Kingston Homework Policy

This past December, the Kingston, New York Board of Education issued a homework policy. I thought the policy had significant flaws and communicated with the newspaper reporter who had written about this policy, with the superintendent and with the school board itself. They went back to the drawing boards and came up with a new homework policy. I'm personally impressed with the change. Here are links to the two policies.

Initial Policy
Revised Policy

Let me know what you think.



_{For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.} 

Clarifying the credit card analogy

On February 18, I wrote a comment to a teacher’s blog post “Homework ….a Necessary evil…and a PEP TALK." The teacher added her comment on my blog. Having read her comment, I would like to clarify my credit card analogy.

In her comment, the teacher says that she liked my credit card analogy and went on to say, “If we never issue them the homework, the credit card if you will…” I think she misunderstands the card in the analogy. The comparison, at least as I have defined it, is that time is to money as homework is to purchases. There is no comparison between homework and credit cards.

If we want to manage money, we need to base our purchases on the money we have. Credit cards distort our understanding of our financial means. If we want homework to teach time management skills, we need to base homework-doing on a fixed period of time. The problem with homework is that, unlike the school day which ends when the bell rings, homework can creep into the afternoon, evening and night. If there are no boundaries on that time, it acts like a credit card. Time extends until the work is done (similar to pulling out a credit card when finished shopping to pay for the things you cannot afford).

The teacher goes on to cite the ten minute per night per grade rule, one I find slightly excessive but would not quibble over. She highlights that she checks homework for completion, not for whether the answers are right or wrong. That would be okay if half complete homework earned substantial credit. Keep in mind, kids work at different paces so, if consequences are given for work that is not done, it means that slow working kids are caught between the choice of putting in extra time or getting lower grades. Either way, they are not learning to manage time.

The other problem with the ten minute per night per grade rule is that teachers vary in what they believe. For every teacher who truly accepts that a child must not work beyond that norm, there’s another teacher who believes his estimate of how long the assignment should take is all that is needed, not a measure of real time. It’s not that either teacher is better than the other. We can value diversity in our teaching staffs. It only becomes a problem when we lose sight of where power should lie.

Homework, by its very essence, extends the power of the teacher from the classroom into the home, and because of that, can override the authority of the parents in the home. It’s that piece that makes homework so potentially destructive.

If we accept a model with three basic principles – time bound homework, penalty reductions, and full recognition of parents as the authorities in the home – we will actually increase the prospects that our kids will become more successful, which will include developing better time management skills.


_{For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.} 

 

  

Cursive Writing

On her Washington Post education blog, Valerie Strauss poses the question “Should cursivewriting be required? A N.C. bill would mandate it.” The bill would add cursive the standard curriculum in North Carolina, a skill not included in the Common Core. Apparently, some consider printing sufficient for schoolwork whereas others consider cursive important to write creatively.

I don't think the issue is one of creativity as suggested in this article. Being creative depends on how you learn to communicate and think. I think in English. Other people think in Chinese. I happen to think at the keyboard. My wife thinks better with a pen in her hand. We're both creative writers. My form of writing capitalizes on functionalities hers does not since my work is always where I left it, easy to scan, readily spellchecked, easy to edit, and it never has to be typed when it's done. Still, my wife is an extremely creative writer, using the tools she was taught. If we teach kids early to write on computers, they'll learn to write, creatively, on computers.

The issue may really be access to technology. Do all kids have personal computers or other electronic devices? And what it they lose them? If I lose my pencil, I get a new one today. If I lose my laptop, it's a bigger deal. I can readily picture word processing totally supplanting the need for cursive writing, but we have to make sure that children have (and sometimes break or lose) the devices they need.

I have a final but primary concern about handwriting and that is its relationship to homework. Current academic policies include time based school days, but time estimated (really content based) homework sessions. Whether children print, use cursive, or type their assignments, they don't all work at the same speed. This creates a major problem with homework since, unlike school, it must be worked on until it is done. With that philosophy, there will always be children who are left behind because they cannot do the work within the estimated amounts of time. If we don't teach them cursive, but require them to do their assignments in paper and pencil form, and don't set time boundaries on what they have to do, we set some up for failure, and that is neither productive nor fair.


