teacher doing homework in class

Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

A conversation with a Wheelock researcher, a BU student, and a fourth-grade teacher

“Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives,” says Wheelock’s Janine Bempechat. “It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.” Photo by iStock/Glenn Cook Photography

Do your homework.

If only it were that simple.

Educators have debated the merits of homework since the late 19th century. In recent years, amid concerns of some parents and teachers that children are being stressed out by too much homework, things have only gotten more fraught.

“Homework is complicated,” says developmental psychologist Janine Bempechat, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development clinical professor. The author of the essay “ The Case for (Quality) Homework—Why It Improves Learning and How Parents Can Help ” in the winter 2019 issue of Education Next , Bempechat has studied how the debate about homework is influencing teacher preparation, parent and student beliefs about learning, and school policies.

She worries especially about socioeconomically disadvantaged students from low-performing schools who, according to research by Bempechat and others, get little or no homework.

BU Today  sat down with Bempechat and Erin Bruce (Wheelock’17,’18), a new fourth-grade teacher at a suburban Boston school, and future teacher freshman Emma Ardizzone (Wheelock) to talk about what quality homework looks like, how it can help children learn, and how schools can equip teachers to design it, evaluate it, and facilitate parents’ role in it.

BU Today: Parents and educators who are against homework in elementary school say there is no research definitively linking it to academic performance for kids in the early grades. You’ve said that they’re missing the point.

Bempechat : I think teachers assign homework in elementary school as a way to help kids develop skills they’ll need when they’re older—to begin to instill a sense of responsibility and to learn planning and organizational skills. That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success. If we greatly reduce or eliminate homework in elementary school, we deprive kids and parents of opportunities to instill these important learning habits and skills.

We do know that beginning in late middle school, and continuing through high school, there is a strong and positive correlation between homework completion and academic success.

That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success.

You talk about the importance of quality homework. What is that?

Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives. It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.

What are your concerns about homework and low-income children?

The argument that some people make—that homework “punishes the poor” because lower-income parents may not be as well-equipped as affluent parents to help their children with homework—is very troubling to me. There are no parents who don’t care about their children’s learning. Parents don’t actually have to help with homework completion in order for kids to do well. They can help in other ways—by helping children organize a study space, providing snacks, being there as a support, helping children work in groups with siblings or friends.

Isn’t the discussion about getting rid of homework happening mostly in affluent communities?

Yes, and the stories we hear of kids being stressed out from too much homework—four or five hours of homework a night—are real. That’s problematic for physical and mental health and overall well-being. But the research shows that higher-income students get a lot more homework than lower-income kids.

Teachers may not have as high expectations for lower-income children. Schools should bear responsibility for providing supports for kids to be able to get their homework done—after-school clubs, community support, peer group support. It does kids a disservice when our expectations are lower for them.

The conversation around homework is to some extent a social class and social justice issue. If we eliminate homework for all children because affluent children have too much, we’re really doing a disservice to low-income children. They need the challenge, and every student can rise to the challenge with enough supports in place.

What did you learn by studying how education schools are preparing future teachers to handle homework?

My colleague, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, at the University of California, Davis, School of Education, and I interviewed faculty members at education schools, as well as supervising teachers, to find out how students are being prepared. And it seemed that they weren’t. There didn’t seem to be any readings on the research, or conversations on what high-quality homework is and how to design it.

Erin, what kind of training did you get in handling homework?

Bruce : I had phenomenal professors at Wheelock, but homework just didn’t come up. I did lots of student teaching. I’ve been in classrooms where the teachers didn’t assign any homework, and I’ve been in rooms where they assigned hours of homework a night. But I never even considered homework as something that was my decision. I just thought it was something I’d pull out of a book and it’d be done.

I started giving homework on the first night of school this year. My first assignment was to go home and draw a picture of the room where you do your homework. I want to know if it’s at a table and if there are chairs around it and if mom’s cooking dinner while you’re doing homework.

The second night I asked them to talk to a grown-up about how are you going to be able to get your homework done during the week. The kids really enjoyed it. There’s a running joke that I’m teaching life skills.

Friday nights, I read all my kids’ responses to me on their homework from the week and it’s wonderful. They pour their hearts out. It’s like we’re having a conversation on my couch Friday night.

It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Bempechat : I can’t imagine that most new teachers would have the intuition Erin had in designing homework the way she did.

