Schools
Survey: Parents Against Homework During Vacations
School district to present results at January meeting.
A survey of students, teachers, and parents who answered online questions this fall regarding several aspect of homework, including amount and timing, will be presented at the Jan. 9 meeting, schools superintendent Valerie Goger said in a Friday Folder letter to parents.
The survey results, collected during October and November, already have been compiled in a report prepared by the district's director of curriculum Sean Siet, according to Goger. The results already are posted on the school website, and contains links to three survey summaries, the superintendent said.
Goger said Siet will present the report on the homework survey results, along with a report on college statistics and trends, at the school board meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 9 at the on Quincy Road.
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One finding in the report, showing that parents expressed the "overwhelming sentiment" against the assignement of homework during recesses from school, resulted in a decision not to assign any homework to students over the current December break, Goger said in her letter to parents and at the last school board meeting.
"Over the course of the winter months, the faculty will be discussing homework guidelines proposed by the administration after review of the survey results," Goger said in her letter to parents. She said final guidelines should be in place by March.
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The online report said that 1,931 parent surveys were filed, including 650 from parents of students in kindergarten through grade 5, 681 from parents in grades 6 to 8, and 591 from parents of students at the high school. The report said 2,756 students in grades 6 to 12 answered a homework survey last fall.
The survey results already have been discussed in concept at the last few school board meetings. In late November, Siet told the school board and audience that night that the majority of survey comments that there is too much homework assigned to students came from the parents of children at the
Parents of high school students, even those taking honors or Advanced Placement courses, were more likely to say that appropriate amounts of homework were being assigned, Siet said at that time.
However, 42 percent of parents surveyed strongly agreed, and 29 percent agreed, that homework should not be assigned during a recess from school, such as the vacation now underway.
"Long term work assigned over a period of time containing a recess week may not be due earlier than one week after students return from the recess," Goger said in her letter. "This should allow students to manage their time and balance long term assignments in consideration of family activities."
"While the goal was to collect information on the subject of homework, the surveys also allowed for the collection of anecdotal information on how parents and students are impacted by homework, both at home and in preparation for other classes," Siet said in the online report. Three different viewpoints were collected from parents, teachers and students, he said.
"Without question, the most commented on subject was the amount of time it took students to complete homework assignments," Siet said. The survey indicated the majority of students are taking between one hour and over two and a half hours to complete homework, he said.
Of those numbers, roughly 60 percent of the eligible students were in accelerated courses at either at William Annin (algebra and geometry) at Ridge High School, he said.
The majority of comments centered on the amount of homework teachers in sixth and seventh grades, he said.
"These were also the two grades in which parents commented on the types of assignments given for homework. Many parents felt that they were 'busy work' or not helping to contribute to content acquisition in the course," Siet said in the report.
Parents also expressed criticism of group projects, noting that they had to sometimes drive students to work on such projects with other students. Another point was that stronger students sometimes "carried" the others, parents in the survey said.
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