Rethinking Homework Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs by Cathy Vatterott About the Author

Dr. Cathy Vatterott is an associate professor of education at the University of Missouri St. Louis, where she trains preservice middle school teachers. She is a former middle school teacher and middle school principal. She is author of numerous article about education, including Homework Myths and Theres Something Wrong with Homework, and two books, Academic Success Through Empowering Students and Becoming a Middle Level Teacher: Student-Focused Teaching of Early Adolescents. She first became interested in homework as the frustrated parent of a 5th grader with learning disabilities. Since then, she has presented her homework research to more than 6,000 educators and parents in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Major Themes
1.) Homework is and always has been very much a part of our culture in the U.S. As students, teachers, or parents we dont typically question the necessity of homework. Back in the day, homework consisted primarily of reading, writing, arithmetic, and rote learning dominated. Today, however, homework has evolved to include complex projects. As our culture has changed and families and schools have changed, homework has become a problem for students, parents, and teachers. 2.) Considering the history of homework is important because the attitude towards and beliefs about homework dogma have been ingrained in us for the last 100 years. Trends in education and homework reflect societal issuespolitical and economic issues, for example. Through the years the pendulum has swung back and forth between the support of homework and anti-homework movements. 3.) To better understand todays debate about homework, we need to consider the beliefs about homework that have developed over the last 100 years. Vatterott lays out five largely unexamined beliefs about children and learning, and in doing so she is asking her audience to consider how many of them are based on faith, tradition, and moral judgments rather than fact. The five beliefs are: 1. The role of the school is to extend learning beyond the classroom. 2. Intellectual activity is intrinsically more valuable than nonintellectual activity. 3. Homework teaches responsibility. 4. Lots of homework is a sign of a rigorous curriculum. 5. Good teachers give homework; good students do their homework. After presenting each of these beliefs, Vatterotts audience has no choice but to question its practices. She says, These beliefs form dogma, a homework culture. She goes on to explain that the five beliefs are closely intertwined with three philosophies: 1. Moralistic Views: Who We Believe Students Are 2. The Puritan Work Ethic: Who We Want Students to Be 3. Behaviorism: How We Think We Can Control Students

4.) Vatterott lays out the Forces Driving the Current Pro-Homework/Anti-Homework Debate. Examples include: No Child Left Behind, the role of Media and Technology to involve more people, The New Mass Hysteria has parents driven by fear of the dogeat-dog world, The Balance Movement. 5.) Diversity in the context of the new family needs to be recognized, taken into consideration, and respected. Some diversity: diversity of parenting styles, diversity of beliefs about the place of academic work in life, diversity of parental involvement in homework, economic diversity issues. 6.) While the research that has been done on homework can be skewed and should be approached with caution, it should not be ignored. Vatterott says, The inability of research to prove homeworks usefulness does not mean that homework cannot be useful or worthwhile; it just shows that homework has not been useful in many cases. Our own classroom experience provides us with much common sense about how to coordinate classroom learning and homework in a way that is effective. 7.) We must start to think about how common homework practices may contribute to the problem of students not completing homework. Instead of focusing on How can we make them do their homework? we need to consider Why dont they do their homework? 8.) Homework reform is a worthwhile endeavor that has the potential to enhance students learning, reduce failure, improve student motivation, and strengthen the parentteacher relationship.

Best Practices
1.) Vatterott suggests a number of steps to start building a strong parent-school relationship, something very important in todays educational setting. . Get realSchools should not dictate what a child does with his or her evening. . Resist the temptation to judge. . Revise expectations of parental support. . Suggest (do not mandate) guidelines for the parents role in homework. . Establish formal methods of parent-teacher communication. . Set parents minds at ease about homework. . Endorse a set of inalienable homework rights. 2.) Traditional practices, such as assigning the same homework to all students and giving zeros for incomplete work, have not supported learning for all students. 3.) The new homework paradigm includes: designing quality homework tasks, differentiating those tasks, deemphasizing grading, improving homework completion, and providing homework support programs. 4.) Homework is used as formative assessmentto check for understanding before practice is assigned, to determine how much practice is needed to perfect a skill, and to judge the students depth of understanding and ability to apply learning. 5.) To diagnose why homework is not being completed, Vatterott suggests considering 5 types of reasons: *Academic *Organizational *Motivational *Situational *Personal She goes on to outline/detail many homework completion tools for both in school completion and after school completion. 6.) For schools that need time to soften ingrained attitudes, minor changes may be helpful. Some suggestions she gives for baby steps to move districts in the right direction: *Limit the percentage that homework may count in the grade. *Revise late policies. *Limit the number of subjects in which homework is assigned each night. *Limit the weight of the backpack. *Set weekly or nightly time limits. *Prohibit weekend or holiday homework. *Coordinate homework with a calendar limiting the number of tests or projects at a given time. *Limit the number of AP classes that students may take in one semester.

Implication for the Marshfield School District

1.) We need to recognize that as a country, the U.S. is so diverse economically, culturally, and in parenting styles that not everyone will agree on homework practices. And, as educators who recognize the diversity, we have to critically examine our homework practices and carefully consider the school-family relationship. 2.) To foster a power relationship between schools and parents, parents need to be embraced as equal partners in the education of their children. 3.) Parents role in working with their children must be voluntary, respectful, and individualized, and the value of family life must be honored. 4.) When assigning homework, teachers should be sure to reflect carefully about the purpose of the assignment, plan the nature of the task very carefully, and assess homework to check for student understanding. 5.) The individual learners needs must be the driving force behind instructional decisions. 6.) Teachers need to recognize that homework should not occur in isolation but should be closely connected to classroom learning. The purpose of homework is to support classroom learning through practice, prelearning, processing, or checking for understanding. 7.) When we get to the point where we view homework as formative feedback, which should change our perspective on the grading of homework. Vatterott says that grading homework becomes not only unnecessary for feedback, but possibly even detrimental to students motivation to learn. Incomplete homework should be viewed as a symptom of a learning problem that requires investigation, diagnosis, and support, rather than the punishment of a failing grade. Districts need to consider strategies for improving homework completion and providing support programs. 8.) Comprehensive homework reform requires a long-term commitment from teachers, administers, and parents, and a climate that is open to change. The key to success in homework reform is raising awareness, letting go of some traditional attitudes and practices, and putting the well-being of the children first. 9.) We need to be clear. The journey of homework reform is not a simple one, but it is important work.