appropriate homework for age

What is the appropriate age for children to start getting homework?

Debbie leekeenan, director of the eliot-pearson children’s school and a lecturer in the department of child development, fills us in.

“In recent times, there seems to be more homework, especially for our youngest students,” says Debbie LeeKeenan. Photo: iStock

Homework is such an established part of education, it’s hard to believe it’s not all beneficial. But recent studies have found almost no correlation between homework and long-term achievement in elementary school, and only a moderate correlation in middle school.

Yet in recent times, there seems to be more homework, especially for our youngest students. That seems to have led to a backlash. Often-cited negative effects include children’s frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities and downtime and a loss of interest in learning. Many parents lament that homework is a constant source of tension at home.

What is the purpose of homework? The best homework assignments are meaningful and authentic and are connected to classroom learning. Homework can be used to teach time management and organization, to broaden experiences and to reinforce classroom skills. Parents are not expected to play the role of the teacher or introduce new skills.

Homework can certainly benefit students. It may encourage:

Practice and review —such as reading 15 minutes each night, studying spelling words or number facts

Pre-learning —a way to introduce a new topic; for example, if the class will be studying ants, having students write questions they have about ants

Processing —if learning about moon phases in class, students would observe the moon for several nights and draw what they see and identify the phases

Checking for understanding —keeping a journal about science experiments done in class, for instance

How much homework is too much? The idea that “less is more” rules here. According to the National Education Association, guidelines are no more than 10 minutes per grade level per night (that’s 10 minutes total for a first-grader, 30 minutes for a third-grader). Some students do their homework on their own, and some parents help their children. Many teachers now give homework once a week that is due the following week to allow more flexibility and accommodate a range of student and family schedules.

Successful homework experiences have strong home-school partnerships, where the purpose of homework is clearly defined by the teacher and communicated with the student and family. When in doubt, ask!

Do you have a question for Ask the Professor? Send it to Tufts Journal editor Taylor McNeil .

Posted September 01, 2010

Another fine mess.

Fletcher professor exposes the limits of financial models and calls for a return to old-fashioned banking values

The Right Whey

Molly Pindell, N05, took her own path to making scrumptious, sustainable goat cheese

New Accolade for the Dental School

William J. Gies Award recognizes leadership in teaching, research, community service and diversity

Combating a Brand-New Superbug

Biomedical researchers launch a three-front assault on a potentially lethal bacterium

Pow! Women Pop Artists Get Their Day

SLIDESHOW: New Tufts Art Gallery exhibition highlights works hidden in the shadows for decades

From The Archives

The spark of revolt, february 16, 2011, when health care is lost in translation, record applications for fall, january 31, 2011, dental force, january 18, 2011, rough and ready vaccine, people notes, accomplishments from the tufts community.

Catch up with events at Tufts

Send us your comments and story ideas

Keep up with our news via RSS

Welcome, Login to your account.

Recover your password.

A password will be e-mailed to you.

6 Tips For Raising a Child Alone as a Single Parent
Sex, Love & Feelings: How Do Guys Get Emotionally Attached?
How Do You Define Family? The True Meaning (& Some Definitions) of Family
Step-Parents: 17 Tips to Balance Your Family and Your Relationship
Having a Fun Time with Early-Teen Grandchildren (Ages 12-15)
What’s Wrong With “Mommy Juice” & “Wine-O-Clock” Culture?
What Are The Positive Effects of Helicopter Parenting?
Soap for Swearing: Is it Acceptable Today?
Here’s What You Can Do When Your Partner Doesn’t Want To Have Children
Step Parent Problems: Advice on Boundaries

Clean<span class="main-color">Fashion</span>

Your Age-by-Age Guide to Homework

Are you scared to look in your child’s book bag at the end of the day?

And I’m not talking about the forgotten sandwiches that migrate to the bottom of a full backpack.

I mean the dreaded homework assignments that loom within folders and binders, just waiting to be ignored and fought over for the rest of the evening.

Typically when parents think of the word “homework”, they quickly associate it with the term “fight”.

But homework doesn’t have to be a fight – a struggle at times, yes, but now a full out war.

Understanding what homework looks like at each grade level is a great start to helping support your child in completing their school work.

Also, the earlier you focus on creating an environment of learning and studying, the easier time your child will have as they progress through school.

Here’s your guide on setting up your child for academic success as well as what kind of homework to expect for each grade:

Setting Up For Success

From day one, homework is important in developing good study skills.

In order to encourage your child to complete their homework and take it seriously, you need to establish a proper homework environment .

Here are some tips for setting your child up for homework success:

Set a regular homework time. Homework should be done at the same time each evening to establish a routine. Just make sure you’re allowing your little one some time to decompress when they get home before jumping into more schoolwork.
Create a study area. Give your child a place to with proper lighting, materials and few to now distractions.
Keep an eye on their work. Involve yourself in the process not only by helping them with homework, but monitoring their progress as well.
Be a role model. While you may not have homework at this stage in your life, you can model good study habits by reading and pursuing your own learning opportunities.

You may think your child is a little Einstein when they start school, but the learning material will progressively get more difficult as they age.

Encouraging good study habits will give them the skills they need to continue their success through school.

Grade-by-Grade Homework Guide

Kindergarten.

When your little one is in kindergarten, it’s likely they won’t have much for homework.

However, you may find the teacher sending home easy tasks such as practicing sight words, letters, numbers and working on patterns.

Since there shouldn’t be a lot of academic expectation from children this young, it’s easy to navigate the homework by making it fun and play-based.

Children learn best through tactile activities, so materials such as PlayDoh can be used to create numbers and letters as well as designing patterns using different colors.

A whiteboard is a great tool to practice what they are learning, especially sight words. Write out the word, have your child read it and let them erase it before moving on to the next one.

Kindergarten homework tends to be pretty repetitive, meaning that your child is likely going to practice the same material each night on a week-to-week basis.

Even if your little one is catching on quick to the material, it’s important to keep up with the homework habit. This is going to help them develop healthy studying habits as they move from grade to grade.

Elementary School: Grades 1 to 2

Once your child moves from kindergarten into grade 1, the learning environment becomes less play-based and more academic.

This doesn’t mean you can’t continue making homework fun! At this age, their focus is still on playing, so you can keep using novel materials when doing homework.

The workload is likely not going to increase during these grades, but the material may become more challenging.

In order to keep homework from becoming too time consuming, you may have to mix straight-up review with play.

Use unique activities when it comes to concepts your child is struggling with and quick reviews for the learning objectives they have easily grasped.

By these grades, teachers typically encourage your child to be reading. This aspect of homework can be delayed until bedtime – which makes reading seem less like “work” and more like a leisurely activity.

Elementary School: Grades 3 to 5

By the time your little one enters grade 3, and until they finish elementary school, they should begin to complete their homework independently.

While it’s important that you remain on standby to help them with difficult concepts, you should be able to set up each homework activity and allow them to complete them on their own.

During this time, students begin to progress from simply practicing basic skills and mastering them onto more complex skills.

This means that homework is going to become more challenging, which is why focusing on a good homework routine during these grades is very important.

If you find your child resisting their homework at this age, there’s nothing wrong with offering an incentive for completing it. Try to stay away from monetary rewards and focus more on fun activities they can engage in once homework is completed.

Remember to not make homework seem like a cumbersome chore – instead, cheer your child on as they work through it. Praise them for doing a good job.

Middle School: Grades 6 to 8

Once your child hits middle school, they should be able to complete their homework assignments on their own.

Homework at this grade level is going to shift more heavily from practicing concepts to completing assignments such as essays and projects.

This is the beginning stages of the foundation of study skills they will need to succeed in high school as well as college or university.

During this time, students are beginning to rely more on technology to complete their assignments. Make sure your child has access to a tablet or computer they can use to conduct research as well as seek help for their homework.

However, it’s important for you to stay involved in their progress. Regular check-ins with their homework will not only help your child stay on track but it will also show them that you want to be involved in their education.

High School: Grades 9 to 12

It’s in high school where a student’s homework load balloons and becomes more time consuming than it was before.

Luckily, kids at these grade levels are able to choose a portion of their courses, so they have a vested interest in what they are learning.

However, with all the changes they are experiencing emotionally and physically, this period of their lives can be extremely stressful.

Maintaining that homework routine is more important now than ever. Stressed-out teens may become overwhelmed with the workload and feel compelled on throwing in the towel on completing homework assignments.

Continue to be supportive by helping them plan and prepare for homework assignments as well as tests and exams .

While you may not be able to help them with the homework material (what is “new” math, anyway?), you can certainly lend a hand when it comes to time management and getting the homework done.

You Can Make the Difference

When left to their own devices, children can’t be expected to take their schoolwork 100% seriously.

It’s your job as the parent to support and guide them through their homework and assignments.

Building good habits now is going to make all the differences as your child progresses through school.

How do you deal with homework hurdles? Share your tips in the comments!

My name is Chelsy and I am a single mother, blogger, and freelance writer. I blog about parenting at Motherhood+Mayhem (motherhoodandmayhem.online) and about working from home at Mama Needs Coffee (mamaneedscoffee.online). When I'm not writing or blogging, you can find me building blanket forts in my living room.

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

7 Easy Ways to Help Your Kids To Finish Their Homework…

404 Not Found

Subscribers

Our Mission

What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

How long will it take to complete?
Have all learners been considered?
Will an assignment encourage future success?
Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

Get the latest news and stories from Tufts delivered right to your inbox.

Is Homework Useful for Kids? If So, What Age Should It Start?

Brian Gravel, an assistant professor of education, questions homework as it exists and imagines it as a way to make schooling meaningful for young people

A tricky aspect of being a professor of education with school-aged children is that I am frequently asked to comment on issues of pedagogy and policy.

One of my favorite topics involves the myriad questions around homework. When should kids get it? Are kids getting enough? Are they getting too much? What’s the point?

Researchers have explored various aspects of homework for decades, asking questions about its efficacy in raising achievement scores and measuring forms of engagement, and if it can support certain kinds of learning goals.

Across the board, the educational community has consistently shown that the positive impacts of homework—in its present forms—are minimal at best.

Some middle school and high school students might score higher on achievement tests when they do homework. But we can’t find evidence that it supports elementary school learning, and we have ample evidence of its harmful impact, like contributing to children’s exhaustion, reducing time for play, and contributing to overall disinterest in school.

My 10-year-old son believes the purpose of homework is “to bore you.” When asked for a more thoughtful response the question of its purpose, he says “I don’t really know. Maybe to remember what you’ve been doing at school?”

Let me be clear—I do not believe homework in its current forms should exist at the elementary level, and I have deep skepticism of its utility at the middle and high school levels as well. This is more than opinion—it’s the product of having studied how people learn, personal experience, and reading research on the topic. (See Alfie Kohn’s writings on homework —they offer much to consider.)

Homework tends to be the place where the most rote, dull, and uninspired kinds of schooling tasks flourish: memorizing, repetition, reproduction. These contribute to what Ira Shor, notable educational philosopher and collaborator of Paulo Freire, called the great “endullment”—the “dulling of students’ minds as a result of their nonparticipation.”

If we believe education can empower students to be critical examiners of their worlds, to build ideas and connections, and to gain facility with communicating their thinking, then we must rethink “homework.”

I would love it if we could shift the conversation away from whether homework “works” or whether students should be assigned homework, toward what homework could be. That’s because, while we can remove it from elementary schools (and we should), it is likely not going away.

We should ask questions like “Why homework?” and “What could we ask students to explore at home?” And, “How could home be a place to further explore ideas, histories, and relationships that surface in conversations at school?” Or—here’s a radical idea—we could ask students themselves what kind of work at home would feel engaging and meaningful to them.

Homework could invite students to continue thinking, reflecting, and building relationships among experiences in school and in other places in their lives. In fact, students are doing this kind of work already—making sense of what they encounter in school, in whatever forms that took.

I think of homework as extending and expanding the conversations of the classroom, with space for students to exercise their own creativity and agency in exploring those ideas along the lines of their choosing. Homework could be one way students bring their stories, histories, cultures, and identities into the classroom space to support their learning and participation.

The very notion of “homework” creates a somewhat false distinction in how learning and relationships transcend the spaces of one’s life—school might feel different for students if it were a place to make sense of things happening in their lives.

A conversation about homework also allows us to question the nature of the learning environments in school. If the classroom work is rote, discrete, and shallow—then the thinking that students are doing outside of class might be along the lines of “why are we doing this work?” The teachers I work with are eager for more creative freedom in their classrooms, and perhaps questions about homework might provide opportunities for that.

