Homework is unfair.
Not in the sense that you may hear students say (or you may have said yourself) that teachers give homework to be unfair for some reason. The vast majority of teachers—as with the vast majority of people—do things because they believe them to be the right thing to do. However, in working for education that allows opportunity for all students while still teaching what must be taught, homework too often falls into that complicated set of doing the wrong things for the right reasons.
A revision of that clickbait first sentence may more substantively look like this: homework creates an unfair situation for students.
Conversations with teachers reveal a few common rationales for homework:
- Extra practice of learning
- Not enough time for students to complete work in class
- Engaging (i.e., reading, watching) with content to prepare for class
- Writing a paper
- Studying for tests or exams
- It’s an advanced or accelerated course and they need more work.
With exception of the last item (addressed in more depth in a moment), none of these seem problematic… on the surface. Taking time to exercise new learning helps improve that learning. Students getting to work on a few things in class and then going home to work on those things independently relates to that. Reading of the book or watching the video to get into the content helps teachers move into that content and the learning around it. Writing drafts and then revising them based on what they have learned prove essentials skills in learning and showing what they have learned. Finally, students must get used to reviewing what they have learned and preparing to apply those things in ways that test their learning and knowledge.
So, given the first five item in this list, few people would doubt that most of these things make sense in schools.
Below the surface of those first five hides a damaging and regressive assumption: that all students doing these things are prepared, capable, and ready to do them without help. Some teachers see this problem already as the provide tutoring or corrections on the work. Such things seemingly allow students to learn from mistakes and grow in their content or skills, but when time for corrections or revisions becomes another homework assignment, then making a mistake, getting a wrong answer, or taking the time to revise something almost becomes punitive.
The last item comes up way too often and, though experiences says that the teacher likely means the homework serves one or more of the previously stated purposes, the fact that they make this statement belies the idea that homework can often take the place of true rigor and challenge in a classroom.
Homework is an education culture problem.
Almost everyone has gone to school and those who went to school have an expectation based on those experiences about what it means to be in school and what should be expected in school. That makes sense: anyone who spends 13-16+ years doing anything might well be considered nearly an expert in that thing. But this means that, by experience alone, most people accept or associate homework with education. Homework has become just one of those things we have to do or else. As such, most people just accept homework as part of schooling, with the perspective often being that “some students do their homework, some students do not; regardless, it’s their choice and in making that choice they determine how successful they will be.”
Ay, there’s the rub!
Accepting that perspective actually undermines the reasons for the homework given in the list above, even the last one. Many students do not have a choice about doing homework. Their home situations, level of ability, and/or other obligations all may interfere with their ability (not necessarily their willingness) to complete homework.
And this is where it becomes unfair: below the surface of the reasons listed, all of them assume both ability and understanding (and yes, though to a lesser extent than many may thing, willingness) to complete whatever has been assigned.
And assigning is not teaching.
Ultimately, homework creates a situation where school rewards the students who have the ability and capacity to do all of the homework assigned to them. This is not necessarily bad. The goal of school is learning and all that homework likely taught them something, so they should be rewarded for their learning. The unfairness comes in the form of the single parent who cannot take the time to sit with their students to review work or the educated parents who cannot help the student with their math assignment and who cannot afford a tutor or the student who rides a noisy bus 45 minutes in one direction who cannot concentrate on reading or the students involved in sports or band or something else who had their week planned and cannot just drop everything to do the review packet for the exam or the student who is the only English speaker in their house and must help manage things for their parents who want to support her school work but who struggle with just getting by.
When homework becomes too much of a delivery and practice tool, then the only really successful students are those who are already skilled in a subject, those who have means for tutors or other help, or those rare kids (admit it, you don’t know how they do it either) who are involved in everything and still get all of the homework done and make straight As.
Fixing homework will take some work.
So what are we to do? Admittedly, homework is so baked into the culture of our educational system and the public’s understanding of education that there cannot be a simple fix. Complex, systematic issues require complex and systematic approaches. Examination of the relationship between grades and homework and in-class work and growth/achievement is one place to start. Asking questions like:
- What does it mean if a student doesn’t do all or some of the homework but still makes a high grade on the test or paper?
- What does it mean if a student does all more most of the homework and gets good grades on it but doesn’t do so well on the test or paper?
- How often am I (the teacher) having to explain the homework to certain students or to the class as a whole?
- Are there certain groups of students who are consistently doing or not doing homework? What do they have in common?
The answers to these questions can help you recognize just how necessary or unnecessary the homework you are assigning may be to student learning and growth.
However, there are things that teachers can try tomorrow that can begin to make a difference.
- Assume you don’t need homework. Then, as you plan, if a possible necessity arises, reevaluate the what, how, and why of potential homework. Before creating and assigning it, ask yourself “how could I integrate this into the class period.” Your students will thank you (and you’ll thank yourself).
- Plan for no more than 20 minutes of homework in an evening. That is nearly two hours a week. 20 minutes equals the average adult’s attention span, certainly a more realistic expectation.
- Tell students at the beginning of class what the homework will be. This means the “take this home tonight and finish it because we didn’t finish it in class” has to go away. That was never a good idea, anyhow, as it causes kids to rush through work.
- Never assign reading or homework cold. Everyone understands better with context, especially students who need more support. Doing this may prevent already existing gaps from opening wider due to homework.
- Always use the homework in class after it is due (or on the day it is due). Once students get used to this, they will recognize that they won’t be able to do more in class without having done the homework. This also makes the work less abstract.
- Assign long term homework. Teachers who are more successful with students using and learning from homework are those who assign a quarter of the book due in a week while encouraging students to read for 20 minutes a night. Others may have a set of math problems that reflect what is taught that week and those problems are due on Friday for review and corrections to address learning and allow for reflection.
- Finally, do it only if necessary and, if it is necessary, establish a pattern with homework so that students, parents, guardians, and others know what to expect. Everyone thrives on routine.
Such steps in one classroom can become professional discussion points with colleagues and within departments and begin the longer journey toward cultural revision necessary to get closer and closer to an equitable education without upending the public’s understanding of what school is and does. These will also alleviate many of the problems that often come with homework: cheating, plagiarism, underworking, working with videos on, late night/early morning/hallway homework, etc.