Middle school homework policies

[Anonymous]

DC's school assigns 2-3 hours of homework daily in 7th and 8th grades on top of an 8-hour school day. This sounds like much too much to me. Is this the new normal?

[Anonymous]

That's the new normal because of No Child Left Behind, IMO. But I hear that in MoCo, teachers won't mark down if homework's not done, because too many parents get in a snit about it. So it might be worth asking.... (I think that's too much in middle school. An hour max).

[Anonymous]

This is actually at a private school, but it's interesting to know what the public schools are doing (which is why I didn't post in the private/independent schools forum). One of my main reasons for choosing private school was to avoid the NCLB-related grind--guess I didn't look carefully enough or far enough down the road. (Middle school is still a way off.) I agree that an hour a night seems appropriate at this age.

[Anonymous]

FYI- I babysit a 4th grader in a public school who gets 45 mins to 1 hr of homework per night. Her neighbor is also in 4th grade but at a private school and gets a similar amt. The difference is that the public schooler's homework is incredibly pointless and a waste of everyone's time. Think writing her spelling words in sentences, ABC order, math dittos out the wazoo. The private schooler's homework is a bit more meaningful. Reading of her own choosing for at least 20 mins a night. Working on long term projects of her own interest. The occasional math facts. I almost want to cry when the girl I babysit for takes out her dittos. Her time would be better spent playing outside w/ her friends. Not to mention all the trees that have been killed for those dittos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's school assigns 2-3 hours of homework daily in 7th and 8th grades on top of an 8-hour school day. This sounds like much too much to me. Is this the new normal?

This seems like an excessive amount of homework. Does it take most children in your child's grade the same 2 to 3 hours to complete their homework, or is your child having extra difficulty? (The work is too hard, child works slowly, child has trouble getting started or is frequently distracted, etc.)

You can see Fairfax County homework guidelines here. They suggest no more than 1.5 hour of homework per night in middle school.

http://www.fcps.edu/about/homework.htm

[Anonymous]

More from Fairfax County:

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/0/a4c212a4f025c4ec85256fd30054576c/$FILE/R3205.pdf

Homework assignments should be relevant to content being studied with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Homework for advanced learners should focus on understanding content in greater depth and complexity and not on
increased time commitments.

I.E. homework shouldn't just be dozens and dozens of already mastered math facts, when just 12 math facts would suffice. Students who are ready to go above and beyond the grade level curriculum should not just be assigned pages and pages more homework to "keep them busy".

Students should receive timely feedback on all homework, and feedback should reinforce student learning.

I.E.. homework shoudl not be busywork, and teachers shoudl assign it for a reason, and assess the homework.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. (My child is not in middle school yet; these are the expectations as described by our school.)

[Anonymous]

My DC is in private middle school and does 1, 1.5 or sometimes 2 hours of homework a night. Math is virtually every night, other things are on longer deadlines, i.e., grammar is always due on Thursdays. Some nights it may be less than an hour. DC manages this without much involvement from me (except for questions or problems), due to the very good time management and organizational instruction given in school and built up from earlier grades. For all I know the handbook says that DC is expected to do 2-3 hours of homework a night. But that's not in actuality what they're assigning. So I'd suggest asking a middle school parent before getting too worried by the handbook. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

It is very hard to "grade/assess" homework since you can never be sure if the child is doing the work or the parent. As a former 5th grade teacher I usually just kept track of if the homework was gone or not. Home work is meant to be a review of what was done that day...a creative prokst doesn't alwys fit that bill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is very hard to "grade/assess" homework since you can never be sure if the child is doing the work or the parent. As a former 5th grade teacher I usually just kept track of if the homework was gone or not. Home work is meant to be a review of what was done that day...a creative prokst doesn't alwys fit that bill

As a former elementary school teacher, I always assessed homework (spot check) but did not use it to evaluate mastery. Evaluation should IMO take place at school for exactly the reasons you describe. I assigned grades baed on mastery of the material, as measured by in-class tests or work samples.

Since homework was assigned for practice and was not given a grade, if parents helped their children, that was fine -- sometimes children had difficulty with a concept and the parents were able to clear up the confusion. I just asked parents to let me know on the homework that their child had had help.