_{For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.} 

  

Homework vs Homework Club

I came across an item in the news today, “Does Homework really work for students?” The article mentions the work of Alfie Kohn. It goes on to say that students at this school would disagree with Alfie, noting that Homework Club is the most popular after school activity the school has to offer. Apparently, 40% of all students attend this club. The article has an accompanying video chip which shows Alfie making his point and then pans onto the kids in the homework club. It ends with the principal, Donyall Dickey, claiming major strides in student learning and citing homework as the primary reason this improvement occurred. Watching the tape, it appears that this school serves large numbers of minority students.

Although I’ve positioned myself as a homework critic, I want to start by applauding Mr. Dickey and noting that the article and video clip highlight some universal aspects of educational success that are common to what could be called “turnaround schools.” They involve a visionary principal, a mobilized and motivated staff, a learning conducive physical environment, and a peer based milieu that supports learning, in a sense making it “cool.” I’ve read countless stories of poor performing, often inner city schools, that show dramatic effects when these components are in place. There are many schools that could learn from this example, and this could be a model for leveling out the educational inequalities that plague our society now.

But let’s be careful in the semantics we use. The words “homework” and “homework club” are not the same. In his interview, Mr. Dickey is very convincing in touting the success of his school’s homework club, and then erroneously says that this supports the value of homework. That’s deceptive. Nothing he is doing supports homework as a policy. It supports homework club as a teaching tool. The fact that he successfully created a culture that draws 40% of his students to the club is remarkable. It’s a laudable fete. But it isn’t homework! It’s schoolwork! It’s an extended school day. It’s a time in which teachers put their structured lesson plans aside and make themselves available to guide and assist students in completing their assignments. It is bounded by time. Don’t tell me that homework club runs from 3 pm until 11 pm at night. It comes to an end and the students go home. It creates no disruption to ordinary family life any more than after school sports practice or chess club would.

Perhaps, there is value in continuing to use the word homework when describing this after school club. The program might not be successful if we called it “extra learning club,” or “extended school day club,” or something else. The word homework is deeply ingrained in our collective consciousness, and can be used without further explanation. It’s nothing new, so Mr. Dickey’s linguistic lapse between homework and homework club can be overlooked. Let the kids think of it as homework club, not as an extended school day. Let them continue with the excitement and enthusiasm this program creates, and let us be grateful that there are schools like this that give children, particularly minority children, better access to a good education. But let’s not use this as a broad-based endorsement of homework. Homework club on school property: Yes. Homework that overrides the decision-making of the parents and potentially causes the child to fail: No.





_{For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.} 
 

 

Raising Boys

I came across an article on PBS Parents, about raising boys. The article is quite accurate covering the issues of boys, aggression, and school. I recommend it.

I also found missing (and am trying to contact the producer) any comment of homework. The article covers problems with educational models that favor the behaviors and learning styles of girls and try to suppress boys as they are. It reminds me of an article I was interviewed for last year called, How To Catch a Falling Son.

The PBS piece seems aimed at parents and how they should address their son's aggressive forms of play, and teachers and how they should address boys in the classroom, but makes no mention of how parents should address homework demands, or how teachers should adjust their expectations of boys when it comes to the work that gets sent home. It is an odd omission since it gives good advice to each side about what to do in their own zone of control, but, like many people do around the topic of homework, throws its hands up in frustration, as if there is nothing anyone can do, about the practice of teachers, respected authorities, making demands on parents, who, despite being the expected authorities at home, are not supposed to challenge the teacher's decision.




For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

Homework in the news Feb 20 2013

I came across three articles on homework today. Here are links to those articles with the responses I left.

Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal with my response:

There is an issue that goes beyond this particular group's petition and that is the right of parents to have final say on things that go on in their home. The reason there is a need for this petition, and the reason why we can predict that just as many parents will oppose the position as will support it, is that homework is a unique area of life in which outside forces have seriously supplanted the authority of the parent. There are some simple steps which can be taken to rectify this problem and I address them on my website, www.thehomeworktrap.com. But we need to start with a new paradigm which is that teachers should use their best professional judgment to make lesson plans, including homework assignments, but that they do so recognizing that parents have the final say about what happens in the home. Once they develop their models with that limitation in mind, we will find less homework debate, less family disruption, and better teaching in the long run.

Glen Rock, New Jersey school district is looking at their homework policy.

I offered a four step model:

Time bound assignments
Penalty reductions
Increased teacher education on homework
Recognition of parents as the final decision-makers in their homes.

This research was referred to in The Nation.

Here is my comment:

The primary issue is not what is found in this study but the fact that teachers are not trained in the research, theory and practice of homework-giving. Parents who read this article are typically left with the task of bringing it to the teacher's attention. It is reasonable for parents to assume that teachers have already learned about homework in the schools of education. But they have not. In my mind, that is at the core of the problem. For more information, visit www.thehomeworktrap.com.



For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

 

 

A Teacher's Blog Post

I came across a teacher's blog post in which she calls homework "a necessary evil." She refers to time management as well. I posted a comment regarding what may be the true "evil" in homework and about misconceptions teachers having regarding time. Here's the link to the blog and here's the comment I left.

I think we sometimes overlook the number one "evil" about homework and that is that teachers are not taught the theory, research, and practice of homework-giving when they go to school. For a practice that has such large weight on the student's grade and has such a high potential of turning the child permanently off to education, the field actually gives it very little attention, in its schools of education, in its continuing education programs, and on its professional blogs and websites (although a little more on blogs and websites than elsewhere). If teachers studied homework the way they studied other aspects of teaching, there would be far less controversy.

Regarding the issue of time management, it is a misconception that homework teaches time management. It is like a credit card. If you know how to manage your money, you can use a credit card well. If you don't know how to manage your money, you need to give up the credit card and start working with the cash in your pocket, or in your checking account. Homework can only teach time management if students are instructed to stop working after a specific period of time. We need to distinguish our goal of teaching children good study skills for their future success from the notion that simply assigning homework and setting consequences for its not getting done is achieving that educational goal.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

 

 

  

Time in or time out

I came across an article, written by an exacerbated parent, in the online Wall Street Journal. The parent was struggling with how to put limits on the use of electronic media in the service of having her children get their homework done. When I lecture on The Homework Trap, I often ask parents what they think is a good consequence for homework not done and, to a tee, the answer involves removing the types of devices the writer refers to here. I then point out that the hallmark of a “good consequence,” is one that it is one that works, and the way you know it works is that you do not have to use it again. Consequences that continue to be used teach avoidant behavior, not homework compliance.

So, I’m going to offer this mother, and parents everywhere, an alternative to efforts to limit time doing things that are fun, and that is to limit time on the homework. Most parents have no trouble getting their kids to go to school. Their children know when the school day starts, and they know when it stops. Adults know when they’re supposed to show up for their jobs. They know when they can go home. It’s the natural order of things that “work” and “chores” be planned and placed in containers. Fun, free-time, is yours to use. So rather than engage in repetitive and unproductive efforts to get your child to limit what he wants to do, place limits on what he has to do. Set up an at-home study hall. Call it quiet time. Join your child, not in completing the homework, but in maintaining the quiet norm. Read a book. Take care of some personal business. Use the time to finish things from your work that you did not have time to complete during the work day. Do it the space where your child works and be available to “help” the child only if needed and requested by the child. But make sure that when the homework/quiet session is over, it completely comes to a stop, whether or not all the work has been done.

You’ll find yourself being much more effective overseeing your child’s behavior and helping your child get more work done by resisting the temptation to place boundaries on things that are fun, and begin putting the boundaries on the “must-do’s,” like homework, the child faces at night.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

 

  

Editorial on French Homework Ban

I came across this editorial on the proposed homework ban in France. It is found in a newspaper from Trenton, NJ, quite close to where I live. Here's the link.