I would be thrilled if we could collectively explore these dynamics of homework—what opportunities it provides, what harms it enacts—and what new possibilities could be imagined for work at home that supports the project of making schooling a meaningful experience for students.

Brian Gravel , E01, EG04, AG11, is an assistant professor of education in the Tufts School of Arts and Sciences.

A bluejay on a tree branch with a seed in its beak. Why birds don’t migrate away from chilly weather is more about food than temperature, says a Tufts professor of biology

Why Don’t All Birds Fly South for the Winter?

September 29, 2022

How Do I Get the Best Audio Quality from Streaming Music Services?

June 20, 2023

Is Homework Good for Kids? Here’s What the Research Says

A s kids return to school, debate is heating up once again over how they should spend their time after they leave the classroom for the day.

The no-homework policy of a second-grade teacher in Texas went viral last week , earning praise from parents across the country who lament the heavy workload often assigned to young students. Brandy Young told parents she would not formally assign any homework this year, asking students instead to eat dinner with their families, play outside and go to bed early.

But the question of how much work children should be doing outside of school remains controversial, and plenty of parents take issue with no-homework policies, worried their kids are losing a potential academic advantage. Here’s what you need to know:

For decades, the homework standard has been a “10-minute rule,” which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 minutes of homework each night. High school seniors should complete about two hours of homework each night. The National PTA and the National Education Association both support that guideline.

But some schools have begun to give their youngest students a break. A Massachusetts elementary school has announced a no-homework pilot program for the coming school year, lengthening the school day by two hours to provide more in-class instruction. “We really want kids to go home at 4 o’clock, tired. We want their brain to be tired,” Kelly Elementary School Principal Jackie Glasheen said in an interview with a local TV station . “We want them to enjoy their families. We want them to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it.”

A New York City public elementary school implemented a similar policy last year, eliminating traditional homework assignments in favor of family time. The change was quickly met with outrage from some parents, though it earned support from other education leaders.

New solutions and approaches to homework differ by community, and these local debates are complicated by the fact that even education experts disagree about what’s best for kids.

The research

The most comprehensive research on homework to date comes from a 2006 meta-analysis by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper, who found evidence of a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, meaning students who did homework performed better in school. The correlation was stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades, for whom there was a weak relationship between homework and performance.

Cooper’s analysis focused on how homework impacts academic achievement—test scores, for example. His report noted that homework is also thought to improve study habits, attitudes toward school, self-discipline, inquisitiveness and independent problem solving skills. On the other hand, some studies he examined showed that homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children. At the end of his analysis, Cooper recommended further study of such potential effects of homework.

Despite the weak correlation between homework and performance for young children, Cooper argues that a small amount of homework is useful for all students. Second-graders should not be doing two hours of homework each night, he said, but they also shouldn’t be doing no homework.

Not all education experts agree entirely with Cooper’s assessment.

Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, supports the “10-minute rule” as a maximum, but she thinks there is not sufficient proof that homework is helpful for students in elementary school.

“Correlation is not causation,” she said. “Does homework cause achievement, or do high achievers do more homework?”

Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs , thinks there should be more emphasis on improving the quality of homework tasks, and she supports efforts to eliminate homework for younger kids.

“I have no concerns about students not starting homework until fourth grade or fifth grade,” she said, noting that while the debate over homework will undoubtedly continue, she has noticed a trend toward limiting, if not eliminating, homework in elementary school.

The issue has been debated for decades. A TIME cover in 1999 read: “Too much homework! How it’s hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.” The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push for better math and science education in the U.S. The ensuing pressure to be competitive on a global scale, plus the increasingly demanding college admissions process, fueled the practice of assigning homework.

“The complaints are cyclical, and we’re in the part of the cycle now where the concern is for too much,” Cooper said. “You can go back to the 1970s, when you’ll find there were concerns that there was too little, when we were concerned about our global competitiveness.”

Cooper acknowledged that some students really are bringing home too much homework, and their parents are right to be concerned.

“A good way to think about homework is the way you think about medications or dietary supplements,” he said. “If you take too little, they’ll have no effect. If you take too much, they can kill you. If you take the right amount, you’ll get better.”

More Must-Reads from TIME

The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024
Inside the Rise of Bitcoin-Powered Pools and Bathhouses
How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?
Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
Your Questions About Early Voting , Answered
Column: Your Cynicism Isn’t Helping Anybody
The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024

Write to Katie Reilly at [email protected]

Repair Your Relationship With Your Child In Less Than 17 Seconds!

How do you know if your kid’s homework is appropriate?

As parents, we get frustrated with the amount or type of homework that our kids bring home.

But how can we tell if it’s just our mood or if the work is appropriate? Also, what to do about it?

(P.S. If you want more help with this, you’re going to love Chapter 3 of my book, Drama Free Homework available on Amazon.)

Homework can cause parents and families so much frustration! Especially when we think its busywork! This advice for moms and dads will help you judge if homework is appropriate and what to do if it isn’t.

In my first years of teaching fifth grade, I knew that my students needed help in spelling.

Sooooo much help in spelling.

However, I had no idea what to do. Sure, we had a district spelling program with 20 words a week…

But it never taught my students how to spell. If they didn’t know how to spell by the time they reached fourth grade, there was not much to help.

I thought, well, maybe all they need is more practice.

Thus, my colleague and I created the spelling packet from hell.

I didn’t think of it like that at the time, but looking back that was an appropriate name.

We asked kids to alphabetize all 20 spelling words, write them three times each, and color code each word into syllables. I can’t even remember everything that we asked.

But it was 5 pages…

Everyone told us that good teachers were tough and expected a lot out of their students. THIS is what we thought we were doing.

READ: Five Tips That’ll Help Your Kid Laser Focus on Homework

After a few weeks, we found that the students who aced spelling tests on the regular had no problem completing the killer spelling packet. However, the horrible spelling packet had no effect with the kids who struggled.

Probably, just refinforced the idea that spelling, well, sucked.

We continued assigning the spelling packet until one of our curriculum coaches took us aside and asked, “Wouldn’t you be mad if a teacher asked you to do this?”

Fair point. Yes. Yes…

I would be furious.

This spelling packet was not appropriate homework for a fifth grader. It was busy work. Boring, repetitive, monkey-like tasks that asked no critical thinking.

Well-meaning teachers everywhere have assigned this type of homework at one time or another. When I asked the No Guilt Mom tribe on Facebook what homework they received that seemed useless they said,

“ Alllll the same, repetitive daily assigned homework. Seriously, its basically the same thing every day just different words/numbers. Same concept, same layout.” – Allison

“Making 49 cards about Greek Mythology characters. They had to write 3 facts about each character and draw a picture for each one. Just Ridiculous!! A few cards/characters would have been ideal, 49 was outrageous.” – Miranda

What is the appropriate homework?

Appropriate homework asks kids to use a skill already learned in class.

It doesn’t require re-teaching by you. Maybe it’s writing a paragraph to reflect on a reading passage. Perhaps it’s practicing a few math problems.

The amount of homework depends on the child’s age. A guidepoint recommended by the Parent-Teacher’s Association is 10 minutes for every grade level. For instance, first grade gets 10 minutes, second grade gets 20 minutes and so on.

Know that these are rough guidelines. As a fifth grade teacher, I aimed for 30 minutes of math practice a night plus 20 minutes of reading.

If my child gets more than this?

If homework causes a strain in your home and is taking WAY longer than the recommended amount, bring it up with child’s teacher.

Something is amiss.

Either the teacher, like me, doesn’t realize this strain of homework, or your child needs extra help grasping a skill and this will be the opportunity to fix that.

Whatever it is, know that it isn’t your sole responsibility for your child to get all his or her homework done.

It’s your child’s responsibility to do homework.

You and the teacher are consultants and coaches. You help and assist where needed. Maybe gently guide the kid where he or she needs to go. But know, the moment you become the enforcer, the homework war is on and you’ve lost.

Read: How to Stay Calm and Win the Homework Battle

That’s putting it harsh, I know. But the only way to improve homework for your kids is to:

first, figure out why he or she is stumbling and then
work with them on how to overcome those obstacles.

Talking with the teacher to make sure you, the teacher and your child are all on the same page will make it easier to move forward and help.

Appropriate homework doesn’t cause undue frustration. A little frustration is good, but if homework causes a fight every night, that’s a sign something needs to change.

The one tip you need to master your kid’s homework organization

What is Homework 911?

How to Know What’s the “Right” Amount of Homework

Homework is NOT Wrecking our Kids. The Four Skills Kids Master in Elementary School Homework.

3 Things to Do When Your Kid Cries over Homework

Overwhelmed? Homework Help for your Middle School Student

3 Simple Ways to Make Homework Fun

5 Tips to Help Your Kid Laser Focus on Homework

How to Easily Get Your Kids to Focus on Homework

10 Ways to Stop the Homework Hassle

5 Mistakes Every Parent Makes with Homework

$appropriate homework for age$

When you have no clue how to help your child with their math homework

How to Stay Calm and Win the Homework Battle

3 Simple Ways to Stop the Homework Power Struggle

Why Don’t Our Kids Listen Anymore?

Podcast Episode: Why You Don’t Know What You Find Fun

Podcast Episode 214: Can’t get your kids to help out at home? Here’s how to do it!

When it’s OK to Negotiate with your Kid’s Tantrum

6 things you need to know about having a second kid, podcast episode: why you don’t know what you find fun transcript, article info, popular posts.

JoAnn Crohn

CEO/Founder at No Guilt Mom

The Ultimate Guide On How to Be a Happy Mom
Podcast Episode: Mom Hacks That Stick & Work with ADHD
Podcast Episode 162: Finding it hard to relax? 5 ways to make it happen
Relaxing Without the Guilt: How to Unwind as a Mom
How to get family to help around the house (when they’ve been doing nothing)
3 Questions to Ask Your Kids After School that Will ACTUALLY impact their learning
5 Simple Steps To Teach Your Child How to Make Friends
When my baby only sleeps 3 hours at a time
How to Save Tons of Time Shopping for Tween Outfits
4 Simple Steps to Speed Up a Slow Eater
8 Steps to Help Her Appreciate her First American Girl & GIVEAWAY

Podcast Episode 78: The Secret to Raising Capable Kids

We all want to raise smart, responsible and capable kids, right? A great way to do that is by becoming a duct tape parent! So pull up a chair, grab a roll of duct tape and listen up! We’re sharing 3 key things that parents can start doing right now to help raise the capable and responsible kids they want!

Podcast Episode 208: From Discipline to Dialogue: Dr. Robyn Silverman on Modern Parenting

Do you dread having difficult conversations with your kids because you aren’t sure what to say? Dr. Robyn Silverman joins us to give us the tools to have open and honest communication with our kids, covering topics like sex, bullying, and more, to help them make informed decisions.

Podcast Episode 277: How To Have a Stress-Free Summer With The Kids So You Don’t Lose Your Cool

Discover the ultimate guide to stress free summer parenting hacks! Learn how to embrace boredom, set boundaries, and delegate tasks to keep your cool and enjoy sun-filled months. Make this summer a breeze with our top stress free summer parenting hacks. Here’s to fewer meltdowns and more happy, relaxed memories!

10 Ways to Relax with Kids at Home

How many times have you thought, “If I have to watch Yo Gabba Gabba one more time…”? Relaxation is a priority as a parent. It’s…

Podcast Episode 104: Yes! You Can Do What Scares You with Sara Dean

Yes, you absolutely can do what scares you! As parents, we face fears everyday. For many moms, a common fear is growth – living bigger, rocking the boat, changing the status quo. Sara Dean of the Shameless Mom Academy joins us this week to share how we can overcome these fears to live bigger, bolder and braver.

Podcast Episode 82: Do Your Kids Have the Life Skills They Need?

As parents, we can get so caught up in school/grades, sports, and so on, that we forget to teach our kids the basics. The life skills they need before launching into the world!

One Comment

Pingback: Homework is NOT Wrecking our Kids. The Four Skills Kids Master in Elementary School Homework.

Comments are closed.

The Journal
Vol. 19, No. 1

The Case for (Quality) Homework

Janine Bempechat

Any parent who has battled with a child over homework night after night has to wonder: Do those math worksheets and book reports really make a difference to a student’s long-term success? Or is homework just a headache—another distraction from family time and downtime, already diminished by the likes of music and dance lessons, sports practices, and part-time jobs?

Allison, a mother of two middle-school girls from an affluent Boston suburb, describes a frenetic afterschool scenario: “My girls do gymnastics a few days a week, so homework happens for my 6th grader after gymnastics, at 6:30 p.m. She doesn’t get to bed until 9. My 8th grader does her homework immediately after school, up until gymnastics. She eats dinner at 9:15 and then goes to bed, unless there is more homework to do, in which case she’ll get to bed around 10.” The girls miss out on sleep, and weeknight family dinners are tough to swing.