Ardizzone : Conversations with kids about homework, feeling you’re being listened to—that’s such a big part of wanting to do homework….I grew up in Westchester County. It was a pretty demanding school district. My junior year English teacher—I loved her—she would give us feedback, have meetings with all of us. She’d say, “If you have any questions, if you have anything you want to talk about, you can talk to me, here are my office hours.” It felt like she actually cared.

Bempechat : It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Ardizzone : But can’t it lead to parents being overbearing and too involved in their children’s lives as students?

Bempechat : There’s good help and there’s bad help. The bad help is what you’re describing—when parents hover inappropriately, when they micromanage, when they see their children confused and struggling and tell them what to do.

Good help is when parents recognize there’s a struggle going on and instead ask informative questions: “Where do you think you went wrong?” They give hints, or pointers, rather than saying, “You missed this,” or “You didn’t read that.”

Bruce : I hope something comes of this. I hope BU or Wheelock can think of some way to make this a more pressing issue. As a first-year teacher, it was not something I even thought about on the first day of school—until a kid raised his hand and said, “Do we have homework?” It would have been wonderful if I’d had a plan from day one.

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Sara Rimer A journalist for more than three decades, Sara Rimer worked at the Miami Herald , Washington Post and, for 26 years, the New York Times , where she was the New England bureau chief, and a national reporter covering education, aging, immigration, and other social justice issues. Her stories on the death penalty’s inequities were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and cited in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision outlawing the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. Her journalism honors include Columbia University’s Meyer Berger award for in-depth human interest reporting. She holds a BA degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan. Profile

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There are 81 comments on Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

Insightful! The values about homework in elementary schools are well aligned with my intuition as a parent.

when i finish my work i do my homework and i sometimes forget what to do because i did not get enough sleep

same omg it does not help me it is stressful and if I have it in more than one class I hate it.

Same I think my parent wants to help me but, she doesn’t care if I get bad grades so I just try my best and my grades are great.

I think that last question about Good help from parents is not know to all parents, we do as our parents did or how we best think it can be done, so maybe coaching parents or giving them resources on how to help with homework would be very beneficial for the parent on how to help and for the teacher to have consistency and improve homework results, and of course for the child. I do see how homework helps reaffirm the knowledge obtained in the classroom, I also have the ability to see progress and it is a time I share with my kids

The answer to the headline question is a no-brainer – a more pressing problem is why there is a difference in how students from different cultures succeed. Perfect example is the student population at BU – why is there a majority population of Asian students and only about 3% black students at BU? In fact at some universities there are law suits by Asians to stop discrimination and quotas against admitting Asian students because the real truth is that as a group they are demonstrating better qualifications for admittance, while at the same time there are quotas and reduced requirements for black students to boost their portion of the student population because as a group they do more poorly in meeting admissions standards – and it is not about the Benjamins. The real problem is that in our PC society no one has the gazuntas to explore this issue as it may reveal that all people are not created equal after all. Or is it just environmental cultural differences??????

I get you have a concern about the issue but that is not even what the point of this article is about. If you have an issue please take this to the site we have and only post your opinion about the actual topic

This is not at all what the article is talking about.

This literally has nothing to do with the article brought up. You should really take your opinions somewhere else before you speak about something that doesn’t make sense.

we have the same name

so they have the same name what of it?

lol you tell her

totally agree

What does that have to do with homework, that is not what the article talks about AT ALL.

Yes, I think homework plays an important role in the development of student life. Through homework, students have to face challenges on a daily basis and they try to solve them quickly.I am an intense online tutor at 24x7homeworkhelp and I give homework to my students at that level in which they handle it easily.

More than two-thirds of students said they used alcohol and drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with stress.

You know what’s funny? I got this assignment to write an argument for homework about homework and this article was really helpful and understandable, and I also agree with this article’s point of view.

I also got the same task as you! I was looking for some good resources and I found this! I really found this article useful and easy to understand, just like you! ^^

i think that homework is the best thing that a child can have on the school because it help them with their thinking and memory.

I am a child myself and i think homework is a terrific pass time because i can’t play video games during the week. It also helps me set goals.

