Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs

Is homework an essential component of rigorous schooling or a harmful practice that alienates and discourages a significant number of students? The debate over homework has gone on for decades, but schools and families have changed in many ways, and, as author Cathy Vatterott notes, "There's a growing suspicion that something is wrong with homework."
Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs examines the role homework has played in the culture of schooling over the years; how such factors as family life, the media, and the "balance movement" have affected the homework controversy; and what research--and educators' common sense--tells us about the effects of homework on student learning.
The best way to address the pro- and anti-homework controversy is not to eliminate homework. Instead, the author urges educators to replace the "old paradigm" (characterized by longstanding cultural beliefs, moralistic views, the puritan work ethic, and behaviorist philosophy) with a "new paradigm" based on the following elements:

* Designing quality homework tasks;
* Differentiating homework tasks;
* Deemphasizing grading of homework;
* Improving homework completion; and
* Implementing homework strategies and support programs.

Numerous examples from teachers and schools that have revised their practices and policies for homework illustrate the new paradigm in action. The end product is homework that works--for all students, at all levels.

Dr. Cathy Vatterott is an Associate Professor of Middle Level Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. During her career, she has been a junior high school teacher, a middle school principal, and a middle school parent. She is the author of over a dozen articles about education, published in such journals as the Middle School Journal, Schools in the Middle, Current Issues in Middle Level Education, and the New England League of Middle Schools Journal. Her first book, Academic Success through Empowering Students, was published by the National Middle School Association in 1999. Over the last 15 years, she has conducted workshops for hundreds of middle school teachers and principals, and has been a frequent presenter at the National Middle School Association's Annual Conference. She has developed an NCATE-approved university program for middle school certification at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and has prepared pre-service middle school teachers for over 10 years. She and her university students continue to work on-site with a student-focused middle school which serves as their Professional Development School. On a broader note, she is considered to be a national expert on the topic of K-12 homework, her latest research interest. She has presented her homework research to over 3000 educators and parents in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and has been interviewed as a homework expert by newspapers, magazines, television, and radio.