Parental concerns about their children’s homework loads are nothing new. Debates over the merits of homework—tasks that teachers ask students to complete during non-instructional time—have ebbed and flowed since the late 19th century, and today its value is again being scrutinized and weighed against possible negative impacts on family life and children’s well-being.

Are American students overburdened with homework? In some middle-class and affluent communities, where pressure on students to achieve can be fierce, yes. But in families of limited means, it’s often another story. Many low-income parents value homework as an important connection to the school and the curriculum—even as their children report receiving little homework. Overall, high-school students relate that they spend less than one hour per day on homework, on average, and only 42 percent say they do it five days per week. In one recent survey by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a minimal 13 percent of 17-year-olds said they had devoted more than two hours to homework the previous evening (see Figure 1).

Recent years have seen an increase in the amount of homework assigned to students in grades K–2, and critics point to research findings that, at the elementary-school level, homework does not appear to enhance children’s learning. Why, then, should we burden young children and their families with homework if there is no academic benefit to doing it? Indeed, perhaps it would be best, as some propose, to eliminate homework altogether, particularly in these early grades.

On the contrary, developmentally appropriate homework plays a critical role in the formation of positive learning beliefs and behaviors, including a belief in one’s academic ability, a deliberative and effortful approach to mastery, and higher expectations and aspirations for one’s future. It can prepare children to confront ever-more-complex tasks, develop resilience in the face of difficulty, and learn to embrace rather than shy away from challenge. In short, homework is a key vehicle through which we can help shape children into mature learners.

The Homework-Achievement Connection

A narrow focus on whether or not homework boosts grades and test scores in the short run thus ignores a broader purpose in education, the development of lifelong, confident learners. Still, the question looms: does homework enhance academic success? As the educational psychologist Lyn Corno wrote more than two decades ago, “homework is a complicated thing.” Most research on the homework-achievement connection is correlational, which precludes a definitive judgment on its academic benefits. Researchers rely on correlational research in this area of study given the difficulties of randomly assigning students to homework/no-homework conditions. While correlation does not imply causality, extensive research has established that at the middle- and high-school levels, homework completion is strongly and positively associated with high achievement. Very few studies have reported a negative correlation.

As noted above, findings on the homework-achievement connection at the elementary level are mixed. A small number of experimental studies have demonstrated that elementary-school students who receive homework achieve at higher levels than those who do not. These findings suggest a causal relationship, but they are limited in scope. Within the body of correlational research, some studies report a positive homework-achievement connection, some a negative relationship, and yet others show no relationship at all. Why the mixed findings? Researchers point to a number of possible factors, such as developmental issues related to how young children learn, different goals that teachers have for younger as compared to older students, and how researchers define homework.

Certainly, young children are still developing skills that enable them to focus on the material at hand and study efficiently. Teachers’ goals for their students are also quite different in elementary school as compared to secondary school. While teachers at both levels note the value of homework for reinforcing classroom content, those in the earlier grades are more likely to assign homework mainly to foster skills such as responsibility, perseverance, and the ability to manage distractions.

Most research examines homework generally. Might a focus on homework in a specific subject shed more light on the homework-achievement connection? A recent meta-analysis did just this by examining the relationship between math/science homework and achievement. Contrary to previous findings, researchers reported a stronger relationship between homework and achievement in the elementary grades than in middle school. As the study authors note, one explanation for this finding could be that in elementary school, teachers tend to assign more homework in math than in other subjects, while at the same time assigning shorter math tasks more frequently. In addition, the authors point out that parents tend to be more involved in younger children’s math homework and more skilled in elementary-level than middle-school math.

In sum, the relationship between homework and academic achievement in the elementary-school years is not yet established, but eliminating homework at this level would do children and their families a huge disservice: we know that children’s learning beliefs have a powerful impact on their academic outcomes, and that through homework, parents and teachers can have a profound influence on the development of positive beliefs.

How Much Is Appropriate?

Harris M. Cooper of Duke University, the leading researcher on homework, has examined decades of study on what we know about the relationship between homework and scholastic achievement. He has proposed the “10-minute rule,” suggesting that daily homework be limited to 10 minutes per grade level. Thus, a 1st grader would do 10 minutes each day and a 4th grader, 40 minutes. The National Parent Teacher Association and the National Education Association both endorse this guideline, but it is not clear whether the recommended allotments include time for reading, which most teachers want children to do daily.

For middle-school students, Cooper and colleagues report that 90 minutes per day of homework is optimal for enhancing academic achievement, and for high schoolers, the ideal range is 90 minutes to two and a half hours per day. Beyond this threshold, more homework does not contribute to learning. For students enrolled in demanding Advanced Placement or honors courses, however, homework is likely to require significantly more time, leading to concerns over students’ health and well-being.

Notwithstanding media reports of parents revolting against the practice of homework, the vast majority of parents say they are highly satisfied with their children’s homework loads. The National Household Education Surveys Program recently found that between 70 and 83 percent of parents believed that the amount of homework their children had was “about right,” a result that held true regardless of social class, race/ethnicity, community size, level of education, and whether English was spoken at home.

Learning Beliefs Are Consequential

As noted above, developmentally appropriate homework can help children cultivate positive beliefs about learning. Decades of research have established that these beliefs predict the types of tasks students choose to pursue, their persistence in the face of challenge, and their academic achievement. Broadly, learning beliefs fall under the banner of achievement motivation, which is a constellation of cognitive, behavioral, and affective factors, including: the way a person perceives his or her abilities, goal-setting skills, expectation of success, the value the individual places on learning, and self-regulating behavior such as time-management skills. Positive or adaptive beliefs about learning serve as emotional and psychological protective factors for children, especially when they encounter difficulties or failure.

Motivation researcher Carol Dweck of Stanford University posits that children with a “growth mindset”—those who believe that ability is malleable—approach learning very differently than those with a “fixed mindset”—kids who believe ability cannot change. Those with a growth mindset view effort as the key to mastery. They see mistakes as helpful, persist even in the face of failure, prefer challenging over easy tasks, and do better in school than their peers who have a fixed mindset. In contrast, children with a fixed mindset view effort and mistakes as implicit condemnations of their abilities. Such children succumb easily to learned helplessness in the face of difficulty, and they gravitate toward tasks they know they can handle rather than more challenging ones.

Of course, learning beliefs do not develop in a vacuum. Studies have demonstrated that parents and teachers play a significant role in the development of positive beliefs and behaviors, and that homework is a key tool they can use to foster motivation and academic achievement.

Parents’ Beliefs and Actions Matter

It is well established that parental involvement in their children’s education promotes achievement motivation and success in school. Parents are their children’s first teachers, and their achievement-related beliefs have a profound influence on children’s developing perceptions of their own abilities, as well as their views on the value of learning and education.

Parents affect their children’s learning through the messages they send about education, whether by expressing interest in school activities and experiences, attending school events, helping with homework when they can, or exposing children to intellectually enriching experiences. Most parents view such engagement as part and parcel of their role. They also believe that doing homework fosters responsibility and organizational skills, and that doing well on homework tasks contributes to learning, even if children experience frustration from time to time.

Many parents provide support by establishing homework routines, eliminating distractions, communicating expectations, helping children manage their time, providing reassuring messages, and encouraging kids to be aware of the conditions under which they do their best work. These supports help foster the development of self-regulation, which is critical to school success.

Self-regulation involves a number of skills, such as the ability to monitor one’s performance and adjust strategies as a result of feedback; to evaluate one’s interests and realistically perceive one’s aptitude; and to work on a task autonomously. It also means learning how to structure one’s environment so that it’s conducive to learning, by, for example, minimizing distractions. As children move into higher grades, these skills and strategies help them organize, plan, and learn independently. This is precisely where parents make a demonstrable difference in students’ attitudes and approaches to homework.

Especially in the early grades, homework gives parents the opportunity to cultivate beliefs and behaviors that foster efficient study skills and academic resilience. Indeed, across age groups, there is a strong and positive relationship between homework completion and a variety of self-regulatory processes. However, the quality of parental help matters. Sometimes, well-intentioned parents can unwittingly undermine the development of children’s positive learning beliefs and their achievement. Parents who maintain a positive outlook on homework and allow their children room to learn and struggle on their own, stepping in judiciously with informational feedback and hints, do their children a much better service than those who seek to control the learning process.

A recent study of 5th and 6th graders’ perceptions of their parents’ involvement with homework distinguished between supportive and intrusive help. The former included the belief that parents encouraged the children to try to find the right answer on their own before providing them with assistance, and when the child struggled, attempted to understand the source of the confusion. In contrast, the latter included the perception that parents provided unsolicited help, interfered when the children did their homework, and told them how to complete their assignments. Supportive help predicted higher achievement, while intrusive help was associated with lower achievement.

Parents’ attitudes and emotions during homework time can support the development of positive attitudes and approaches in their children, which in turn are predictive of higher achievement. Children are more likely to focus on self-improvement during homework time and do better in school when their parents are oriented toward mastery. In contrast, if parents focus on how well children are doing relative to peers, kids tend to adopt learning goals that allow them to avoid challenge.

Homework and Social Class

Social class is another important element in the homework dynamic. What is the homework experience like for families with limited time and resources? And what of affluent families, where resources are plenty but the pressures to succeed are great?

Etta Kralovec and John Buell, authors of The End of Homework, maintain that homework “punishes the poor,” because lower-income parents may not be as well educated as their affluent counterparts and thus not as well equipped to help with homework. Poorer families also have fewer financial resources to devote to home computers, tutoring, and academic enrichment. The stresses of poverty—and work schedules—may impinge, and immigrant parents may face language barriers and an unfamiliarity with the school system and teachers’ expectations.

Yet research shows that low-income parents who are unable to assist with homework are far from passive in their children’s learning, and they do help foster scholastic performance. In fact, parental help with homework is not a necessary component for school success.

Brown University’s Jin Li queried low-income Chinese American 9th graders’ perceptions of their parents’ engagement with their education. Students said their immigrant parents rarely engaged in activities that are known to foster academic achievement, such as monitoring homework, checking it for accuracy, or attending school meetings or events. Instead, parents of higher achievers built three social networks to support their children’s learning. They designated “anchor” helpers both inside and outside the family who provided assistance; identified peer models for their children to emulate; and enlisted the assistance of extended kin to guide their children’s educational socialization. In a related vein, a recent analysis of survey data showed that Asian and Latino 5th graders, relative to native-born peers, were more likely to turn to siblings than parents for homework help.

Further, research demonstrates that low-income parents, recognizing that they lack the time to be in the classroom or participate in school governance, view homework as a critical connection to their children’s experiences in school. One study found that mothers enjoyed the routine and predictability of homework and used it as a way to demonstrate to children how to plan their time. Mothers organized homework as a family activity, with siblings doing homework together and older children reading to younger ones. In this way, homework was perceived as a collective practice wherein siblings could model effective habits and learn from one another.

In another recent study, researchers examined mathematics achievement in low-income 8th-grade Asian and Latino students. Help with homework was an advantage their mothers could not provide. They could, however, furnish structure (for example, by setting aside quiet time for homework completion), and it was this structure that most predicted high achievement. As the authors note, “It is . . . important to help [low-income] parents realize that they can still help their children get good grades in mathematics and succeed in school even if they do not know how to provide direct assistance with their child’s mathematics homework.”

The homework narrative at the other end of the socioeconomic continuum is altogether different. Media reports abound with examples of students, mostly in high school, carrying three or more hours of homework per night, a burden that can impair learning, motivation, and well-being. In affluent communities, students often experience intense pressure to cultivate a high-achieving profile that will be attractive to elite colleges. Heavy homework loads have been linked to unhealthy symptoms such as heightened stress, anxiety, physical complaints, and sleep disturbances. Like Allison’s 6th grader mentioned earlier, many students can only tackle their homework after they do extracurricular activities, which are also seen as essential for the college résumé. Not surprisingly, many students in these communities are not deeply engaged in learning; rather, they speak of “doing school,” as Stanford researcher Denise Pope has described, going through the motions necessary to excel, and undermining their physical and mental health in the process.

Fortunately, some national intervention initiatives, such as Challenge Success (co-founded by Pope), are heightening awareness of these problems. Interventions aimed at restoring balance in students’ lives (in part, by reducing homework demands) have resulted in students reporting an increased sense of well-being, decreased stress and anxiety, and perceptions of greater support from teachers, with no decrease in achievement outcomes.