Homework is not harmful ,but it will if there is too much

I feel like, from a minors point of view that we shouldn’t get homework. Not only is the homework stressful, but it takes us away from relaxing and being social. For example, me and my friends was supposed to hang at the mall last week but we had to postpone it since we all had some sort of work to do. Our minds shouldn’t be focused on finishing an assignment that in realty, doesn’t matter. I completely understand that we should have homework. I have to write a paper on the unimportance of homework so thanks.

homework isn’t that bad

Are you a student? if not then i don’t really think you know how much and how severe todays homework really is

i am a student and i do not enjoy homework because i practice my sport 4 out of the five days we have school for 4 hours and that’s not even counting the commute time or the fact i still have to shower and eat dinner when i get home. its draining!

i totally agree with you. these people are such boomers

why just why

they do make a really good point, i think that there should be a limit though. hours and hours of homework can be really stressful, and the extra work isn’t making a difference to our learning, but i do believe homework should be optional and extra credit. that would make it for students to not have the leaning stress of a assignment and if you have a low grade you you can catch up.

Studies show that homework improves student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicates that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” On both standardized tests and grades, students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school.

So how are your measuring student achievement? That’s the real question. The argument that doing homework is simply a tool for teaching responsibility isn’t enough for me. We can teach responsibility in a number of ways. Also the poor argument that parents don’t need to help with homework, and that students can do it on their own, is wishful thinking at best. It completely ignores neurodiverse students. Students in poverty aren’t magically going to find a space to do homework, a friend’s or siblings to help them do it, and snacks to eat. I feel like the author of this piece has never set foot in a classroom of students.

THIS. This article is pathetic coming from a university. So intellectually dishonest, refusing to address the havoc of capitalism and poverty plays on academic success in life. How can they in one sentence use poor kids in an argument and never once address that poor children have access to damn near 0 of the resources affluent kids have? Draw me a picture and let’s talk about feelings lmao what a joke is that gonna put food in their belly so they can have the calories to burn in order to use their brain to study? What about quiet their 7 other siblings that they share a single bedroom with for hours? Is it gonna force the single mom to magically be at home and at work at the same time to cook food while you study and be there to throw an encouraging word?

Also the “parents don’t need to be a parent and be able to guide their kid at all academically they just need to exist in the next room” is wild. Its one thing if a parent straight up is not equipped but to say kids can just figured it out is…. wow coming from an educator What’s next the teacher doesn’t need to teach cause the kid can just follow the packet and figure it out?

Well then get a tutor right? Oh wait you are poor only affluent kids can afford a tutor for their hours of homework a day were they on average have none of the worries a poor child does. Does this address that poor children are more likely to also suffer abuse and mental illness? Like mentioned what about kids that can’t learn or comprehend the forced standardized way? Just let em fail? These children regularly are not in “special education”(some of those are a joke in their own and full of neglect and abuse) programs cause most aren’t even acknowledged as having disabilities or disorders.

But yes all and all those pesky poor kids just aren’t being worked hard enough lol pretty sure poor children’s existence just in childhood is more work, stress, and responsibility alone than an affluent child’s entire life cycle. Love they never once talked about the quality of education in the classroom being so bad between the poor and affluent it can qualify as segregation, just basically blamed poor people for being lazy, good job capitalism for failing us once again!

why the hell?

you should feel bad for saying this, this article can be helpful for people who has to write a essay about it

This is more of a political rant than it is about homework

I know a teacher who has told his students their homework is to find something they are interested in, pursue it and then come share what they learn. The student responses are quite compelling. One girl taught herself German so she could talk to her grandfather. One boy did a research project on Nelson Mandela because the teacher had mentioned him in class. Another boy, a both on the autism spectrum, fixed his family’s computer. The list goes on. This is fourth grade. I think students are highly motivated to learn, when we step aside and encourage them.

The whole point of homework is to give the students a chance to use the material that they have been presented with in class. If they never have the opportunity to use that information, and discover that it is actually useful, it will be in one ear and out the other. As a science teacher, it is critical that the students are challenged to use the material they have been presented with, which gives them the opportunity to actually think about it rather than regurgitate “facts”. Well designed homework forces the student to think conceptually, as opposed to regurgitation, which is never a pretty sight

Wonderful discussion. and yes, homework helps in learning and building skills in students.

