Collingwood book fair

Today I spoke with a teacher while attending a book fair. She was telling me about her success teaching inner city kids. She noted that her students performed well on standardized tests and that she had very few behavioral problems despite the nature of her student population. We talked about the importance of her relationship with her students as the major factor in her students'success. I asked her about homework and where it fit in and she said she gave none at all. This is not surprising. Every account I read of success in inner city schools reports a visionary principal, motivated teachers, energized students with no reference whatsoever to homework.