Section 1: Academic Achievement - National Center for School ...

Etta Kralovec and John Buell (2000) have some differing points of view in their book titled,
The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and
Limits Learning. Both are educators who dared to challenge one of the most widely accepted
practices in American schools; homework. Their provocative argument was the first to
challenge the gospel of “the more homework the better.”
They want us to consider:
-In 1901, homework was legally banned in parts of the U.S. There are no studies
showing that assigning homework before junior high school improves academic
achievement.
-As the homework load increases (and studies show that it is increasing) family
priorities are neglected.
-Homework is a great discriminator, effectively allowing students whose families
“have” to surge ahead of their classmates who may have less. (Kralovec, 2000).
In a discussion in a series of Ask with Education forums Kralovec (2006) presented her case
for reducing, if not abolishing homework in the nation's public schools. "Homework simply
doesn't make sense in this brave new constructivist world of teaching and learning," Kralovec
stated. "When work goes home, teachers have little control over who does the work," she
continued. "Teachers [are] unable to scaffold new knowledge for students, and [are] unaware
of each student's true educational progress. Kravolec's co-author Buell suggested that
homework increases the "achievement gap" between children of different socioeconomic
backgrounds. "Schools can expand the quality of economic opportunities, but they can also
entrench privilege," he explained. Buell expressed doubts that students perform better simply
because schools are demanding more from them (Gavel, Doug; Harvard University Gazette).
Another aspect of homework that has been studied is how student, family, and parenting-style
differences relate to the homework process. At the University of Missouri a study was
conducted by Cooper, H, Lindsay JJ, and Nye, B. They surveyed about 700 parents about the
involvement in their child’s homework. The study results state:
A factor analysis revealed three dimensions of homework involvement similar
to those found in more general studies of parenting style. These dimensions are
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