Homework, 504 plans and the PTA

Now that the National PTA convention has come to a close, we need to consider “what next” in the effort for homework reform. The PTA has agreed to review the guidelines at its governance meeting in August. That’s a good step. But regardless of what the National PTA eventually does, parents who are concerned about homework policy will still be concerned.

It seems to me that there are two types of parents and two types of approaches. There are parents whose children are doing well or reasonably well in school but who want to put the brakes on this constant, and unproductive, intrusion into their homes. There are parents whose children are not getting the work done, are facing low or failing grades, who are in large amounts of conflict with their children, and the result is only hours of heartache leading to nothing other than an inevitable downhill decline.

For those in the first category, I encourage you to contact your local PTAs and statewide PTA organizations to voice your support of these guidelines. For those in the second category, I suggest that you look at the 504 law to find ways to implement homework reform for your child, regardless of what the school district does.

On October 4, I will be presenting, in conjunction with a local education lawyer, a workshop on the homework trap, and how to use my model as the basis for a 504 plan. I hope to make this presentation available to parents throughout the country, and to partner with other education lawyers in advocating for this model. Right now, most educators are unaware of my model. For that matter, most educators are unaware of any models. Review the education websites, blogs, and discussion forums and you will find a dearth of information about homework. Look at the curriculum for a school of education and you will not find a course on the topic of homework. Typically, a 504 plan offers the child “more time,” perhaps meaningful when taking a test, but not “less work,” absolutely needed when it comes to homework accommodations.

If you are a parent in the latter position, I invite you to contact me and, if you have a lawyer or education advocate helping you out, that you connect me with that person. One thing that will help you get the help you need is to get the notion of homework reform embedded in the thinking of those who are putting together 504 plans. Educators cannot incorporate a concept into their plans if they don’t know what it is, and that may be loath to accept a change just because one parent says this is what the child needs. But for every child who gets a rational homework accommodation, that becomes one more case to enter the thinking of the educators the next time a bright, capable, but homework-trapped child, comes up for discussion.

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Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
What is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

The Homework Trap and the National PTA Petition

With the national PTA’s convention coming up this Thursday, and with their agreement to receive the Race to Nowhere homework petition on Wednesday, I consider this a good time to highlight how my model, The Homework Trap, fits in with the petition. First, I offer my compliments to Vicki Abeles and the Race to Nowhere team, along with my colleagues, Etta Kralovec, Sara Bennett, and Alfie Kohn for their contributions to this effort. I also support the petition for both its rational proposals and the fact that it defines for the PTA a role in the homework debate.

I have also noted some differences between my proposals and the petition and had promised to highlight them on my blog before Wednesday. Today, I am giving a statement about those differences, in written and video form.

I believe that the key problem with homework goes back, not to teachers, but to teachers of teachers, the schools of education. The sad part about this petition is that it creates a dialogue in PTAs that should have already taken place where teachers are taught. It is not surprising that children face highly disparate homework experiences coming from the 30 to 40 teachers they get during their years in school because teachers are not taught, when they go to school, the theory, research, and practice of homework. Teachers are left to learn about homework from other teachers who have experience and have been giving homework, but have not themselves been educated in how to give homework. This leaves parents, who are the heads of their own homes, compromised in the decisions they make for their children. Parents have high levels of responsibility, to make sure the assignments get done, with low levels of authority, to make decisions about what must be done and what can be waived. In order for parents to be better decision-makers when homework causes problems, they need relief from the penalties their children receive. A child who misses an assignment can get a zero, which counts as a super-F, in a system where homework may factor in up to 25% of the grade. Recently, the school board in Groversville, NY made the very rational decision to limit homework to 10% of the grade and to set a grade floor of 50%. These steps may prove vital in allowing parents to approach homework issues with wisdom and calmness rather than from a sense of panic.

My major recommendations involve time-bound homework, reduced penalties, and recognition that the parents have ultimate authority for matters in their homes. Although the Groversville decision falls short of giving the parents that absolute, final say, it still goes a long way in allowing parents to remain in charge of their homes.

