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

I then sent a letter to the parents (or contacted them by phone). This letter stated that their
son/daughter was not able to participate in Fun Monday due to the following assignments not
being done. The homework assignment that was not done was listed in that space. It also
stated that their son/daughter was provided 30 additional minutes during class time to
complete the assignment. They could work with a peer or ask the teacher for help during this
time. If the work still didn’t get completed, the student was taking the assignment home to
work on. The parent then needed to sign the letter and send it back to school. There was a
space provided for the parent to make comments or communicate with me any difficulties that
still needed to be address with that particular student.
After the parents became aware about the homework assignments not being completed, it was
my job to continue to track the assignment until it was done. In most situations the parents
were happy to receive the notice about their son or daughter and what assignments were not
done. Most parents signed the note and returned it the next day while others had to be
contacted again by note or by phone.
In order for me to see if any results were occurring academically, I needed to analyze the
work that these students were turning in so I could see if they were getting the skills that were
being taught and reinforced through the homework. I needed to keep track of the missed
assignments and see if the students were responsible enough to turn them in by the time frame
allotted. I compared pre and post observation notes of homework grades.
The ideal situation was once the action research was in place to see that students who were
not turning in homework on a regular basis were given some incentive to get it turned in on
time. These students would also have gained a greater self esteem in knowing that they could
succeed. During this whole process, it was my responsibility to monitor and maintain a
consistent approach to solve the problem.
We, as educators, need to acknowledge just how much families have changed. Family
structure has become more complicated, with many more children living with step-parents or
in single parent households. Families today may face extra difficulties and we have to take
that into considerations when trying to team together with them to tackle the war on
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