What is good for this small segment of students, however, is not necessarily good for the majority. As Jessica Lahey wrote in Motherlode, a New York Times parenting blog, “homework is a red herring” in the national conversation on education. “Some otherwise privileged children may have too much, but the real issue lies in places where there is too little. . . . We shouldn’t forget that.”

My colleagues and I analyzed interviews conducted with lower-income 9th graders (African American, Mexican American, and European American) from two Northern California high schools that at the time were among the lowest-achieving schools in the state. We found that these students consistently described receiving minimal homework—perhaps one or two worksheets or textbook pages, the occasional project, and 30 minutes of reading per night. Math was the only class in which they reported having homework each night. These students noted few consequences for not completing their homework.

Indeed, greatly reducing or eliminating homework would likely increase, not diminish, the achievement gap. As Harris M. Cooper has commented, those choosing to opt their children out of homework are operating from a place of advantage. Children in higher-income families benefit from many privileges, including exposure to a larger range of language at home that may align with the language of school, access to learning and cultural experiences, and many other forms of enrichment, such as tutoring and academic summer camps, all of which may be cost-prohibitive for lower-income families. But for the 21 percent of the school-age population who live in poverty—nearly 11 million students ages 5–17—homework is one tool that can help narrow the achievement gap.

Community and School Support

Often, community organizations and afterschool programs can step up to provide structure and services that students’ need to succeed at homework. For example, Boys and Girls and 4-H clubs offer volunteer tutors as well as access to computer technology that students may not have at home. Many schools provide homework clubs or integrate homework into the afterschool program.

Home-school partnerships have succeeded in engaging parents with homework and significantly improving their children’s academic achievement. For example, Joyce Epstein of Johns Hopkins University has developed the TIPS model (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork), which embraces homework as an integral part of family time. TIPS is a teacher-designed interactive program in which children and a parent or family member each have a specific role in the homework scenario. For example, children might show the parent how to do a mathematics task on fractions, explaining their reasoning along the way and reviewing their thinking aloud if they are unsure.

Evaluations show that elementary and middle-school students in classrooms that have adopted TIPS complete more of their homework than do students in other classrooms. Both students and parent participants show more positive beliefs about learning mathematics, and TIPS students show significant gains in writing skills and report-card science grades, as well as higher mathematics scores on standardized tests.

Another study found that asking teachers to send text messages to parents about their children’s missing homework resulted in increased parental monitoring of homework, consequences for missed assignments, and greater participation in parent-child conferences. Teachers reported fewer missed assignments and greater student effort in coursework, and math grades and GPA significantly improved.

Homework Quality Matters

Teachers favor homework for a number of reasons. They believe it fosters a sense of responsibility and promotes academic achievement. They note that homework provides valuable review and practice for students while giving teachers feedback on areas where students may need more support. Finally, teachers value homework as a way to keep parents connected to the school and their children’s educational experiences.

While students, to say the least, may not always relish the idea of doing homework, by high school most come to believe there is a positive relationship between doing homework and doing well in school. Both higher and lower achievers lament “busywork” that doesn’t promote learning. They crave high-quality, challenging assignments—and it is this kind of homework that has been associated with higher achievement.

What constitutes high-quality homework? Assignments that are developmentally appropriate and meaningful and that promote self-efficacy and self-regulation. Meaningful homework is authentic, allowing students to engage in solving problems with real-world relevance. More specifically, homework tasks should make efficient use of student time and have a clear purpose connected to what they are learning. An artistic rendition of a period in history that would take hours to complete can become instead a diary entry in the voice of an individual from that era. By allowing a measure of choice and autonomy in homework, teachers foster in their students a sense of ownership, which bolsters their investment in the work.

High-quality homework also fosters students’ perceptions of their own competence by 1) focusing them on tasks they can accomplish without help; 2) differentiating tasks so as to allow struggling students to experience success; 3) providing suggested time frames rather than a fixed period of time in which a task should be completed; 4) delivering clearly and carefully explained directions; and 5) carefully modeling methods for attacking lengthy or complex tasks. Students whose teachers have trained them to adopt strategies such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and planning develop a number of personal assets—improved time management, increased self-efficacy, greater effort and interest, a desire for mastery, and a decrease in helplessness.

Excellence with Equity

Currently, the United States has the second-highest disparity between time spent on homework by students of low socioeconomic status and time spent by their more-affluent peers out of the 34 OECD-member nations participating in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (see Figure 2). Noting that PISA studies have consistently found that spending more time on math homework strongly correlates with higher academic achievement, the report’s authors suggest that the homework disparity may reflect lower teacher expectations for low-income students. If so, this is truly unfortunate. In and of itself, low socioeconomic status is not an impediment to academic achievement when appropriate parental, school, and community supports are deployed. As research makes clear, low-income parents support their children’s learning in varied ways, not all of which involve direct assistance with schoolwork. Teachers can orient students and parents toward beliefs that foster positive attitudes toward learning. Indeed, where homework is concerned, a commitment to excellence with equity is both worthwhile and attainable.

In affluent communities, parents, teachers, and school districts might consider reexamining the meaning of academic excellence and placing more emphasis on leading a balanced and well-rounded life. The homework debate in the United States has been dominated by concerns over the health and well-being of such advantaged students. As legitimate as these worries are, it’s important to avoid generalizing these children’s experiences to those with fewer family resources. Reducing or eliminating homework, though it may be desirable in some advantaged communities, would deprive poorer children of a crucial and empowering learning experience. It would also eradicate a fertile opportunity to help close the achievement gap.

Janine Bempechat is clinical professor of human development at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development.

An unabridged version of this article is available here .

For more, please see “ The Top 20 Education Next Articles of 2023 .”

This article appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of Education Next . Suggested citation format:

Bempechat, J. (2019). The Case for (Quality) Homework: Why it improves learning, and how parents can help . Education Next, 19 (1), 36-43.

Last Updated

License this Content

Latest Issue

Summer 2024.

Vol. 24, No. 3

share this!

November 30, 2022

Is homework useful for kids? If so, what age should it start?

by Brian Gravel, Tufts University

A tricky aspect of being a professor of education with school-aged children is that I am frequently asked to comment on issues of pedagogy and policy.

One of my favorite topics involves the myriad questions around homework . When should kids get it? Are kids getting enough? Are they getting too much? What's the point?

Across the board, the educational community has consistently shown that the positive impacts of homework—in its present forms—are minimal at best.

Some middle school and high school students might score higher on achievement tests when they do homework. But we can't find evidence that it supports elementary school learning, and we have ample evidence of its harmful impact, like contributing to children's exhaustion, reducing time for play, and contributing to overall disinterest in school.

My 10-year-old son believes the purpose of homework is "to bore you." When asked for a more thoughtful response the question of its purpose, he says "I don't really know. Maybe to remember what you've been doing at school?"

Let me be clear—I do not believe homework in its current forms should exist at the elementary level, and I have deep skepticism of its utility at the middle and high school levels as well. This is more than opinion—it's the product of having studied how people learn, personal experience , and reading research on the topic. (See Alfie Kohn's writings on homework —they offer much to consider.)

Homework tends to be the place where the most rote, dull, and uninspired kinds of schooling tasks flourish: memorizing, repetition, reproduction. These contribute to what Ira Shor, notable educational philosopher and collaborator of Paulo Freire, called the great "endullment"—the "dulling of students' minds as a result of their nonparticipation."

I would love it if we could shift the conversation away from whether homework "works" or whether students should be assigned homework, toward what homework could be. That's because, while we can remove it from elementary schools (and we should), it is likely not going away.

We should ask questions like "Why homework?" and "What could we ask students to explore at home?" And, "How could home be a place to further explore ideas, histories, and relationships that surface in conversations at school?" Or—here's a radical idea—we could ask students themselves what kind of work at home would feel engaging and meaningful to them.

The very notion of "homework" creates a somewhat false distinction in how learning and relationships transcend the spaces of one's life—school might feel different for students if it were a place to make sense of things happening in their lives.

A conversation about homework also allows us to question the nature of the learning environments in school. If the classroom work is rote, discrete, and shallow—then the thinking that students are doing outside of class might be along the lines of "why are we doing this work?" The teachers I work with are eager for more creative freedom in their classrooms, and perhaps questions about homework might provide opportunities for that.

Provided by Tufts University

Explore further

Feedback to editors

ATLAS probes Higgs interaction with the heaviest quarks

19 minutes ago

Electrically modulated light antenna points the way to faster computer chips

22 minutes ago

New mass spectrometry technology could transform tiny sample analysis

27 minutes ago

Biomolecules inside living cells can now be seen with infrared light thanks to new method

30 minutes ago

Scientists prove long-standing wave amplification theory

34 minutes ago

Hubble and Chandra find supermassive black hole duo

Theoretical model for multisite alloy catalyst design quantifies active site contributions

Scientists learn how to drug wily class of disease-causing enzymes

Extreme weather to strengthen rapidly over next two decades, research suggests

Video evidence: Japanese eels escape from their predator's stomach

Relevant physicsforums posts, are excuses for academic parties getting thinner or is it just me.

Sep 7, 2024

AAPT 2024 Summer Meeting Boston, MA (July 2024) - are you going?

Sep 2, 2024

RIP Edward "Joe" Redish (1942 - 2024), Physics Education

Incandescent bulbs in teaching.

Aug 21, 2024

How to explain Bell's theorem to non-scientists

Aug 18, 2024

Free Abstract Algebra curriculum in Urdu and Hindi

Aug 17, 2024

'There's only so far I can take them': Why teachers give up on struggling students who don't do their homework

Sep 27, 2022

What's the point of homework?

Sep 1, 2021

Study finds parental help with homework has no impact on student achievement

Aug 8, 2022

Doing homework is associated with change in students' personality

Oct 6, 2017

How to help your kids with homework—without doing it for them

Jan 24, 2020

Should parents help their kids with homework?

Aug 29, 2019

Recommended for you

Virtual learning linked to rise in chronic absenteeism, study finds

Sep 5, 2024

AI tools like ChatGPT popular among students who struggle with concentration and attention

Aug 28, 2024

Researchers find academic equivalent of a Great Gatsby Curve in science mentorships

Aug 27, 2024

More academic freedom leads to more innovation, reports study

Statistical analysis can detect when ChatGPT is used to cheat on multiple-choice chemistry exams

Aug 14, 2024

Larger teams in academic research worsen career prospects, study finds

Let us know if there is a problem with our content.

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

Our 62nd annual international Conference | february 27 - march 1, 2025 | orlando, florida

Learning Disabilities Association of America

How Much Time Should Be Spent on Homework?

At the elementary level homework should be brief, at your child’s ability level and involve frequent, voluntary and high interest activities. Young students require high levels of feedback and/or supervision to help them complete assignments correctly. Accurate homework completion is influenced by your child’s ability, the difficulty of the task, and the amount of feedback your child receives. When assigning homework, your child’s teachers may struggle to create a balance at this age between ability, task difficulty and feedback. Unfortunately, there are no simple guiding principles.

We can assure you, however, that your input and feedback on a nightly basis is an essential component in helping your child benefit from the homework experience.

What is the recommended time in elementary school?

In first through third grade, students should receive one to three assignments per week, taking them no more than fifteen to twenty minutes. In fourth through sixth grade, students should receive two to four assignments per week, lasting between fifteen and forty-five minutes. At this age, the primarily goal of homework is to help your child develop the independent work and learning skills that will become critical in the higher grades. In the upper grades, the more time spent on homework the greater the achievement gains.

What is the recommended time in middle and high school?

For students in middle and high school grades there are greater overall benefits from time engaged in practicing and thinking about school work. These benefits do not appear to depend as much upon immediate supervision or feedback as they do for elementary students. In seventh through ninth grade we recommend students receive three to five sets of assignments per week, lasting between forty-five and seventy-five minutes per set. In high school students will receive four to five sets of homework per week, taking them between seventy-five and 150 minutes per set to complete.

As children progress through school, homework and the amount of time engaged in homework increases in importance. Due to the significance of homework at the older age levels, it is not surprising that there is more homework assigned. Furthermore, homework is always assigned in college preparatory classes and assigned at least three quarters of the time in special education and vocational training classes. Thus at any age, homework may indicate our academic expectations of children.

Regardless of the amount of homework assigned, many students unsuccessful or struggling in school spend less rather than more time engaged in homework. It is not surprising that students spending less time completing homework may eventually not achieve as consistently as those who complete their homework.

Does this mean that time devoted to homework is the key component necessary for achievement?

We are not completely certain. Some American educators have concluded that if students in America spent as much time doing homework as students in Asian countries they might perform academically as well. It is tempting to assume such a cause and effect relationship.