I wrote the following comment on the paper's website:

There are really two issues here. One has to do with disadvantaged children and one has to do with whether the elimination of homework will help "a single student."

The problem of homework exacerbating the effects of economic inequality on disadvantaged students is well-documented in Kralovec's and Buell's book, The End of Homework. They, and other homework experts, have highlighted that homework is ill-supported in the research. I would also add that homework is ill-taught (in fact not taught at all) in schools of education. So there is a problem in which a poorly researched technique that is not even taught to teachers when they get trained for their craft, can have such large implications on a child's future and grades. Further, the practice of assigning, collecting, grading, and dealing with homework noncompliance problems all takes away from the time the teacher has to teach in class.

On the question of whether the elimination of homework will help "a single student," there is simply no question that somewhere between 10 and 25% of all students (the number varying based on the degree of the child's homework difficulties) will be greatly helped if homework is eliminated. The reason for this is pace, an issue I discuss in my book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. This issue is not restricted to economic differences, but is related to the fact that children do homework (and everything else -- run a race, brush their teeth, etc.) at varying speeds. Since the school day starts and stops with a bell, children can learn and perform within that time frame. In contrast, children are required to work on their homework until it is done. Those, at the slower end in pace of the homework-doing scale, will necessarily experience mounting amounts of homework (based on time, not volume) as they grow up, and they will eventually hit a point where that can't (and then won't) do it anymore. They get misperceived as being unmotivated and they react by displaying behavioral problems. It's a set-up for them to hate school, and it raises the risk that they will be drawn toward unproductive peer groups and dangerous behaviors when they become teens. Obviously, it is reasonable to have a discussion about how to balance the needs of these kids against the presumed benefits the other students garner by having homework. But to say that no child will benefit from a ban on homework is simply not true.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

  

Homework Going Extinct

Here's an article by a teacher who appears to bemoan the cultural changes that are leading to more homework noncompliance. I think he misperceives why this is happening. Here's his article, and here are my thoughts:

One reason why homework noncompliance is increasing is because homework assignments are increasing. It is not reasonable to expect minors to be working endlessly. School stops and starts by the clock. Many jobs start and stop by a clock. Some people choose professions where they work long hours, until the work is done. But for many people, they work until time is up and then pick up the next day if the job isn't done. In fact, I daresay that many adults would be wise if they bound their work by time, rather than content, and learned to use time well.
Regardless of how much homework is given, there will always be a group of students who do not get their work done because they work more slowly than other students do. These students get misperceived as unmotivated when, in fact, they would do well if there were time boundaries on what they did. As our mad pressure to improve education has translated into increased homework demands, this has increased the numbers of students who cannot get it done. Then, as the peer milieu begins to accept more homework noncompliance, other students follow suit.
The solution for teachers is to recognize that, regardless of the value of homework, it is always being done on someone else's turf -- the parents' home. Once we recognize and respect the authority of the parents, and assign homework with the tacit consent of parents, we will find that teachers will be careful to give meaningful assignments, parents will be more agreeable and supportive of the teachers, and students will be willing to do what they are told.
To give a child an assignment, threaten him with failure if he does not get it done, and then terrorize his parents with fear that their child will fail unless he gets all the work done, breeds behavioral problems, parental irrationality, and, in the end, is abusive to the child.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

Parental Involvement

Here is an article by Alfie Kohn that was published on Valerie Strauss' Washington Post blog, "Is parent involvement in school really useful?" Alfie is known for his penchant for challenging fixed beliefs, and, in this article, he does a great job doing just that. His comments are quite consistent with my own thoughts that parent-teacher conferencing for homework-trapped children runs the risk of causing children to feel ganged up on by parents and teachers alike, and this ends up making acting out behavior the only option the child has. The child, who looks up to his parent, sees the parent as a threat. The parent sees the child as disobedient despite the fact that the child's natural inclination is generally to please the parent. Kohn uses the word coercion, and he is absolutely right: Parents who are drawn into forcing their children to comply with teacher demands often give up their most powerful source of influence, the relationship, in an effort to coerce the child into doing things that parent did not even stop to think if that is what she wanted her child to do.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

After School Programs

I came across an article on the role of afterschool programs as a place to do homework. I sometimes think that the home is one of the worst places do to homework and agree that libraries and school-based afterschool programs can play a valuable role in reducing pressures in the home.