not true it just causes kids to stress

Homework can be both beneficial and unuseful, if you will. There are students who are gifted in all subjects in school and ones with disabilities. Why should the students who are gifted get the lucky break, whereas the people who have disabilities suffer? The people who were born with this “gift” go through school with ease whereas people with disabilities struggle with the work given to them. I speak from experience because I am one of those students: the ones with disabilities. Homework doesn’t benefit “us”, it only tears us down and put us in an abyss of confusion and stress and hopelessness because we can’t learn as fast as others. Or we can’t handle the amount of work given whereas the gifted students go through it with ease. It just brings us down and makes us feel lost; because no mater what, it feels like we are destined to fail. It feels like we weren’t “cut out” for success.

homework does help

here is the thing though, if a child is shoved in the face with a whole ton of homework that isn’t really even considered homework it is assignments, it’s not helpful. the teacher should make homework more of a fun learning experience rather than something that is dreaded

This article was wonderful, I am going to ask my teachers about extra, or at all giving homework.

I agree. Especially when you have homework before an exam. Which is distasteful as you’ll need that time to study. It doesn’t make any sense, nor does us doing homework really matters as It’s just facts thrown at us.

Homework is too severe and is just too much for students, schools need to decrease the amount of homework. When teachers assign homework they forget that the students have other classes that give them the same amount of homework each day. Students need to work on social skills and life skills.

I disagree.

Beyond achievement, proponents of homework argue that it can have many other beneficial effects. They claim it can help students develop good study habits so they are ready to grow as their cognitive capacities mature. It can help students recognize that learning can occur at home as well as at school. Homework can foster independent learning and responsible character traits. And it can give parents an opportunity to see what’s going on at school and let them express positive attitudes toward achievement.

Homework is helpful because homework helps us by teaching us how to learn a specific topic.

As a student myself, I can say that I have almost never gotten the full 9 hours of recommended sleep time, because of homework. (Now I’m writing an essay on it in the middle of the night D=)

I am a 10 year old kid doing a report about “Is homework good or bad” for homework before i was going to do homework is bad but the sources from this site changed my mind!

Homeowkr is god for stusenrs

I agree with hunter because homework can be so stressful especially with this whole covid thing no one has time for homework and every one just wants to get back to there normal lives it is especially stressful when you go on a 2 week vaca 3 weeks into the new school year and and then less then a week after you come back from the vaca you are out for over a month because of covid and you have no way to get the assignment done and turned in

As great as homework is said to be in the is article, I feel like the viewpoint of the students was left out. Every where I go on the internet researching about this topic it almost always has interviews from teachers, professors, and the like. However isn’t that a little biased? Of course teachers are going to be for homework, they’re not the ones that have to stay up past midnight completing the homework from not just one class, but all of them. I just feel like this site is one-sided and you should include what the students of today think of spending four hours every night completing 6-8 classes worth of work.

Are we talking about homework or practice? Those are two very different things and can result in different outcomes.

Homework is a graded assignment. I do not know of research showing the benefits of graded assignments going home.

Practice; however, can be extremely beneficial, especially if there is some sort of feedback (not a grade but feedback). That feedback can come from the teacher, another student or even an automated grading program.

As a former band director, I assigned daily practice. I never once thought it would be appropriate for me to require the students to turn in a recording of their practice for me to grade. Instead, I had in-class assignments/assessments that were graded and directly related to the practice assigned.

I would really like to read articles on “homework” that truly distinguish between the two.

oof i feel bad good luck!

thank you guys for the artical because I have to finish an assingment. yes i did cite it but just thanks

thx for the article guys.

Homework is good

I think homework is helpful AND harmful. Sometimes u can’t get sleep bc of homework but it helps u practice for school too so idk.

I agree with this Article. And does anyone know when this was published. I would like to know.

It was published FEb 19, 2019.

Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college.

i think homework can help kids but at the same time not help kids

This article is so out of touch with majority of homes it would be laughable if it wasn’t so incredibly sad.

There is no value to homework all it does is add stress to already stressed homes. Parents or adults magically having the time or energy to shepherd kids through homework is dome sort of 1950’s fantasy.

What lala land do these teachers live in?

Homework gives noting to the kid

Homework is Bad

homework is bad.

why do kids even have homework?

Comments are closed.

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Collecting Homework in the Classroom

Tips and Ideas for Collecting Homework

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The purpose of homework is to help reinforce what was taught in class or to have students gather extra information beyond what was demonstrated in class.