However, this relationship appears to be an overly simple conclusion. We know that homework is important as one of several influential factors in school success. However, other variables, including student ability, achievement, motivation and teaching quality influence the time students spend with homework tasks. Many students and their parents have told us they experience less difficulty being motivated and completing homework in classes in which they enjoyed the subject, the instruction, the assignments and the teachers.

The benefits from homework are the greatest for students completing the most homework and doing so correctly. Thus, students who devote time to homework are probably on a path to improved achievement. This path also includes higher quality instruction, greater achievement motivation and better skill levels.

Authors: Dr. Sam Goldstein and Dr. Sydney Zentall

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Wyoming.

Make a difference in your state by volunteering to start a state affiliate to help individuals with learning disabilities in your state.

Contact LDA of America at [email protected] to inquire about starting a state affiliate.

LDA of Wisconsin’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldaofwisconsin.org/

LDA of West Virginia’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Email: [email protected]

LDA of Washington’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077791775467

Visit our Website: https://ldawa.org

LDA of Virginia’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldava.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Vermont.

LDA of Utah’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldau.org/

Visit our website: https://www.ldau.org/

Phone: 801.553.9156

LDA of Texas’ mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our Website: https://ldatx.org

LDA of Tennessee’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in South Dakota.

LDA of South Carolina’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofSC

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Rhode Island.

LDA of Pennsylvania’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldapa

Visit our website: https://ldaofpa.org

Phone: 412.212.7087

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Oregon.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Oklahoma.

LDA of Ohio’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://lda-oh.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in North Dakota.

LDA of North Carolina’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofNorthCarolina

Visit our Website: https://ldanc.org

LDA of New York’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldanys.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in New Mexico.

LDA of New Jersey’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilitiesAssociationofNJ/

Visit our website: https://ldanj.org

LDA of New Hampshire’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://nhlda.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Nevada.

LDA of Nebraska’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilityNE/

The Learning Disabilities Association of Montana (LDA-MT) is one of the state affiliates of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, as a nonprofit volunteer organization of parents, professionals, and adults with learning disabilities. Our mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education, and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldamontana.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Missouri.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Mississippi.

LDA of Minnesota’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAMinnesota/

Visit our Website: https://www.ldaminnesota.org/

Phone: 952.582.6000

LDA of Illinois’ mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063726155725

Visit our website: https://ldaillinois.org

Phone: 708.430.7532

The Learning Disabilities Association of Iowa is dedicated to identifying causes and promoting prevention of learning disabilities and to enhancing the quality of life for all individuals with learning disabilities and their families by:

Encouraging effective identification and intervention,
Fostering research, and
Protecting the rights of individuals with learning disabilities under the law.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDA.Iowa

Visit our website: https://ldaiowa.org

Phone: 515.209.2290

LDA of Michigan’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAmichigan

Visit our Website: https://ldaofmichigan.org

Phone: 616.284.1650

The mission of LDA of Massachusetts is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Affiliate Contact: Kristen Lech Contact Email: [email protected]

LDA of Maryland’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldamd/

Visit our website: https://ldamd.org/

LDA of Maine’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldame

Visit our website: https://ldame.org

The Learning Disabilities Association of Louisiana (LDA-LA) is one of the state affiliates of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, as a nonprofit volunteer organization of parents, professionals, and adults with learning disabilities. Our mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education, and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofLouisiana/

LDA of Kentucky’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067524906403

Visit our Website: https://www.ldaofky.org/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Kansas.

LDA of Indiana’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilitiesAssociationofIndiana/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Idaho.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Hawaii.

LDA of Georgia’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilitiesAssociationofGeorgia/

Visit our website: https://ldaga.org

LDA of Florida’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAFlorida/

Visit our website: https://lda-florida.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in the District of Columbia.

LDA of Connecticut’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofCT

Visit our Website: https://sites.google.com/view/ldaofconnecticut/

LDA of Delaware’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Affiliate Contact: Fern Goldstein

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldadelaware/

Visit our Website: https://ldadelaware.org/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Colorado.

LDA of California’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldacalifornia.org

Affiliate Contact: EunMi Cho

LDA of Arkansas’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldarkansas/

Visit our website: https://lda-arkansas.org

LDA of Arizona’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldaofarizona.org

LDA of Alabama’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAAlabama/

Visit Our Website: https://ldaalabama.org/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Alaska.

A new, streamlined version of Intervention Central is coming in December 2023. The new site will eliminate user login accounts. If you have a login account, be sure to download and save any documents of importance from that account, as they will be erased when the website is revised.

Academic Interventions
Behavior Interventions
CBM/Downloads

How To: Choose the Right Amount of Daily Homework


	(Barkley, 2008)	(Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006)	(Olympia & Andrews,1994)
1	10 Minutes	--	10-45 Minutes
2	20 Minutes	--	10-45 Minutes
3	30 Minutes	--	10-45 Minutes
4	40 Minutes	--	45-90 Minutes
5	50 Minutes	--	45-90 Minutes
6	1 Hour	--	45-90 Minutes
7	1 Hour 10 Minutes	1-2 Hours	1-2 Hours
8	1 Hour 20 Minutes	1-2 Hours	1-2 Hours
9	1 Hour 30 Minutes	1.5-2.5 Hours	1-2 Hours
10	1 Hour 40 Minutes	1.5-2.5 Hours	1.5-2.5 Hours
11	1 Hour 50 Minutes	1.5-2.5 Hours	1.5-2.5 Hours
12	2 Hours	1.5-2.5 Hours	1.5-2.5 Hours

Despite the differences in the recommendations from these sources, the table shows broad agreement about how much homework to assign at each grade. At grades 1-3, homework should be limited to an hour or less per day, while in grades 4-6, homework should not exceed 90 minutes. The upper limit in grades 7-8 is 2 hours and the limit in high school should be 2.5 hours.

Teachers can use the homework time recommendations included here as a point of comparison: in particular, schools should note that assigning homework that exceeds the upper limit of these time estimates is not likely to result in additional learning gains--and may even be counter-productive (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006).

It should also be remembered that the amount of homework assigned each day is not in itself a sign of high academic standards. Homework becomes a powerful tool to promote learning only when students grasp the purpose of each homework assignment, clearly understand homework directions, perceive that homework tasks are instructionally relevant, and receive timely performance feedback (e.g., teacher comments; grades) on submitted homework (Jenson, Sheridan, Olympia, & Andrews, 1994).

Attachments

Download This Blog Entry in PDF Format: How To: Choose the Right Amount of Daily Homework
Barkley, R. A. (2008). 80+ classroom accommodations for children or teens with ADHD. The ADHD Report, 16 (4), 7-10.
Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1-62.
Jenson, W. R., Sheridan, S. M., Olympia, D., & Andrews, D. (1994). Homework and students with learning disabilities and behavior disorders: A practical, parent-based approach. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27 , 538-548.

Book Lists by Age
Book Lists by Category
Reading Resources
Language & Speech
Raise a Reader Blog
Back to School
Success Guides by Grade
Homework Help
Social & Emotional Learning
Activities for Kids

The Age-by-Age Guide to Teaching Kids Time Management

Use these tips to help your child discover how to plan and prioritize her time..

Many kids are overwhelmed by the prospect of fitting everything they have and want to do into the few short hours after school. Between homework, activities, and just time to play, there’s a lot to do. But even though most kids don’t have the cognitive skills to organize their schedules independently until middle school, you can start teaching them how to plan and prioritize their time now. “When we teach children strategies for time management from an early age, they internalize them, which sets them up for lifelong success,” says Lynn Meltzer, Ph.D., president of the Research Institute for Learning and Development , a nonprofit research and educational organization.

Wondering how the heck to begin? No worries. Teachers shared their tips on the essential concepts and lessons to teach, age by age, so you can make this school year’s schedule more manageable, successful, and a whole lot more fun for everyone!

Time Management Tips for Preschoolers

For 3- and 4-year-olds, time is essentially divided into now, and not now. But that’s enough to help them figure out how to predict and plan what comes next. To reinforce that knowledge:

Talk about the changing seasons. All those leaf prints (and later in the year, snowflakes) on display in almost every preschool classroom aren’t coincidental, says Stephanie Lampert, a pre-K teacher from Atlanta. The seasons are a primary vehicle for introducing the cyclical nature of time. “It’s an extremely abstract concept,” she says, “and preschoolers are extremely concrete thinkers. By observing a tree over the seasons, for example, kids can see the progression: The green leaves of summer turn red, then brown, and eventually fall off the tree before coming back to life again in the spring. This is a tangible representation of the passage of time that little ones can understand.” How does that help with time management? By observing the patterns in nature and in their daily lives, little kids intuitively grasp the concept of time — and how to create order. Reinforce those lessons by having your child sort family photos by seasons, for instance. Or point out patterns in nature when you go for a walk.
Create a (picture) schedule. “As adults, we use apps and calendars to remind us what we should be doing and when. In the preschool world, we use pictures — like an apple for snacktime and a book for storytime,” says Ellen Dietrick, a Needham, MA, preschool director whose classrooms are dotted with visual cues to keep her young charges on track. So while these 3- and 4-year-olds can’t tell you the exact hour they have snacks, they know it comes after circle time and before the bathroom break. “It gives them a comforting sense of order and predictability,” Dietrick says. Since little kids love routines and repetition so much, create charts of your child’s morning and bedtime rituals. Then have your child check off the steps as he does them — an important lesson in breaking up a bigger chore into smaller, more manageable ones. Try these nine ways to make choretime fun , too.
Practice waiting. “Time management, at its most basic level, is the ability to delay gratification,” a skill linked to better study habits and grades, among other things, says Dietrick. To strengthen time management, Dietrick devises situations that require her students to wait for something they want. “If they clamor for pajama day, for example, we schedule it for a week away, rather than the following day,” she explains. “We mark the days off on the calendar and build up the excitement as the event gets closer. This gives them a sense of what it feels like to postpone something — and a positive experience to associate with it.” Try something similar with outings and birthdays: Begin talking up that trip to the zoo a few days beforehand, for instance, or tell your child to keep a running birthday wish list. Even planting a bulb, watering it, and watching it slowly bloom teaches the art of patience.

Time Management Tips for Children in Grades K to 2

As kids move through these early grades, they’re learning to read calendars and clocks. Those are the basics they need to stick to a schedule. To reinforce the skill:

Find a place for everything. “A kid can’t finish his morning work if he can’t find his pencil. So organization has to come before time management,” notes Staci Carper, a first-grade teacher from Marietta, GA. To motivate her students, Carper created Deskalina, a cousin of the tooth fairy, who looks for clean and orderly desks and leaves a note, a prize, or a piece of candy when she finds one. When Deskalina starts flitting about, the desks in Carper’s classroom suddenly become tidy. Carper also sets up clear routines, like a “Keep Here” folder for unfinished schoolwork and a “Take Home” one for homework. To encourage your child to keep her homework supplies (or room) organized, invent your own mythical being to bestow treats and notes. An easy-to-spot weekly checklist (“Homework in backpack? Reading log signed?”) will also go a long way in keeping your kid on top of things.
Use a visual timer. To help her first graders comprehend how much time is left to complete a task, Carper displays a pie-like visual timer on her Smartboard. When she sets it for 15 minutes, for example, one-quarter of the “pie” turns green. As the seconds tick away, the slice becomes smaller, and when there are only five minutes left, the slice turns red. Seeing time literally slipping away can help kids pace themselves, she explains. You don’t have to be a teacher to score a visual timer — apps like Children’s Countdown (for younger kids) and Time Timer fit the bill just as well. So do old-school egg and sand timers. Use any during homework sessions. If you have a second grader, for instance, set the timer for 20 or 25 minutes. Give your child a star each night he finishes before the buzzer, and reward a week’s worth of stars with a special treat over the weekend (like a one-on-one walk to the park with you). The goal is to help kids tackle their assignments more effectively and efficiently, while making them more aware of the ticking clock, Carper says.
Be clear about consequences. “Grade-schoolers can and should be held accountable for their own assignments and they need to feel the consequences when they drop the ball,” says Joan Greenfield, a second-grade teacher from West Hartford, CT. Sometimes those results happen naturally (i.e., if she doesn’t study her spelling words, she probably won’t do well on the test); other times an adult has to set the ramifications. Every Friday, for example, Greenfield has something called Choice Time, when students get to choose what they want to play with, from board games to Legos to computers. “My students live for Choice Time. But our class rule is that they only get to participate if they’ve completed all the assignments in their classwork folders.” The valuable lesson kids get? “Good things happen when I work hard and manage my time and missing them is what happens when I don’t,” Greenfield explains. Your child has a better shot at absorbing this lesson if you resist the urge to email an excuse to the teacher every time she fails to turn in her homework, says Greenfield. Instead, give your kid the onus of explaining to the teacher what went wrong, and how she plans to avoid the problem next time. Discover more do's and don't for helping your child with homework .

