Apodaca: Time is right to reevaluate homework

Back-to-school time means it’s also the season that kids return to the homework grind, a nightly ritual that contributes as much or more than any other factor to the stress that students and their families feel.

Parents worry that their students won’t keep up with homework assignments and battle with them over how and when homework will be done. Anxiety levels rise, sleep patterns are compromised and tempers flare.

It’s no wonder then, that as another academic year gets underway — and as the winds of reform are blowing hard and fast through the education world — the national debate over homework rages on.

Where homework is concerned there are many questions that continue to plague us: Are teachers assigning too much homework? Are students’ take-home assignments appropriate and helpful? Do they really improve learning? What should we be doing differently?

Granted, it’s not a new conversation. Indeed, the controversy over homework has been with us since at least the early 20th century, when the Ladies’ Home Journal campaigned against homework and California passed a law outlawing the practice in grades K-8, a ban that lasted about 15 years. Movements against homework have resurfaced repeatedly over the decades since, with the pendulum swinging this way and that with no discernible consensus on how best to make homework an effective tool in education.

But if ever a window for finding the right balance existed, this is it. With the new Common Core educational standards changing everything from the way children are taught to how they are tested, those who believe homework policies are ripe for revision see in this moment the opportunity to make headway.

It’s by no means a given that they’ll prevail. Part of the problem with discussions about homework is that there is very little common ground on even the most basic questions surrounding the amount of assigned homework and its relative value. Adding to the confusion, research so far has been inconclusive and oftentimes contradictory.

For instance, Brian Gill, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation, has been quoted as stating there is no evidence that kids today are actually doing more homework than in the past. Although there are variations by community and school, homework loads on average have remained flat, he asserts.

But others argue that such conclusions are based on insufficient and unreliable data, and that there’s other evidence supporting the view that homework has increased. One study, for example, published in The American Journal of Family Therapy and based on a survey of nearly 1,200 parents, found that children in kindergarten, first grade and second grade were receiving far more than the recommended amounts of homework for their age groups.

The National Education Assn. and the National Parent-Teacher Assn. recommends what’s known as the “10-minute rule.” Starting with a baseline of zero for kindergartners, the amount of nightly homework should increase by 10 minutes for each successive grade, up until a maximum of two hours a night for high school seniors, the groups suggest.

For most of us, our views on homework are largely based on our own experiences. Some of us, myself included, have seen their children pushed to the brink with homework assignments that have too often been unnecessarily long, tedious and of dubious value while receiving little if any useful feedback. Conversely, there are plenty of other parents who wonder why their kids aren’t receiving more homework and think they could benefit from more taxing assignments.

Further clouding the picture, is what some observers believe is an absence of any connection at all between homework and academic achievement. Recently, for instance, Denise Pope, a Stanford University education professor and author of the new book “Overloaded and Underprepared,” told TODAY.com that there’s no demonstrable evidence to support such a correlation.

The only kind of homework shown to have beneficial results for elementary school students is at-home reading assignments in which kids have free reign in choosing what to read, Pope said.

Of course, many continue to see value in homework for a variety of reasons. It’s viewed as a means to support and augment classroom learning, instill discipline and engage parents in their children’s education.

In a perfect world, homework wouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. There would be creative, custom-made assignments for each student, a means to provide additional support in areas where students most need extra practice and a way to challenge fast-learners with interesting projects.

Credit would be given for completing these assignments but they wouldn’t be subject to grading in a traditional sense. They would be reviewed individually to provide additional input for determining what students need to succeed and then lesson plans would adjust accordingly.

Such a tailored approach is unrealistic given teachers’ workloads and class sizes. Yet if one concept from Common Core sticks, it’s that education should inspire students to think deeply and analytically. As educators strive to make the lessons learned in school more relevant and assessments more meaningful, it should go without saying that they should also look for every opportunity to make homework assignments better fit our educational goals as well.

The controversy over homework will continue to simmer. But we now have a real opportunity to get smarter about homework, and it’s a chance that shouldn’t be missed.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.