Should Homework be Abolished?

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Homework is a topic that almost everyone fights about, from educators to students to parents. According to Marzano, during the first couple decades of the twentieth century, teachers believed that homework helped students become more disciplined, but by 1940 homework was thought to interfere with the home life of students (Marzano, 2007, p.74). That trend goes back and forth until the 1980s when people started to have varying opinions (Marzano, 2007, p.74). The definition of homework is activities or assignments that a teacher gives a student that should be completed at home (Landing-Corretjer, 2009, p.14). Homework should be abolished because it does not improve testing abilities or achievement, causes unneeded stress, and hinders students’ home life.
Homework does not improve the knowledge of today’s students. Homework assignments given nowadays are not directed towards a child’s abilities. In Voorhees’s experience, a fifth grade student was given a reference that was at a twelfth grade reading level (Voorhees, 2011, p.363). If students continue to receive homework that they cannot possibly do, they will not improve. Teachers do not realize that they are giving impossible homework and are setting up their students for failure (Voorhees, 2011, p.363). There are possible reasons for this. One could be that the teachers have a high reading level and can understand the materials given to the students. It may be hard for a teacher to judge what an appropriate reading level is when they have such a vast vocabulary. There is also the possibility that the teacher is tenured and just does not care whether they are teaching correctly anymore because there almost no chance of them being fired. Homework has no direct relation to test score...

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...the fact that homework has little to no effect on test scores and grades.

References
Biscoglio, Joseph. Langer, Nieli. (2011). “Grandparents Against Homework.” Educational Gerontology, 154-163.
Costley, Kevin C. (2013). “Does Homework Really Improve Achievement?” Arkansas Tech University, 1-10.
Kohn, Alfie. (2006). “Down With Homework.” Instructor, 43-68.
Landing-Corretjer, Gladys. (2009). “Listen to Me! An Exploration of the Students Voices Regarding Homework.” Walden University, 1-135.
Marzano, Robert J. Pickering, Debra J. (2007). “The Case For and Against Homework.” Educational Leadership, 74-79.
Voorhees, Susan. (2011). “Why the Dog Eats Nikki’s Homework: Make Informed Assignment Decisions.” International Reading Association, 363-367.
Xu, Jianzhong. “Homework Emotion Management Reported by High School Students.” The School Community Journal, 21-36.

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