Time Management for Children in Grades 3 to 5

Homework and extracurriculars increase at this age so it’s even more important that kids learn how to set goals, prioritize, organize, and think flexibly, says Dr. Meltzer. Your goal: To get your child to manage his time more purposefully, without a lot of nagging and hovering. How to accomplish this:

Work on estimating time. “In order to make a realistic schedule, you need a good sense of how long things take,” says Marcia Grosswald, an upper-elementary resource teacher in Summit, NJ. To teach this vital skill, Grosswald has her students spend a few minutes at the end of the day planning their after-school hours. “I give them a chart that breaks the afternoon and evening hours into 15-minute intervals,” she explains. “Each time slot is followed by three columns: what kids plans to do, what they actually did, and reflection.” The reflection piece is essential, Grosswald says, because constantly reassessing how things are going helps a kid adapt his schedule accordingly: Last time I had a soccer game at 5 p.m., I had tough time concentrating on my homework afterward. This time, I’m going to do my hardest assignments before practice. If your child’s teacher doesn’t do this, do it yourself at home. Make a chart, have your child fill out the first column himself, and then fill out the last two items together, discussing what went according to plan — and what your child can do about the things that went awry.
Plan for long-term assignments. Deciding when to do tonight’s math assignment is one thing. Figuring out how and when to tackle the book report diorama that’s due three weeks from Tuesday is quite another. “The key with long-range projects is to break them down into smaller steps — reading the book, for instance, or shopping for materials — and then break those tasks down into even smaller nightly assignments, like reading chapters one to three,” says Amy Broocke, who coordinates a tutoring program at her school in Richmond, VA. She also suggests your child use sticky notes when she’s adding tasks to the calendar; that way, the note can easily be moved to another day if the assignment takes longer than expected. Your child can also plan the steps necessary to complete a project by working backward from the due date, suggests Grosswald. Talk through the process together so the assignment feels less overwhelming: You probably need a day to shop for materials and three days to do the diorama. That leaves you with 10 days to finish the book. It’s 150 pages long so you need to read 15 pages a day. Here's how to create a stress-free study space .
Set priorities. “It’s essential kids learn to differentiate between ‘have tos’ and ‘want tos’ and learn to prioritize and self-monitor,” says Meltzer. To help her class do that, Grosswald uses a rock, pebble, and water analogy. The rocks and pebbles represent the students’ duties, she explains, with the rocks signifying their most essential tasks (like school, homework, and sleep) and the pebbles representing their extracurricular commitments. The water stands in for want-to-dos, like video games and hanging out with friends. “I use a jar to represent a day,” she says. “The rocks go in first because they are things you have to do whether you like it or not. Next come the pebbles. But there’s still some room in the jar, so we pour water until our jar — and the day is full.” If you do the rock jar at home, as I did, you’ll have a chance to chat with your kid about her goals, priorities and passions. Don’t be afraid to make changes if you notice the balance is a bit out of whack. After our conversation, we decided Emma would kick off the school year with fewer extracurricular pebbles crammed between the rocks — and a lot more of that refreshing water known as chill time.

Photo credit: 101cats/iStockphoto

Kindergarten Homework: Too Much Too Early?

Kindergarten has taken some getting used to for Walker Sheppard, who didn’t attend preschool or day care. Besides all the new rules to remember, there’s a new nightly routine: homework.

“We spend anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour on it,” said Michael Sheppard, Walker’s dad.

When the 5-year-old comes home every day, Sheppard said, his son is tired and not ready to sit down and figure out his assignments.

“He doesn’t like it,” said Sheppard, who lives in Pulaski, Va. “The first week he went to school he asked us why he was having to do schoolwork at home.”

That’s a question a lot of parents are asking, especially when it comes to the youngest pupils. Studies by researchers including Harris Cooper, a Duke University psychology and neuroscience professor who wrote The Battle Over Homework , have consistently shown that homework has minimal academic benefits for children in the early-elementary years.

Instead, both the National Education Association and the National PTA endorse Cooper’s so-called 10-minute rule, which calls for roughly 10 minutes of homework a night per grade level beginning in 1st grade. So children in 2nd grade would have 20 minutes, those in 3rd grade would have 30 minutes, and so on. In high school, students may exceed that recommendation depending on the difficulty of the courses they choose.

Split Opinions

Those guidelines don’t even mention kindergarten. But that’s not stopping educators in many places from assigning homework.

Delilah Orti said that every Monday her daughter, Mia, a kindergartner last year in the Miami-Dade Public Schools system in Florida, received a homework packet with about 25 worksheets that were due at the end of that week.

Orti said the packet included work on phonics, spelling, reading comprehension, and social studies. She describes her daughter as a quick learner who was already reading in kindergarten but still needed her help with word problems and science worksheets.

“She could read the words, but she had no idea what they meant,” said Orti.

Orti said Mia spent 30 minutes reading every night and an hour on the packet.

“I felt that it was inappropriate for that age,” said Orti. “What she was getting for homework was more busywork. I don’t think she was getting anything out of it and I think it was way too much.”

But such concerns aren’t shared by administrators or parents at Arlington Traditional School, a countywide elementary school in Arlington, Va., with a waiting list of parents eager for their children to attend.

Kindergartners there are expected to do 30 minutes of homework a night, Monday through Thursday.

Every student at the school is expected to spend 15 minutes reading a night. For kindergartners who can’t read yet, that means their parents are expected to read to them. The other 15 minutes is spent doing things like dictating a story to their parents using words that start with a sound they’ve been learning in class or exercises that involve circling that letter.

“We feel that this is a connection that we want with parents,” said Holly Hawthorne, the school’s principal. “We want them to know what their children are learning at school, we want them to know how they’re doing in school, if the work is too hard, if it’s too easy, we want them to be able to support what the kids are learning at school at home as well.”

Eliminating Packets

Still, some kindergarten teachers remain firm in their opposition to mandatory homework.

Barbara Knapp used to assign her kindergarten pupils at Bradley Elementary School in Corralitos, Calif., weekly homework packets. But that all changed 10 years ago during the Great Recession.

“Teachers were only given two reams of paper a month at my school, so we were forced to cut back,” said Knapp.

She and some of her colleagues at the school located about 90 miles south of San Francisco decided a good way to do that would be to eliminate those homework packets. During that time, she said, she started to research homework and found the case against it for young elementary pupils very compelling.

“The research showed that there was no correlation between school success and the traditional paper-pencil homework in kindergarten,” said Knapp, who has 19 years of classroom-teaching experience.

When she was assigning homework, Knapp said parents sometimes complained that it was frustrating for their children. Other times, it was obvious the parents had done the work rather than the child.

Now, Knapp only assigns nightly reading of her pupils’ choice, a move that she credits with making them better readers. She adds that she hasn’t seen any deterioration in other skills since she eliminated traditional homework, and she’s been able to spend more time on lesson preparation rather than grading homework.

“It’s been great not having to focus on homework,” said Knapp. “Putting together the packet, running them all off, grading them all, it was a huge amount of time that was being taken instead of us planning really wonderful, rich, in-class lessons. Homework took away a lot of planning time for just a bunch of busywork.”

Risk of ‘Busywork’ vs. Parental Bonding

Cathy Vatterott is no fan of busywork at any grade level and doesn’t think homework should be part of kindergarten. She’s a professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the author of Rethinking Homework . “There’s enough of an adjustment for young children in kindergarten without throwing in homework,” said Vatterott.

And she worries that adjusting to school routines combined with homework could turn off young students to learning.

“I want to make sure that they don’t hate school,” said Vatterott, who noted that young children learn best through play.

She also points to a 2016 University of Virginia study, “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?,” which found that kindergarten in 2010 was more like the 1st grade of the late 1990s. Vatterott says she’s concerned that children who aren’t developmentally ready for this work might “internalize that they’re not smart or that they’re not good at school.”

But keeping the bond strong between home and school is one of the reasons that Duke researcher Cooper doesn’t mind homework for pupils in kindergarten, with a few caveats.

“The assignments need to be short, simple, and lead to success,” said Cooper. “We don’t want young children to get frustrated with homework. We don’t want them to get bored, and we don’t want them to begin thinking that schoolwork is too difficult for them so that they begin to develop a self-image of not being a good student.”

Finding a Balance

Some kindergarten teachers are embracing short, unique assignments for their pupils that don’t involve worksheets.

Shannon Brescher Shea’s son’s kindergarten teacher provides a list of activities the children can do at home if they choose. The activities ask them, for instance, to draw a picture of what they did over the weekend or collect and count a handful of leaves by ones.

Shea says after visiting her son’s classroom in suburban Rockville, Md., and seeing how much work he does, she’s even more against the idea of mandatory homework for children in kindergarten.

“They are going through so much energy and so much focus at school already and exerting so much self-control that to then have these kids come home and do homework on top of that is a recipe for them not wanting to go to school and not enjoying learning,” said Shea.

Jennifer Craven’s daughter is also in kindergarten this year, and she said so far the young girl has been asked to “practice tying shoes, practice writing her name, and read two books each night.”

Craven, who lives in Meadville, Pa., a city about 90 miles from Pittsburgh, said her family would be doing these activities anyway, and for now, her daughter thinks homework is fun.

“I think this is very age appropriate and I don’t mind the use of the term ‘homework’ at this age, as they will realize what real homework is soon enough,” said Craven.

Michael Sheppard talked to his son’s teacher in Pulaski about the homework she assigns. He said the 30-year classroom veteran acted like it was out of her hands.

Sheppard, 42, who attended school in the same district as his son, Walker, said he didn’t have to deal with homework until well after kindergarten.

“Maybe there should be homework,” said Sheppard. “I just think it would be better starting at 3rd grade.”

A version of this article appeared in the November 28, 2018 edition of Education Week as Kindergarten Homework Debate: Too Much Too Soon?

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Edweek top school jobs.

Illustration, concept art of teenager girl struggling with mental health pressures

Sign Up & Sign In

NEW Parenting Course: Transform Your Parenting Skills with Holistic Positive Parenting™

The Ultimate List of Age-Appropriate Chores for Children and Teens

There are many benefits to having children help around the home. Giving children chores can make them feel important, teach essential life skills, and help ease the workload for parents. Studies have found that providing children with tasks to complete early on will help create a solid work ethic while developing responsibility, self-reliance, and other vital life skills.

Children are capable of handling much more than some people may first believe. Even toddlers can help with the smallest and simplest chores, and by the time they’re teenagers, they can manage most of what their parents can. The key is to start your kids off with small household tasks at a young age and slowly teach them more complicated chores over time. Setting expectations as soon as it’s developmentally appropriate can help ease any arguing later on as they become older and begin to test boundaries.

The following is an ultimate age-appropriate list of chores for children ages two to eighteen:

Toddlers (Ages 2-3)

Toddlers can complete simple tasks around the home. Toddlers are also at an age where they find the idea of helping their parents, caretakers, or older siblings as one of the most exciting things they can do. Young children learn about their world primarily through watching others do something and then copying their actions. Take advantage of this developmental stage to begin teaching your children some responsibility.

It’s important to note that toddlers need supervision and guidance with their chores. By the time they reach preschool age, kids can usually complete some tasks unsupervised.

A few examples of chores that toddlers can complete are:

Put their toys away
Fill up a cat or dog’s food bowl
Place clothing in the hamper
Wipe up spills
Dust or wipe baseboards with a sock on their hand
Pile up books and magazines on shelves or tables
Help load the washer and dryer
Mop small areas with a dry mop

Preschoolers (Ages 4-5)

Preschoolers continue to feel the same desire to help their parents because they’re still learning through observing their elders. There are even some chores your children can do without supervision at this age. Typically, these will be the same ones they completed when they were toddlers, including one or two new tasks they’re naturally adept at doing.

The increased ability at this stage is largely attributable to preschoolers starting to master the skills necessary to perform tasks without supervision. Their hand-eye coordination will have improved at this stage, including their ability to follow more complex instructions. Whereas toddlers need to be told each step associated with a task, preschoolers may have the ability to remember and follow instructions up to two or three steps at a time.

