Homework: A Controversy

Since the beginning of time (or at least since the beginning of schooling), most students have despised homework. I would be willing to bet that even those that don't necessarily mind homework wouldn't be too saddened if they were told they never had to do it again. That's basically what has happened in the school district I am working with.

Being an urban, low-income district, graduation rates are not as high as other districts, so a main concern of theirs is to improve graduation rates. The thought is there, and I understand they are trying, but it is hard for me to agree with one of the ways they decided to go about improving graduation rates: by eliminating homework.

To administrators this seems logical. To teachers this seems absurd. To students this seems too good to be true. But it is true, to the dismay of many teachers in this district. The no homework decision is new, this school year being the first time it is in effect. The reasoning behind this decision is that many students who were failing were simply falling behind because they either weren't doing their homework or weren't turning it in. This didn't seem fair, administrators determined, that students who were attending class regularly and were doing the in-class assignments but not doing the work required outside of class were failing and thus not graduating. I can see where they are coming from on this. But getting rid of homework all together does not fix the problem.

Teachers can still assign work outside of class, but it cannot be counted as a grade. B.F Skinner theorized long ago that (many) people are motivated by positive reinforcement. This can be getting verbal praise, gaining a sense of satisfaction or accomplishment in one's work, or earning good grades. Of course this is just a theory, but think of any assignment you've ever had--if you weren't going to get a grade for it, would you see much point in doing it? Students aren't receiving grades, so there is no positive reinforcement for doing the work, and since teachers aren't allowed to require homework, there is no negative reinforcement for not doing it. Now teachers are still struggling with students not doing work outside of the classroom, so they are having to devote time in class to work that should be completed at home. This makes it very hard to fit in all of the things that need to be taught, especially with standardized testing rapidly approaching in March.

A simpler solution, it seems, would have been to adjust the grading percentages so homework did not count for as much of the students grade. Those who tended to not turn in their work would still get a lower grade in the homework category, but not one that would cause them to fail. Instead, administrators opted to controversially eliminate homework, a decision that has become a burden to teachers who are already limited to a strict curriculum and tight schedule. Administrators are not dumb, and they do a lot of things that help schools to run effectively and efficiently, but I have a hard time believing that getting rid of homework is helping this district to be either of those things.