Homework is one part of daily classroom management that can cause many teachers problems. Homework must be assigned, collected, reviewed and assessed. That amount of work means homework must be designed to serve an academic purpose, otherwise, the results may be a great waste of student and instructor time.

Here are a few tips and ideas that can help you create an effective method for collecting homework every day.

Physical Homework

New teachers find out very quickly that day-to-day instruction is made much more effective when there are organized daily housekeeping routines. In developing these routines, if there is homework to collect, the best time to collect it for use in instruction is at the beginning of the period.

Methods you can use to accomplish this include:

• Station yourself at the door as students walk into your room. Students are required to hand you their homework. This greatly reduces the time it takes to complete this task because it is mostly finished before the bell even rings.
• Have a designated homework box. Explain to students how they are to turn in their homework each day. To keep track, you might remove the homework box after the bell rings and class begins. Anyone who does not get it in the box will have their homework be marked late. Many teachers find it a good idea to give students a three to a five-minute window after the bell rings to avoid possible confrontations and to keep things fair.

Digital Homework

If the technology is available, in school and at home, teachers may prefer to give a digital homework assignment. They may use a course platform like Google Classroom, Moodle, Schoology, or Edmodo.

Students may be asked to complete homework individually or collaboratively. In this cases, the homework will be time-stamped or a digital student is associated with the work. You may use that time stamp to show the homework has been completed on time.

Digital homework may include programs that provide immediate feedback, which will make assessing much easier. On some of these platforms, there may be an opportunity for a student to repeat an assignment. Digital platforms allow teachers to keep an assignment inventory or student portfolios to note student academic growth.

You may choose to use a “flipped classroom” model. In this model, the instruction is assigned as the homework in advance of class, while the hands-on practice takes place in the classroom. The central idea with this kind of digital homework is similar. In a flipped classroom, the homework serving as the teaching tool. There may be videos or interactive lessons to provide the instruction that happens in class. A flipped learning model allows students to work through problems, suggest solutions, and engage in collaborative learning.

Homework tips

• When it comes to daily housekeeping chores like collecting homework and taking roll, creating a daily routine is the most effective tool. If students know the system and you follow it every day, then it will take up less of your valuable teaching time and give students less time to misbehave while you are otherwise occupied.
• Come up with a quick system to mark an assignment as late. You might have a brightly colored highlighter which you use to make a mark on the top of the paper. You could also mark it with the number of points that you will be taking off the paper. Whatever your method, you will want to make it something you can do quickly and efficiently. See How to Deal with Late Work and Makeup Work
• Return homework within 24 hours for optimum effect.
• The flipped homework in class as part of instruction. The homework is not assessed, but the students are.

Ultimately, it is not the assigning or collecting of homework that is important. What is important is understanding the purpose of homework, and that purpose can help you determine the kind of homework, be it physical or digital, that works best for your students.

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Credit: August de Richelieu

Does homework still have value? A Johns Hopkins education expert weighs in

Joyce epstein, co-director of the center on school, family, and community partnerships, discusses why homework is essential, how to maximize its benefit to learners, and what the 'no-homework' approach gets wrong.

By Vicky Hallett

The necessity of homework has been a subject of debate since at least as far back as the 1890s, according to Joyce L. Epstein , co-director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. "It's always been the case that parents, kids—and sometimes teachers, too—wonder if this is just busy work," Epstein says.

But after decades of researching how to improve schools, the professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education remains certain that homework is essential—as long as the teachers have done their homework, too. The National Network of Partnership Schools , which she founded in 1995 to advise schools and districts on ways to improve comprehensive programs of family engagement, has developed hundreds of improved homework ideas through its Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program. For an English class, a student might interview a parent on popular hairstyles from their youth and write about the differences between then and now. Or for science class, a family could identify forms of matter over the dinner table, labeling foods as liquids or solids. These innovative and interactive assignments not only reinforce concepts from the classroom but also foster creativity, spark discussions, and boost student motivation.

"We're not trying to eliminate homework procedures, but expand and enrich them," says Epstein, who is packing this research into a forthcoming book on the purposes and designs of homework. In the meantime, the Hub couldn't wait to ask her some questions:

What kind of homework training do teachers typically get?