In addition to the chores listed above, preschoolers can typically help with the following duties:

Make their bed without supervision
Clear the table
Use a hand-held vacuum for crumbs or room edges
Water flowers
Put away clean utensils
Wash plastic dishes with supervision
Assist an older sibling with setting the table
Help bring in light groceries
Sort laundry into whites and colors before wash
Match socks together
Dust with a cloth
Care for an animal’s food and water dish

Primary Schoolers (Ages 6-9)

Once a child reaches primary school age, they can take on much more responsibility without supervision. They can start learning more physically challenging or complex tasks as they continue to develop necessary skills.

Parents should understand that this age group will sometimes start “rebelling” against the idea of doing chores as they learn more independence. However, try to remain patient and consistent with the expectation that your kids continue to help around the home. Some children may never challenge their parents in this way. Whether they do or not will largely depend on their unique personalities .

In addition to the chores listed for both toddlers and preschoolers above, primary schoolers between the ages of 6 and 9 can usually complete the following tasks:

Sweep floors
Help make bagged or boxed lunches
Rake the yard
Clean their bedrooms, with minimal supervision
Put away groceries
Load the dishwasher
Empty the dishwasher or drain
Wipe down counters and sinks
Help a parent prepare dinner
Make themselves snacks/breakfast
Scrub the table after meals
Fold and put away their laundry
Take the family dog for a walk (in the yard or with supervision)
Wet mop the floor
Empty indoor trash bins into the kitchen trash

Middle Schoolers (Ages 10-13)

Preteens or middle schoolers can do many tasks independently and be held responsible for them without constant reminders. Many families decide to create a chore chart or task list for their children at this age. Parents can hold their children accountable and check just once a day to mark things off the list or chart; this helps kids learn self-reliance and to be responsible for themselves when no one is looking.

In addition to the tasks listed in the sections above for younger kids, children between the ages of 10 and 13 should be able to do the following chores:

Wash the dishes or load the dishwasher without assistance
Wash the family car
Prepare easy meals without assistance
Use the clothes washer and dryer
Take trash to the bins
Take trash bins to the curb
Babysit younger siblings with parents at home

High Schoolers (Ages 14+)

By the time your child reaches high school, they can do nearly any household task you can. This is the perfect age to start ensuring your teen is fully prepared for the eventuality of living on their own. While not all kids fly the nest upon reaching eighteen, the day will eventually come when they will have to rely on the life skills you’ve taught them. Thanks to the rising costs of living and excessive student loan debts, more children are deciding to live at home while attending college or saving for a home of their own than in recent years. If your child stays with you beyond the age of eighteen, they can continue helping around the house.

In addition to the tasks listed in previous sections, children over the age of fourteen can complete the following chores:

Clean out the fridge
Help deep clean kitchen (appliances and cabinets)
Clean the toilet, sink, and shower in the bathroom
Clean windows
Babysit younger siblings independently (for short periods)
Mow the lawn
Care for pets independently (including walks)
Make more complex meals
Accomplish small shopping trips alone (after receiving their license)
Iron clothes
Resew buttons on clothing
Help parents with simple home or auto repairs

Children are capable of accomplishing much more than parents might think. Even the youngest family members can help with household tasks as early as age two, and by the time your child reaches their teenage years, they can complete nearly any chore you can. There are many benefits to giving children chores, and it also makes life a lot easier for parents.

About The Author

Child Development Books

Our recommendations for books on child development for parents.

The Well Balanced Family

How to disconnect to reconnect so you can grow and have fun together.

We don't sell your information.

The information on this website is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither Parenting Today, LLC nor Dr. Myers nor any of the editors, columnists or authors take responsibility for any possible consequences from any action taken which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine or psychology, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or mental health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other healthcare provider.

A List of Age-Appropriate Chores for Kids 2 to 18

Even young kids can help around the household with simple chores for every year

Becky Rapinchuk is a natural cleaning expert, home-keeping expert, and founder of the lifestyle brand, Clean Mama. She has published 4 best-selling books on cleaning.

The Spruce / Michelle Becker

Ages 2 and 3

Ages 4 and 5, ages 6 to 8, ages 9 to 12, ages 13 to 18.

What to Avoid

Assigning chores to children can be beneficial to their development. Children who regularly do chores tend to have higher self-esteem, be more patient, and be better equipped to handle frustration and responsibility. These skills can lead to greater success in various aspects of life, such as school, work, and relationships.

The complexity of these chores naturally varies per age. The chores a 3-year-old typically has are tiny fixes like putting toys away. By contrast, the chores a 12-year-old would be best at are more involved, such as operating appliances and cleaning entire rooms. Use this list of chores as a guideline when creating age-appropriate chore charts for your children.

Toddlers love to help with chores, and while their assistance may not always be as effective as we would hope, it's worth it to keep up their excitement and helping habit. Many toddlers love seeing a visual reminder of their success, so making sticker charts is a great choice. Although chores may only be completed with your input each step of the way, you are creating positive habits for children to find chores and helping others a way of life.

Helping make the bed
Picking up toys and books
Putting laundry in the hamper or in the laundry room
Helping to feed pets
Helping to wipe up messes
Dusting with socks on their hands
Putting small items in a dishwasher
Dry mopping in small areas with help to maneuver the mop

The Spruce / Xiaojie Liu

The great thing about preschool-aged kids is that they are still reasonably motivated to help. Preschoolers also love individual time with adults. If you take some time to teach them new chores one-on-one, they usually love it.

Many kids at this age are ready to do chores without constant supervision. They also love rewards. Try using a daily chore chart with stickers that allow them to build up to bigger rewards. For some preschoolers, tying chores to an allowance is a great choice. This incentive can also foster independence by allowing them to choose a reward.

Helping to clear and set the table
Making bed independently
Helping out to cook and prepare food
Carrying and putting away groceries
Sorting laundry whites and colors
Watering plants using a small container
Pulling garden weeds
Washing small dishes at the sink
Helping to clean their room
Putting away groceries

Although enthusiasm for chores may diminish for school-aged kids, they have other redeeming qualities that work well for chores. Most school-aged children have an overwhelming desire to be independent. Parents and caregivers can guide children to become self-sufficient in their chores by using chore charts to keep track of their responsibilities. Note completed tasks, as this will help motivate children to continue working.

Taking care of pets
Vacuuming , sweeping, mopping, wiping down surfaces
Empty indoor trash cans and taking it outside
Folding and putting away laundry
Making their snacks, breakfast, and bagged lunches
Emptying and loading the dishwasher
Walking the dog with pooper-scooper supervision
Raking leaves
Clean their bedroom
Help put away groceries
Assist with making dinner

Kids at this age will appreciate a set schedule and expectations. Throw a lot of unexpected work at them and watch them get upset. If you can create a schedule or system with a bit of input from them, you'll have a smooth transition. It's best to find a system that works for your family. Try not to change it without the input and support of the people it directly affects.

Part of this system should address rewards and negative consequences so that these results are laid out and understood in advance.

Helping to wash the car
Wash dishes or fill and empty the dishwasher
Prepare simple meals
Cleaning parts of the bathroom
Doing laundry and operating the washer and dryer
Taking out the garbage
Babysitting younger siblings (ages 11 and 12)
Walking the dog and full pooper-scooper responsibility

Most teenagers can handle nearly any chore in the home as long as they've been taught properly. One thing to be sensitive to is their cramped schedules. Just as we get overwhelmed when we have too much to do, teenagers can find themselves struggling to maintain an unmanageable workload. Monitor your teen's schedule and school commitments; adjust activities and chores accordingly.

Replacing light bulbs
Cleaning bathrooms, including toilets and showers
Vacuuming, changing vacuum cleaner bags, or emptying the canister
Doing their own (or the household's) laundry
Washing windows
Cleaning out the refrigerator and other kitchen appliances
Preparing meals
Preparing grocery lists or going food shopping
Repairing clothes, such as sewing on missing buttons or fixing small tears
Ironing clothes
Mowing the lawn
Caring for pets completely (feeding, walking, grooming)
Setting and clearing the table

Remember that children mature at their own pace, and not all kids will be capable of advanced chores at the same age. Likewise, some children may be ready for more difficult tasks at a younger age. You are best positioned to supervise and evaluate your child's needs and abilities.

You can advance children through more challenging chores as they master the basic ones. It can be easy to let kids continue to perform the same chores because they're good at them, but introducing new chores at regular intervals will actually benefit them in the long term. Institute a "training period" with new chores while teaching them the ins and outs of new tasks.

What to Avoid When Making Chore Lists

The list of things to avoid when making chore lists can often be longer than the chore list itself. Consider the following when creating chore lists for kids of any age:

Do Not Start Too Late

Kids can start doing chores as early as two years old. At that point, kids love to help out parents and family members.

Do Not Make Chores Complicated

If you're in a rush, your chore list may not be clear to a child. Your handwriting may be messy, or the instructions may be confusing, causing a kid to zone out. The fix? Use easy-to-read picture chore cards. For example, if you post a vacuuming chore, print out a basic image of a vacuum and stick it on the chart.

Do Not Change Schedules Too Often

Kids thrive on consistency. They need to know what to expect from their daily lives. A consistent schedule of chores can help your child become an expert in handling that particular duty. It can allow your child to become good at a particular chore rather than trying to learn a new one every week.

Avoid Becoming a Perfectionist

No one is perfect, and that's the message you must instill in your child. If you insist on perfectionism, your child will rebel against doing chores. When a child finishes a chore that's less than acceptable in your eyes, turn it into a teaching moment and gently show them the correct way.

Do Not Use Lists to Control Kids

Chores are boring, but they are not meant to torture or control kids. The point of a chore list is to help kids learn to become accountable and responsible as they grow older. The fix? Help them become excited about chores by using small, simple rewards as an incentive to adhere to the chore chart.

Large and complicated rewards will confuse kids (and yourself), so keep it super easy with coins or small rewards, such as staying up a half hour later to complete a specific chore.

Do Not Forget to Say Thanks

Giving your child a genuine smile and a verbal thank you goes a long way. It shows how much you appreciate your child's efforts. By expressing thanks to them, your kids will feel more capable of accomplishing everyday tasks, and encourage them to be part of the family, a team, and the community.

Assigning chores to children teaches them responsibility, instills self-confidence, and helps them grow and learn how to care for themselves and the family home. Research shows that it prepares them for being grown-ups and on their own and has an overall positive impact on their well-being.

Start giving them small chores when they're toddlers. Have them help put away their toys and pick up clothes. Kids between the ages of two and three love helping their parents and siblings.

Using stickers and chore charts visually shows your kids what they've accomplished. A sticker chart is a great motivator for children ages two to five, while a chore chart might work better for ages six to nine.

This topic is frequently debated; however, according to a recent survey by T. Rowe Price, 69% of American children get an allowance, averaging $20 a week. Some parents state it instills a healthy work ethic, while others suggest that as members of the household, everyone should pitch in to help the family and not expect a "reward."

Chores and Children . American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

White EM, DeBoer MD, Scharf RJ. Associations Between Household Chores and Childhood Self-Competency . J Dev Behav Pediatr. , no. 40, vol. 3, 2019, pp. 176-182. doi:10.1097/DBP.0000000000000637

14th Annual Parents, Kids, & Money Survey . T. Rowe Price.

Get the Reddit app

A community for supporting parents and caregivers with toddlers. Questions, strategies and discussion welcome!

At what age is forcing to do homework appropriate?

My 3.5 year old gets little homework sheets to color or trace letters from her preschool…. but it’s a battle to get her to want to hold a pen or color. She doesn’t like to sit still long enough for these activities. She also just sucks at holding a pen correctly. While I understand it’s important to develop this skill I find it too early to put her under press to practice writing and coloring. She senses my frustration too and it all just ends up a disaster.

It’s not totally mandatory to submit the homework but I don’t want to be that parent who never does it with their child. My idea of learning is learning through experience and play, and maybe I’ll attempt homework after age 4?

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

Criminal justice
Economy + workforce
Election 2024

SC teachers say new ‘age-appropriate’ rule is causing confusion. They’re seeking clear guidance.

Regulation that took effect automatically over the summer bans ‘sexual conduct’ in education materials, by: abraham kenmore - september 9, 2024 10:46 am.

David O’Shields, right, chairman of the state Board of Education, delivers his report during a meeting of the board on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, while state Superintendent Ellen Weaver, center, looks on. (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette)

Uncertainty over new rules requiring age-appropriate materials in South Carolina’s public schools is raising some peculiar questions. For example: Does a book for primary grades referencing elephant poop count as banned “sexual conduct”?

That was a question Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association got during a meeting with school employees in the last week of August.

