West Henderson Wingspan

by katie pennock junior assistant editor

Igniting a national debate, the school board of the Piscataway, N.Y., public schools voted unanimously last fall to enact limits on the amount and nature of homework being assigned by the school district's teachers.

The school board limited homework assignments on weeknights to 30 minutes for elementary students and two hours for high school students. The policy "discourages" assigning homework over weekends and forbids teachers from grading homework or using it as a punishment.

"We're attacking the fabric of an institution. I think we've opened up people's eyes," Piscataway Superintendent Ronald E. Bolandi said.

Though to many the Piscataway school board's decision may appear to be a radical solution, similar policies may soon arise elsewhere in light of authors John Buell and Etta Kralovec's new book The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning. The book claims that homework can be harmful to children and hinder the learning process.

"We found in our research that homework has four very negative effects," Kralovec said in a recent interview with CNN. "One is that homework punishes poor kids for being poor. In addition, homework intrudes onto the family's agenda for their own children. Additionally, homework appears to stand in the way of a child's full development. And finally, there's a lot of questions about what homework's impact is on learning."

In their book, Kralovec and Buell defend the benefits of leisure time for children and argue that material covered in homework can effectively be taught in school. "Where positive correlations between homework and performance are found, it is not clear whether homework makes capable students or whether students who are already well motivated do homework," Buell said.

Principal Mary Louise Corn said she cannot see official homework restrictions for Henderson County students any time soon. "I think the difficulty of our subject matter and the amount of material that is continually added to our curriculum makes it hard in six hours of classes a day to cover it all adequately," Corn said. "Teachers are under pressure to do something other than lecture and to do much more hands-on activities because students retain more that way. Yet the practicing of this information is something you can't minimize either. It takes practice to get some things in your head."

Corn has support for the necessity of homework in teachers like Linda Soble, math department chair, who sees homework as imperative. "In math there has to be some type of homework involved," Soble said.
"You can't handle everything in class, particularly with a block four-by-four schedule. Our class is quite limited to an introduction to a subject, a discussion about it and practicing the different kinds of problems that might come up. I can't see students improving unless they are doing their homework."

In contrast, social studies teacher Frank Gerard doesn't give written homework assignments to his freshmen in Economic, Legal and Political Systems classes. "I tell my kids that their homework is to study every night and not wait until the night before the test," he said.

Gerard said his homework policy is based upon preparation for the state's ELPS end-of-course test. "I want them to really have that information in their heads so that when day 90 rolls around and they're taking their test, then that information isn't in their heads from the result of cramming the night before, which isn't long-term retention, but is the result of really absorbing it," he said.

While teachers continue to feel the strain of state exams, Buell argues that schools can improve test scores through means other than homework. "The call for homework reduction is not a demand to lessen standards. Schools can and must do a better job, but there are more equitable, efficient and family-friendly means to that end," he said.

As the debate over homework continues, it is clear the real battle continues in homes each evening as families attempt to deal with nightly assignments.

Parents like Lynn Turlington, mother of six children, said they struggle to keep a balance between their children's activities and homework. "Sometimes I feel like the school has the children all day. It shouldn't try to take over evenings and weekends," she said. "I see homework as being beneficial in that it makes sure that kids can use on their own what they have been taught. I see short reviews of the day's material as the most beneficial type of homework, as well as occasional research and writing assignments."

All night Courses like AP calculus and honors English
leave senior Summer Allison with hours of homework.
(Staff photo by Jeremiah Johnson)

"In math there has to be homework involved.
You can't handle everything in class with the block schedule."
-Linda Soble

by andrea albea news editor

Nothing can ruin a Saturday morning, and a Friday night, like having to take the SAT bright and early, but no longer is the SAT the only standardized test students have to worry about.

North Carolina's education reform movement has made standardized tests a routine part of school. Starting in the third grade, N.C. students take state end-of-grade tests. By high school there are state end-of-course tests in 10 core courses -- Algebra I, geometry, chemistry, biology, physics, English I, Economic, Legal and Political Systems (ELPS), U.S. history, Algebra II and physical science.

In April 1999, the North Carolina Board of Education passed Student Accountability Standards that will require all students to pass an "exit exam of essential skills" before they graduate. Initially, the current sophomore class was to be the first class required to pass an exit exam.

Now that has all changed. In January and again in February, the state board voted to delay the implementation of the exit exam. Current eighth graders will now be the first students required to pass the exam, but they will not be the first to take it.
In April all current juniors will take two of the four parts of the exit exam to help test writers check test items. Current sophomores and freshmen will take all four parts of the exit exam in the spring of their junior year, but passing it will not be a graduation requirement.

When finally implemented, students will take the four-day test as juniors can retake any part they fail during the summer aftertheir junior year and three more times during their senior year. The test will cover content that under the state curriculum is taught between the seventh and 11th grades.

"The legislature will require the schools to do remediation; probably most kids are going to ultimately pass the exit exam, whether they do the first time or the fourth time," Principal Mary Louise Corn said.

The exit exam is a four-day test with approximately two hours of testing each day. It is written in a multiple-choice format similar to other standardized tests that students are accustomed to taking. However, the exit exam is different from end-of-course tests because it emphasizes the application of knowledge. The four parts include communication, problem solving, processing information, and using numbers and data.

"It's not a math part and an English part. It's more of a communications part that requires the integration of knowledge from different subjects," Dr. Helen Owen, Henderson County testing administrator, said. "There is also a listening section that students have to respond to questions based on what they've heard."

Current students who thought they would have to pass the exit exam to graduate are pleased the state board has delayed the requirement.

"I think it is great we don't have to pass the test. The way I figure it, the smaller amount of tests, the better. I feel like I am constantly being asked to perform on tests. We have them all the time, and it is too much pressure," Hunter Ives said.