The major difference between my recommendations and the PTA proposal is that I look at the containers rather than the specifics. It is my firm belief that one reason for homework problems is that teachers have an open “line of credit” in creating homework assignments. The school day lasts a specific amount of time, six hours more or less. It is not surprising that schools of education provide courses to teach aspiring teachers how to use that time well. If homework had a container, this would force educators to think carefully about how to use the time, much the way a credit counselor helps a person in debt by cutting the credit cards. It is very likely that, given limits, educators would decide to follow the guidelines put forth in the PTA petition. They might look at the writings of the authors I’ve mentioned, or read Cathy Vatterott’s recent book, Rethinking Homework. However they approach homework policy, they would do it knowing that if they gave more projects, they’d have to give less drills. If they opted for math drills, there might not be time for spelling words. This would stimulate the field to take a more serious and professional look at what it is doing when it makes the decision to give children work to be done at home.

As I said, I support the petition. Frankly, I would still opt for a half hour of silly, meaningless, and unproductive homework that stopped when the half hour was up over seemingly important assignments that occupy the child with no prospect for relief until all the work was all done.



Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework TrapWhat is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

Differences in Homework Criticism

As my followers know, I am strongly in favor of the petition being submitted to the National PTA this coming Wednesday by the Race to Nowhere team. That said, there are some substantial differences between my model for homework reform and what is proposed in the petition. I consider the current resolution extremely important because it includes an extremely rational view for good homework practices and because it brings the PTA into an important role it has not assumed before.

Today is not a good day for me to expand on the differences in vision to which I refer, but I will direct the reader to an interview I did with Michael Shaughnessy posted on March 23, 2012 in Education News. This interview highlights some of my fundamental concepts including the distinction between parents and teachers in determining what constitutes good homework.

In a later post, I will explain my position in more depth.

Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
What is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

Homework Trap and Learning Disabilities

Over the summer, I plan to place a greater emphasis on the homework trap and learning disabilities. My model highlights the notion of under-the-radar learning disabilities, and I also place specific emphasis on homework problems associated with ADHD. I'll have more comments and add some video comments as well (this is a getaway weekend for my wife and me so I'm not in a good setting to make a video for the next couple of days). I'll also intermix my posts with posts about the petition for the National PTA to take up homework reform. There has been a call for personal homework story videos and I will be making mine next week. Follow this link for more information about that petition.

For today's comment, I will direct you to an article I read on the cost of literacy. The article reports on the success these parents had sending their child who has learning disabilities to a high priced school. They found the school well worth the price. Obviously, this is not a solution that is accessible for every student and even if school districts identified all of these kids, you would get a lot of resistance in these times of fiscal austerity getting schools to agree to pay for such a plan. Perhaps, you could fight under federal disabilities law and win.

I think there is an important back story to this story, and it is found in two lines written in the article. They are:

"The first year I’d have to sit w him to do his homework we had to have these incentives. He was often crying. Not because it was so hard but because he was scared of doing it," and (referring to his new, private school)

"Basically, school starts at 8:15 and finishes at 2:30...He sees the occupational therapist there. They also have a social worker who does a type of group therapy there so they have a class that they take that is getting them used to having a learning disability and some of the other issues that might go along with that. Also she’s available for one on one for kids who are frustrated, sad, angry. We’ve availed ourselves of all those services."

If we combine those two comments, we see that the child is capable of thriving in a time bound setting, but was struggling before because of the homework demands. If we eliminated homework, or at least capped it by time, as we do for the school day, the child will begin to thrive. Note that the special services this child is getting in his special school are being given within the boundaries of his school day, not as an add-on at a learning center on top of homework assignments, and the result is predictable.  Both his learning and his sense of well-being have improved. There is no reason why public schools cannot let children, in far more cost effective ways than sending them to private schools, successfully learn by simply using time containers, assessing rather than punishing the problems, and providing reasonable instructional strategies and interventions during those specified times, and then letting the child relax, refuel, and play.


Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the The Homework Trap website

Homework Petition for the National PTA

In the past, I have recommended to my readers that they sign a petition calling on the National PTA to adopt homework policies. In today's video, I talk about the issue, not just the petition itself, but why it is important that the PTAs around the country be called upon to take on homework as an issue of concern.


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Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the The Homework Trap website