Another question he recently received came in an email from a high school social studies teacher in Richland Two, where Kelly also works in suburban Columbia: Could he use a picture of Michelangelo’s famous nude statue of David when discussing Renaissance art?

Sexual conduct is defined in the state obscenity code, including a broad range of graphic examples. But also included are “excretory functions, or lewd exhibition … of the genitals.”

“I would argue that Michelangelo’s David is not a ‘lewd exhibition,’ but it is certainly an exhibition of genitalia,” Kelly said of the statue in Florence, Italy . “That’s a gray area for a teacher because now a teacher is having to define what does ‘lewd’ mean.”

An attorney with the state Department of Education called the regulation clear and straightforward.

But educators argue it’s the opposite. They say the vague language is making it harder for teachers and librarians to do their job.

During a state Board of Education meeting last month, Kelly asked during the public comment period for additional guidance.

The regulation bars books and other instructional materials that describe “sexual conduct” and creates a statewide system for parents to challenge books they think violate the rules, with an appeals process that gives the State Board of Education final say. Parents must have a child in the district to complain and must first talk with school- or district-level staff for a potential resolution before escalating their concerns.

“Sexual conduct” is not defined in the regulation. Rather, it points to the portion of the state’s obscenity law that lists sexual activities. Books and other classroom materials that describe or depict what’s on that list are barred.

As the proposal moved through state House committees in the spring, Miles Coleman, an attorney contracted by the Department of Education, said any changes — for example, adding the word “explicit” — would make the regulation less clear.

“No, it is not clear at all, and the evidence for my answer lies in all of the confusion and chaos that’s happening right now,” Jamie Gregory, president of the South Carolina Association of School Librarians, told the SC Daily Gazette last week.

Jason Raven, spokesman for the Department of Education, said the agency is answering questions as they come up from districts. But it’s not planning to release any more general guidance.

David O’Shields, chair of the state Board of Education, which adopted the regulation, said last week that providing guidance was not the board’s job.

“That’s more of a legislative issue,” he told the SC Daily Gazette.

But the regulation is not the Legislature’s creation. By state law , textbook regulations are the board’s responsibility. Indeed, the rules took effect over the summer without the Legislature’s blessing .

After the Board of Education approved it in February, the regulation moved to the General Assembly for review. It advanced through a House committee, but that’s as far as it got. The rules never received a vote on the House floor, and senators never even had a hearing before the session ended.

Yet it took effect automatically, to the surprise of even some GOP leaders.

The result has been confusion.

Greenville, the largest school district in the state, grabbed headlines when it paused book fairs for the year, citing the regulation . That decision brought numerous complaints at last week’s Board of Education meeting.

Kelly said Greenville also required all teachers to list all the instructional materials they planned to use for the entire school year just a week after classes started.

He shared a quote from a Greenville teacher’s email with the Gazette, saying that teachers were told “every book, resource, DVD, magazine, PowerPoint …. that students ‘could’ possibly access in our classroom” had to be cataloged by Aug. 16.

In response, the state’s largest school district contends that is not the policy, and that teachers misunderstood.

Greenville requires teachers to keep track of all the materials they use but does not require a proactive list for the entire year, Tim Waller, district director of media relations, told the Gazette.

Keeping a list of materials is the district’s only new rule due to the regulation, he said, and no parents have asked to view those lists yet.

Kelly said he’s relieved Greenville is not requiring a full listing at the beginning of the year. But he also says that policy change was not communicated well to teachers.

As for the book fairs, Waller said the district is just pausing them for a review.

He said the initial concern came from library employees who worried they didn’t have time to review every book offered for sale ahead of time and did not want to accidentally violate the regulation.

“The concerns that led to us pausing our books fairs were to protect our employees,” Waller said.

In an Aug. 22 statement on the book fair pause, the Department of Education commended the district “on its vigilance.”

Last week, its spokesman stressed to the Gazette that there’s nothing in the regulation to “prohibit or discourage” book fairs and no other district has done so. The agency is working with Greenville officials on future fairs, Raven said.

Waller said the district is trying to find a book vendor that can provide assurances the regulation is met, so librarians don’t have to try to read or scan every book being sold before the shelves open.

The Department of Education sent out two memos over the summer on the regulation — one listing the new obligations of districts, the other with a reminder of the obligations and a link to new forms. One is three pages long, the other is two pages.

“The Department has continued to field questions from school districts, board members and has provided guidance accordingly,” Raven wrote. “Our staff is dedicated to offering ongoing support and guidance as requested.”

No appeals on newly banned materials have reached the state, according to Raven.

But those memos don’t provide any clarity, educators and others say.

“Despite the repeated assurances this is logistically feasible, it seems like it has been chaotic across the state and every district seems to be interpreting and implementing it different,” said Josh Malkin, an attorney with the South Carolina American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the regulation.

Gregory, the president of the school librarians’ association, said she understands why districts are passing restrictive policies to protect employees from being brought before the state Board of Education. Some districts are going overboard, though, she said — beyond anything the regulation requires.

“Let’s just deal with the regulation and not make it something that it isn’t, especially in light of the fact that there has been no guidance whatsoever from the state,” she said.

Gregory, who is a librarian at a private school in Greenville, said she bought maybe 1,000 books last year. Reading all of them to confirm there is nothing that breaks the regulation would be impossible.

“If there’s even one word in the book that violates the regulation, it has to be taken out,” she said.

Although she did not want to name specific districts in order to keep member’s information private, Gregory said that some librarians are suspending buying any new books.

“When people tell you, ‘I’m afraid to order books for my school,’ that is a huge problem,” she said.

Gregory would like to see clear definitions of all the terms in the regulation and clearly defined consequences for failing to comply. She also wants an exception that allows for material that might include sexual material but have literary merit — especially for high school students, she said.

Kelly said he wants the regulation to specify it’s banning only explicit or graphic sexual content. It’s a request he made last spring as he told legislators the rule as written could apply to the Bible or plays written by William Shakespeare.

Both Gregory and Kelly said that if parents are concerned about what their children are using, they should start by talking to librarians and teachers. That, at least, is what the regulation says.

“Contact your school librarian if you have a question. We always build relationships with the parents and the teachers and the community members,” Gregory said. “We welcome that. It’s part of our job.”

SC Daily Gazette reporter Skylar Laird contributed to this report.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.

Abraham Kenmore

Abraham Kenmore is a reporter covering elections, health care and more. He joins the SC Daily Gazette from The Augusta Chronicle, where he reported on Georgia legislators, military and housing issues.

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom , the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Related News

IMAGES

Age Appropriate Pre-K Homework for the ENTIRE School Year by Apples to
Age Appropriate Pre-K Homework for the ENTIRE School Year by Apples to
The Value of Age-Appropriate Homework
Age Appropriate Pre-K Homework for the ENTIRE School Year by Apples to
Age Appropriate Chores for Kids
Age Appropriate Pre-K Homework for the ENTIRE School Year

VIDEO

#sweat time..🥵. ,#age 17 , #homework 🧿
Letters
HOLIDAY HOMEWORK REVIEW!!
Six tips to help kids with their homework
12 Holiday homework worksheets/summer vacation worksheets for lkg class
How to support reading homework

COMMENTS

What is the appropriate age for children to start getting homework
The idea that "less is more" rules here. According to the National Education Association, guidelines are no more than 10 minutes per grade level per night (that's 10 minutes total for a first-grader, 30 minutes for a third-grader). Some students do their homework on their own, and some parents help their children.
Your Age-by-Age Guide to Homework
Here are some tips for setting your child up for homework success: Set a regular homework time. Homework should be done at the same time each evening to establish a routine. Just make sure you're allowing your little one some time to decompress when they get home before jumping into more schoolwork. Create a study area.
What's the Right Amount of Homework?
What's the Right Amount of Homework?
Is Homework Useful for Kids? If So, What Age Should It Start?
Some middle school and high school students might score higher on achievement tests when they do homework. But we can't find evidence that it supports elementary school learning, and we have ample evidence of its harmful impact, like contributing to children's exhaustion, reducing time for play, and contributing to overall disinterest in ...
An Age-By-Age Guide to Helping Kids Manage Homework
Third to fifth grades. Many children will be able to do homework independently in grades 3-5. Even then, their ability to focus and follow through may vary from day to day. "Most children are ...
Is Homework Good for Kids? Here's What the Research Says
Homework: Is It Good for Kids? Here's What the Research ...
PDF Homework: A Guide for Parents
N Placing the homework in the appropriate folder or notebook and backpack N Cleaning off the desk or workspace so that the next ... At any age, if problems arise that seem intractable, parents should consult their child's teacher or a school psychologist. REFERENCES Cooper, H. (1989). Homework.
How do you know if your kid's homework is appropriate?
Perhaps it's practicing a few math problems. The amount of homework depends on the child's age. A guidepoint recommended by the Parent-Teacher's Association is 10 minutes for every grade level. For instance, first grade gets 10 minutes, second grade gets 20 minutes and so on. Know that these are rough guidelines.
Should Kids Get Homework?
And homework has a greater positive effect on students in secondary school (grades 7-12) than those in elementary. "Every child should be doing homework, but the amount and type that they're doing ...
The Value of Age-Appropriate Homework
Dr. Cooper agrees that even young children should be doing small amounts of homework. There are a number of benefits to homework, including improved study habits, self-discipline, and independent problem-solving skills. Students learn other life skills, too, such as time management and how to set priorities.
The Case for (Quality) Homework
On the contrary, developmentally appropriate homework plays a critical role in the formation of positive learning beliefs and behaviors, including a belief in one's academic ability, a deliberative and effortful approach to mastery, and higher expectations and aspirations for one's future. ... Indeed, across age groups, there is a strong ...
Is homework useful for kids? If so, what age should it start?
But we can't find evidence that it supports elementary school learning, and we have ample evidence of its harmful impact, like contributing to children's exhaustion, reducing time for play, and ...
How Much Time Should Be Spent on Homework?
How Much Time Should Be Spent on Homework?
How much homework is too much?
How much homework is too much is an age-old question, and there's been a constantly shifting debate on this for as long as I've been teaching. Research tells us that homework has some benefits, especially in middle and high school. However, some districts and teachers are abandoning homework altogether. At the end of the day, it's about ...
Homework for young children: Is it justified?
In an online essay for Edutopia, 2nd grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino notes that homework "causes a lot of stress and fighting in most families.". It has the potential to turn young children against school. And kids "are are losing precious free time that could be used to engage in play and group activities like organized sports, music ...
How To: Choose the Right Amount of Daily Homework
At grades 1-3, homework should be limited to an hour or less per day, while in grades 4-6, homework should not exceed 90 minutes. The upper limit in grades 7-8 is 2 hours and the limit in high school should be 2.5 hours.
The Age-by-Age Guide to Teaching Kids Time Management
Ages. 3-13. Many kids are overwhelmed by the prospect of fitting everything they have and want to do into the few short hours after school. Between homework, activities, and just time to play, there's a lot to do. But even though most kids don't have the cognitive skills to organize their schedules independently until middle school, you can ...
Kindergarten Homework: Too Much Too Early?
"I think this is very age appropriate and I don't mind the use of the term 'homework' at this age, as they will realize what real homework is soon enough," said Craven.
Kids Chores List by Age: The Ultimate List of Age-Appropriate Chores
The Ultimate List of Age-Appropriate Chores
An age-by-age guide to what your kid can (and should) do right now
Give them age-appropriate chores, such as putting dirty clothes in the hamper and bringing dishes to the sink. ... Don't step in when they forget their homework, musical instrument or gym bag, so they'll learn the consequences. Have them cook a meal for the family one night per week, for which they choose what to cook, add ingredients to ...
A List of Age-Appropriate Chores for Kids 2 to 18
A List of Age-Appropriate Chores for Kids 2 to 18
Age appropriateness
Age appropriateness refers to people behaving as predicted by their perspective timetable of development. The perspective timetable is embedded throughout people's social life, primarily based on socially-agreed age expectations and age norms.For a given behavior, such as crawling, learning to walk, learning to talk, etc., there are years within which the behavior is regarded appropriate.
At what age is forcing to do homework appropriate? : r/toddlers
Your child's preschool is pretending to be academic and it's not really age appropriate. My 3.75 year old goes to JK and the only homework he will have until the 2nd grade is 15 minutes of reading done by the parent or child. There is a lot of evidence that homework at an early age is not beneficial.
SC teachers say new 'age-appropriate' rule is causing confusion. They
SC teachers say new 'age-appropriate' rule is causing confusion. They're seeking clear guidance. Regulation that took effect automatically over the summer bans 'sexual conduct' in education materials. By: Abraham Kenmore - September 9, 2024 10:46 am.

Top Stories