Homework debates heats up in Calgary as Catholic school board considers new guideline

CALGARY – In the late 1950s, the Soviet launch of Sputnik spooked Americans into a curious trend – homework.

After 20 years of declining rates of homework, driven by parents worried it was interfering with home life, according to researchers Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering, Soviet advancements in space had American leaders worried their country was falling behind. One of the outcomes of that reaction was more a more rigorous homework regime.

Did it work? It’s difficult to say. By the 1980s, not only had the U.S. won the Cold War, but American parents were back at war with school administrators over the demands of homework. The debate has rarely left the spotlight since.

The latest battle in this war played out in Calgary this week, after the Calgary Catholic School District released a set of draft homework regulations that mandates no homework until Grade 4, and never over long weekends and holidays. While the goal of the document is to make homework more effective, not just scale it back, it has resurrected a passionate debate about after-hours school work.

While the value of homework is a no-brainer to some, many parents have rebelled in recent years, saying homework interferes with other important extracurricular activities, increases stress levels and does little to improve education. Two years ago, for example, Calgarians Tom and Shelli Milley arranged a deal with teachers and principals at St. Brigid school to eliminate homework for their then 10-and 11-year-old children. At the time, Tom Milley said homework hung like the "Sword of Damocles" over his children as they took part in extracurricular activities.

But the big question remains — does homework make for better students? Much research into the question of homework has been done, but little is straightforward in the homework wars.

In their book The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It, authors Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish say there is little evidence homework for elementary aged students helps them achieve academic success. They say homework pits families against each other, and even contributes to obesity. "Homework overload is compromising our parenting choices, jeopardizing our children’s health, and robbing us of precious family time," they write.

In 2008, researchers Dr. Linda Cameron and Dr. Lee Bartel surveyed caregivers of more than 2,000 students across Canada, seeking some Canadian perspective on the question. Their findings were illuminating in many ways. About 75 per cent of parents, for example, said children today have more homework then they did as students. The study also showed only 20 per cent of Grade 5 parents thought homework was beneficial, and as many as 40 per cent of Grade 4 parents thought homework had a neutral or detrimental effect on their children. "The amount of homework puts stress on an already taxed system resulting in feelings of resentment, little life balance, and arguments and power struggles," the report says.

Even global studies provide few clear answers. A 2009 study by German researchers of 230,000 students in 40 countries found no correlation between the amount of homework time students put in and their achievement. Countries in which teachers assign the most homework did not produce the best students. However the study did find a link between homework time and math achievement, but the link vanished when other factors, such as socio-economic status, were considered.

Worried about stressful loads placed on students, especially in high school, some American jurisdictions have banned homework, even at time of growing anxiety about the American school system slipping in international rankings.

In examining the research, there are a few concrete ideas emerging. There is growing evidence that homework does little to benefit elementary-aged students, partly because they haven’t developed the required motivation. At high school levels, most experts agree that some homework can be beneficial, but not too much. The influential Duke University researcher Harris Cooper wrote in a 2006 study that "too much homework may diminish its effectiveness or even become counterproductive."

That seems to be the philosophy most school boards are approaching in Canada. The Calgary Board of Education policy on homework aims to strike a balance.

It seeks a "supportive role of the home" in education, while not "(interfering) with the child’s pursuit of other wholesome non-school interests." The policy recommends no formal homework assignments in the early grades, then 20 minutes a night, rising each year to a recommended two hours a night for Grade 12 students.

Catholic School Board spokesperson Janet Sutherland told the Herald last week that the new policy is a formalization of a philosophy advocating collaboration between students, schools and parents.

"There’s a lot of room in there for working with parents to get the best outcomes for students," she said.