The article is geared to those who run these programs and it is worth reading if you are a librarian or a afterschool program worker. That said, I would like to add another role that the afterschool program can take that is not included in this article, and that is as observer of homework behavior

In reality, up to 25% of kids have serious homework problems and, for some, continued pressure to make them do the work does more harm than good. These kids need homework relief.

In this article, the writers acknowledge that homework gets mixed to poor reviews as an educational tool, yet it is still an educational fact of life that can weigh heavily on students who fail to get it done. I know that is true. Whether or not we should accept this fact of life is up for debate, but if we do, let's not overlook the fact that there are children who are bright and capable of learning, but who are totally incapable of getting assignments done, usually because of problems with working memory and processing speed. These are under the radar learning problems that don't catch the attention of the child study team until the child acts out and the problem is one of behavior, rather than learning. After school staff, if attuned to these issues, could actually take a major role in resolving this problem. Parents are often misperceived as being too close to their kids to see them clearly. If the afterschool staff sees the child struggling and reports those observations, it may be helpful getting the child the help he needs (including homework relief), rather than leaving it to the parents to make this point alone, or assuming the child can do something he can't really do.


For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

The Nation, Editorial on Homework

There is an editorial in the Thai Nation, "Is Homework the Key Issue of Concern?" Thailand is one more country that has entered the worldwide homework debate. The editorial appears to be pro-homework. I left the following response:

 

The problem that this editorial, and so many commentators overlook, is that the "amount of homework" is a volume of work, whereas the "amount of school" is a measure of time. Children vary in the ease with which they handle their homework assignments. There will always be some students who tackle what is given without difficulty. But there are also students who work more slowly than others and end up getting drowned by requirements they cannot meet. The school system may still produce some good students and perhaps some who thrive on working all night long. But the average success rate will go down if most students cannot handle the homework demands. Another point worth noting is that this editorial mentions the goal of giving large amounts of homework is to make sure that children use their time productively when they are at ho...
me. I think this reasoning is widespread, and it is true that children have different activities they can do that may have different values for them. In general we underrate the value of spontaneous and self-directed play, but even if we accept that there are some unproductive and somewhat addictive activities kids get caught into, video games for example, the argument for more homework as a way to counter this concern is still quite bizarre since it vests authority to control children, through volumes of work, in teachers rather than with the parents in the home. What ends up happening is that parents of kids who cannot get the homework done get their hands tied and have limited options about what to do about the uncompleted work. They often don't realize what they has happened, but they are sinking into a middle management role, vis-à-vis the teachers and their children and this "stripping of authority" the parents experience is quite detrimental to their kids.

For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. 

Parenting Advice Column

Here is a parenting advice column. The question is from a mother who has not been doing his homework after Christmas. The advice given is reasonable, although it leaves out the most important issues, regarding parental authority, that homework is questionable to begin with, and that it is important to protect the child from unreasonable homework demands and/or consequences, not just to focus on getting the work done. I left this comment to the article:

The word "battle" is your key. You should never be battling your child over homework. It is a sign that something is awry. Observe, don't battle. Try to understand what is going wrong. And operate with an understanding that homework is a questionable practice and that you are the one in charge of your home. I agree that you should set designated homework times, but then make those quiet times for the entire home. Don't do the work for your child but stay in the same space doing something quiet that you like or need to do. And, above all, bring the homework session to a close when the time is up, whether or not the work is done. Allow your child to learn how to use time, not that he has to keep working until it is all done. I offer more suggestions along this line of thinking on my website, www.thehomeworktrap.com.

For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.