pretty clear that those stories are the exception rather than the norm."

Given homework's positive link to achievement as students get older, parents and educators must have an accurate picture of what most students face, Loveless said. Cases of excessive homework should be addressed by parents and teachers for individual students, not by district or state policymakers, he said. The research by Loveless counters media accounts that he says have overstated homework loads.

High school students have an extraordinarily light homework load when compared with international peers, according to the Brookings study, citing a 1995-96 math and science survey. Among students in their final year of public schooling, those in France, Italy, Russia and South Africa reported spending at least twice as much time on homework as American students.

One rule of thumb within education is that students should get 10 minutes of homework per grade per night — such as 30 minutes a night for third-graders, or 90 minutes a night for ninth-graders. Still, the question over how much homework is too much, or too little, is often answered in local terms.

Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., is experimenting with guidelines designed to ensure homework is limited and relevant. Homework over weekends and holidays is discouraged at the high-achieving school, where most students have packed calendars and college plans.

In essence, the new studies' findings don't apply at Lynbrook, said principal Mike White.

"We're trying to relieve some of the pressure on them, to teach them to be a real person, and to put some balance in their lives," said White of his 1,700 students. "It's not all about homework."

June Shoemaker, a fourth-grade teacher in Twin Lakes, Wis., tries not to assign any homework. She'd rather contain her math lessons to class, where she can teach students to think about the concepts, than assign work at home, where memorization drills may be encouraged by parents.

Almost two-thirds of parents said their children got about the right amount of homework in a 2000 survey by Public Agenda. A quarter said the kids got too little, and 10 percent said they got too much.

The country's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, supports homework as a means to reinforce lessons, develop study skills and encourage parental involvement. Schools and parents have come up with new ways, such as community hot lines and after-school programs with teachers, to help students handle their homework, said Stephanie Fanjul, director of student achievement for the NEA.