Although a formal report with charts and graphs on this fall's survey of parents about school homework could be presented at a public board meeting in about the next month, Sean Siet, director of curriculum in township schools, said on Monday night that parents of middle schoolers were most likely to focus on the amount of homework given.

The majority of comments that there is too much homework assigned to students came from the parents of children at the William Annin Middle School, "seventh grade in particular," Siet told the Board of Education.

"We heard a lot of, 'I want my child back on the weekends,'" Siet said.

By contrast, parents of students even in honors and Advanced Placement classes at Ridge High School were more likely to say that appropriate amounts of high school are being assigned, Siet said. Some said they would like to see even more rigor in AP class homework, even if not an increase in amount of work, he noted.

Siet said about 1,900 responses came in from parents who filled out an online survey in October regarding the quantity and quality of homework their children receive in township schools. He said some parents filled in multiple surveys for children in multiple grade levels. Nevertheless, he estimated that between 27 to 30 percent of district parents took the survey.

The survey is part of a study that the Board of Education is undergoing regarding "student stressors," in particular at the middle school and high school level, or grades 6 to 12.

There was not much concern from parents of grade schoolers that their students receive an excess amount of homework, Siet said on Monday night.

Other preliminary findings: "Some parents said they do not like group projects;" and there is a great disparity among the amounts of homework for high school students, depending on their course selections, Siet said.

Siet said he will present the findings in more detail at a board curriculum meeting on Dec. 9.

Since the last public update on the survey in November, Siet had categorized 913 comments from parents that will be included in the presentation at the board curriculum meeting, said Schools Superintendent Valerie Goger.

Also in October, students in grades 6 to 12 at the middle and high school also were surveyed on homework, school officials said. Siet said a response was received by about 90 percent of that student population.

Just this week, a different version regarding homework had been distributed to district teachers, Goger said. The teachers will have a week to complete the survey, she said, which at 84 questions is longer than the parent survey.

Goger previously has said a second survey regarding student stress will be issued later during the school year.