Pro 1

Homework improves student achievement.

Studies show that homework improves student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results,
and the likelihood to attend college.

Research published in the High School Journal indicates that students who spent between 31 and 90
minutes each day on homework "scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than
their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average." [6]

On both standardized tests and grades, students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed
69% of students who didn't have homework. [7] A majority of studies on homework's impact - 64% in
one meta-study and 72% in another - showed that take home assignments were effective at improving
academic achievement. [7][8]

Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better
GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended
college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [10] Con 1

Too much homework can be harmful.

A poll of high school students in California found that 59% thought they had too much homework. [24]
43% of respondents said that homework was their greatest source of stress, and 82% agreed that they
were "often or always stressed by schoolwork." [28]

The American Educational Research Association says that "whenever homework crowds out social
experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time that should be
devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents." [27]

High-achieving high school students say the amount of homework they have to complete leads to sleep
deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach
problems. [29]

Excessive homework leads to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students
admit to copying someone else's homework, [30] and 43% of college students engaged in "unauthorized
collaboration" on out-of-class assignments. [31] Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of
those surveyed admitted to having completed a child's assignment for them. [32]
Pro 2

Homework helps to reinforce learning and develop good study habits and life skills.

Everyone knows that practice makes perfect. Students typically retain only 50% of the information
teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. [11]

Homework helps students to develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives, such as
accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and
independent problem-solving. [12][13][14][15]

A study of elementary school students who were taught "strategies to organize and complete
homework," such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and
following directions, showed increased grades and positive comments on report cards. [17]

Research by the City University of New York noted that "students who engage in self-regulatory
processes while completing homework," such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining
focused, "are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these
processes." [18]

Con 2

Homework disadvantages low-income students.

41% of US kids live in low-income families, which are less likely to have access to the resources needed
to complete homework, such as pens and paper, a computer, internet access, a quiet work space, and a
parent at home to help. [34][35] They are also more likely to have to work after school and on
weekends, or look after younger siblings, leaving less time for homework. [35][25][36]

A study by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation found that 96.5% of students across the country said they
needed to use the internet for class assignments outside of school, and nearly half reported there had
been times they were unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a
computer, sometimes resulting in lower grades. [37][38]

Private tutoring is a more than $6 billion enterprise that further advantages students from wealthier
families. [25][39] A study published in the International Journal of Education and Social Science
concluded that homework increases social inequality because it "potentially serves as a mechanism to
further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while
further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position." [39]

Pro 3

Homework allows parents to be involved with their child's learning.

Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as
well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [12]

Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in
homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-
American and Hispanic students. [20]

Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS
(Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: "Students in the TIPS group
earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did
non-TIPS students." [21]

Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may
have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. [12] Duke University professor
Harris Cooper, PhD, noted, "Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning
disability until homework revealed it to them." [12]

Con 3

There is a lack of evidence that homework helps younger children.

An article published in the Review of Educational Research reported that "in elementary school,
homework had no association with achievement gains" when measured by standardized tests results or
grades. [7]

Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students
who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [41]
Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, PhD, says that homework is not the most effective
tool for young learners to apply new information: "They're learning way more important skills when
they're not doing their homework." [42]

An entire elementary school district in Florida enacted a policy that replaced traditional homework with
20 minutes of reading each night - and students get to pick their reading material. [43] A study by the
University of Michigan found that reading for pleasure - but not homework - was "strongly associated
with higher scores on all achievement tests" for children up to 12 years old. [40]

The Benefits

The first benefit of homework is that it allows students and teachers to work more closely together.
They can discuss their assignments or any problems that they are having with parts of their textbooks,
before or after classes.

The second benefit is that it can bring families closer together as students may ask their parents or
siblings for help on their homework. Not only will this help the students get a better understanding of
their work with any parts they are stuck on, it will also allow parents to get more involved in their child's
educational life.

Thirdly, doing homework will prepare students for the big end tests. If a child does poorly on an
assignment then they will learn what is necessary to do well on the next test without being punished. It
also provides students with the opportunity to practice at what it takes to be successful in school. Like
they say, practice makes perfect.

Doing homework is also a great way to develop responsibilities. By being assigned work one day and
knowing that it has to be done by the next day, they will develop a sense of punctuality by turning their
work in on time.

And finally it allows parents to see how their children are being educated and they can develop a better
idea of how they can help their child. However, some parents, students and even some teachers feel
that after 7-8 hours of lessons in school, it is unfair to expect students to come home and work for
another three hours.

The Potential Harm

The first reason that children should not be given homework is that they need time to relax and take
their minds off work. The pressure of having to complete homework every night is quite daunting for
most children and they need time to refresh their minds and bodies.

Secondly, it reduces the amount of time that children could be spending with their families. Family time
is especially important to a growing child and without it social problems can crop up and a family unit
can be compromised by a lack of time being spent together.

Thirdly, homework can cause conflict between children and parents when the parent wants to the child
to do their homework but meets resistance from the student to do an overwhelming task.

Too much homework can encourage cheating because children end up copying off one another in an
attempt to finish all their assignments. They then end up being rewarded for cheating which doesn't
benefit them at all.

And finally, a lot of teachers don't often have the time to grade papers properly as they are too busy
with designing lesson plans and consulting teaching resources in order to just manage lessons. So by the
time students are getting their papers back, the class has moved on to a new topic.

Problems with Homework

In an article in Education Week Teacher, teacher Samantha Hulsman said she's frequently heard parents
complain that a 30-minute homework assignment turns into a three-hour battle with their kids. Now,
she's facing the same problem with her own kids, which has her rethinking her former beliefs about
homework. "I think parents expect their children to have homework nightly, and teachers assign daily
homework because it's what we've always done," she explained. Today, Hulsman said, it's more
important to know how to collaborate and solve problems than it is to know specific facts.

Child psychologist Kenneth Barish wrote in Psychology Today that battles over homework rarely result in
a child's improvement in school. Children who don't do their homework are not lazy, he said, but they
may be frustrated, discouraged, or anxious. And for kids with learning disabilities, homework is like
"running with a sprained ankle. It's doable, but painful."
Barish suggests that parents and kids have a "homework plan" that limits the time spent on homework.
The plan should include turning off all devices—not just the student's, but those belonging to all family
members.

One of the best-known critics of homework, Alfie Kohn, says that some people wrongly believe "kids are
like vending machines—put in an assignment, get out learning." Kohn points to the lack of evidence that
homework is an effective learning tool; in fact, he calls it "the greatest single extinguisher of children's
curiosity that we have yet invented."

Homework Bans

Last year, the public schools in Marion County, Florida, decided on a no-homework policy for all of their
elementary students. Instead, kids read nightly for 20 minutes. Superintendent Heidi Maier said the
decision was based on Cooper's research showing that elementary students gain little from homework,
but a lot from reading.

Orchard Elementary School in South Burlington, Vermont, followed the same path, substituting reading
for homework. The homework policy has four parts: read nightly, go outside and play, have dinner with
your family, and get a good night's sleep. Principal Mark Trifilio says that his staff and parents support
the idea.

But while many elementary schools are considering no-homework policies, middle schools and high
schools have been reluctant to abandon homework. Schools say parents support homework and
teachers know it can be helpful when it is specific and follows certain guidelines. For example, practicing
solving word problems can be helpful, but there's no reason to assign 50 problems when 10 will do.
Recognizing that not all kids have the time, space, and home support to do homework is important, so it
shouldn't be counted as part of a student's grade.