Future teachers and administrators really have little formal training on how to design homework before they assign it. This means that most just repeat what their teachers did, or they follow textbook suggestions at the end of units. For example, future teachers are well prepared to teach reading and literacy skills at each grade level, and they continue to learn to improve their teaching of reading in ongoing in-service education. By contrast, most receive little or no training on the purposes and designs of homework in reading or other subjects. It is really important for future teachers to receive systematic training to understand that they have the power, opportunity, and obligation to design homework with a purpose.

Why do students need more interactive homework?

If homework assignments are always the same—10 math problems, six sentences with spelling words—homework can get boring and some kids just stop doing their assignments, especially in the middle and high school years. When we've asked teachers what's the best homework you've ever had or designed, invariably we hear examples of talking with a parent or grandparent or peer to share ideas. To be clear, parents should never be asked to "teach" seventh grade science or any other subject. Rather, teachers set up the homework assignments so that the student is in charge. It's always the student's homework. But a good activity can engage parents in a fun, collaborative way. Our data show that with "good" assignments, more kids finish their work, more kids interact with a family partner, and more parents say, "I learned what's happening in the curriculum." It all works around what the youngsters are learning.

Is family engagement really that important?

At Hopkins, I am part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools , a research center that studies how to improve many aspects of education to help all students do their best in school. One thing my colleagues and I realized was that we needed to look deeply into family and community engagement. There were so few references to this topic when we started that we had to build the field of study. When children go to school, their families "attend" with them whether a teacher can "see" the parents or not. So, family engagement is ever-present in the life of a school.

My daughter's elementary school doesn't assign homework until third grade. What's your take on "no homework" policies?

There are some parents, writers, and commentators who have argued against homework, especially for very young children. They suggest that children should have time to play after school. This, of course is true, but many kindergarten kids are excited to have homework like their older siblings. If they give homework, most teachers of young children make assignments very short—often following an informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level. "No homework" does not guarantee that all students will spend their free time in productive and imaginative play.

Some researchers and critics have consistently misinterpreted research findings. They have argued that homework should be assigned only at the high school level where data point to a strong connection of doing assignments with higher student achievement . However, as we discussed, some students stop doing homework. This leads, statistically, to results showing that doing homework or spending more minutes on homework is linked to higher student achievement. If slow or struggling students are not doing their assignments, they contribute to—or cause—this "result."

Teachers need to design homework that even struggling students want to do because it is interesting. Just about all students at any age level react positively to good assignments and will tell you so.

Did COVID change how schools and parents view homework?

Within 24 hours of the day school doors closed in March 2020, just about every school and district in the country figured out that teachers had to talk to and work with students' parents. This was not the same as homeschooling—teachers were still working hard to provide daily lessons. But if a child was learning at home in the living room, parents were more aware of what they were doing in school. One of the silver linings of COVID was that teachers reported that they gained a better understanding of their students' families. We collected wonderfully creative examples of activities from members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. I'm thinking of one art activity where every child talked with a parent about something that made their family unique. Then they drew their finding on a snowflake and returned it to share in class. In math, students talked with a parent about something the family liked so much that they could represent it 100 times. Conversations about schoolwork at home was the point.

How did you create so many homework activities via the Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork program?

We had several projects with educators to help them design interactive assignments, not just "do the next three examples on page 38." Teachers worked in teams to create TIPS activities, and then we turned their work into a standard TIPS format in math, reading/language arts, and science for grades K-8. Any teacher can use or adapt our prototypes to match their curricula.

Overall, we know that if future teachers and practicing educators were prepared to design homework assignments to meet specific purposes—including but not limited to interactive activities—more students would benefit from the important experience of doing their homework. And more parents would, indeed, be partners in education.

Posted in Voices+Opinion

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Is Homework a Waste of Time? Teachers Weigh In

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The debate over homework rages on.

In response to an Opinion essay by a teacher titled “ What Do You Mean My Kid Doesn’t Have Homework? ”, many Facebook users took to the comments section to voice their perspectives on whether assigning homework is outdated and unnecessary—especially during a pandemic—or whether it’s a critical step to cultivating learning.

The benefits of homework have long been disputed, especially at the elementary school level. In 2018, Marva Hinton wrote about how homework was assigned at early grades and the potential effects on these young students. Some schools embraced homework, like Arlington Traditional School, a countywide elementary school in Arlington, Va., where kindergartners were expected to complete a minimum of 30 minutes of homework a night, Monday through Thursday. But some teachers such as Cathy Vatterott, a professor of education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the author of Rethinking Homework worried that adjusting to school routines combined with homework could sour young students on school.

But what about the benefits for older students? In a 2019 article , Education Week Assistant Editor Stephen Sawchuk unpacked the results of a Center for American Progress analysis, which found that while much of the homework assigned to the students in the study aligned with the Common Core State Standards, it did not contribute to building more difficult skills called for in the standards, like analyzing or extending their knowledge to new problems.

Beyond considering the efficacy of homework, the debate over how much time students should spend daily on take-home assignments dates back to the early 1900s. The public furor even led some state lawmakers to ban homework entirely at one point. Multiple studies over the years have examined different angles of the homework debate, including just how much homework students were assigned. In 2003, a pair of national studies found that most American students spent less than an hour daily on homework, and the workload was no bigger than it was 50 years prior.

“There is this view in the popular media that there has been this terrible burden of homework on children, and that the homework is increasing,” said Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution to Education Week’s Debra Viadero in a 2003 article . “That is not the case.”

Fast-forward to the present, teachers and students alike might find themselves at another crossroads in the homework debate. The pandemic brought with it the advent of strategies like “flipped learning” , which relies heavily on homework as an integral component of the lesson. While this might work for some, many students grew weary of the reliance on homework during remote and hybrid learning. This is on top of the potential equity issues arising from lack of internet access affecting students’ ability to complete the steady stream of homework being assigned, and the uptick in mental health issues in students .

So what do teachers really think about homework? Here’s what they had to say in response to the recently resurfaced essay by Samantha Hulsman.

A Disconnect Between Parents and Educators

“i teach 1st grade. i had parents ask for homework. i explained that i don’t give homework. home time is family time. time to play, cook, explore and spend time together. i do send books home, but there is no requirement or checklist for reading them. read them, enjoy them, and return them when your child is ready for more. i explained that as a parent myself, i know they are busy—and what a waste of energy it is to sit and force their kids to do work at home—when they could use that time to form relationships and build a loving home. something kids need more than a few math problems a week.”.

- Colleen S.

“I tried the ‘no homework’ policy one year and received so much pushback from my parents that I began sending home a weekly packet. I pass it out on Monday and it is due on Friday. Parents [are] happy, I’m happy, and life goes on. I say pick your battles. Now, I refuse to give packets over school breaks (winter/spring). If a parent asks, I simply tell them to have them work on any app that we use in class.”

“i literally only assign homework because some parents always make a huge deal of it if i don’t.”, “parents are the driving force behind homework ... they demand it and will complain about not receiving it even after explaining your philosophy of education and providing them with pedagogy that refutes the ‘benefits’ of it.”, homework can be useful for certain subjects or grades, “as a teacher of nearly 40 years, i believe homework has its place. especially in math math needs to be practiced to learn it. i don’t believe in giving homework just because. i think it should be purposeful.”.

- Sandra S.

“For those leading the charge against homework, please think about the expectation for students beyond your classroom. If you teach elementary school, will they be asked to do homework in middle school, high school, and beyond? If so, organization, time management, and study skills are not so easily learned at a later age, when the expectation has never been present. I can’t imagine being a student, who enters college, having never had the expectation of nightly HW.”

- Bobbie M.

Is Homework Actually Helpful for Learning?

Some agree that at its core, homework is practice, which is a needed element to achieving learning.

“Homework is practice. Practice the skills we learned about in class so we can review and add to them. My instrumental students are required to practice every day. When they don’t it’s evident.”

Others aren’t as convinced it’s actually a good tool for assessing comprehension.

“As a teacher, if the kids were assigned homework, guess when the papers were graded ... After discovering a Mom had been doing the homework and was making failing grades ... I gave it up ... taught 25 years without it and my students did much better ...”

- Martha H.

Heightens Equity Issues

“no homework ever it is unnecessary it is so elitist and ableist and teaches kids that it is expected to take work home after hours of a job. nope never”, “homework just further separates the students. those who have parents home who understand the work, or can afford a tutor will do so. families already struggling financially tend not to have parents home to help and cannot afford tutors.”.

- Rebecca J.

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Smart Classroom Management

A Simple, Effective Homework Plan For Teachers: Part 1

So for the next two weeks I’m going to outline a homework plan–four strategies this week, four the next–aimed at making homework a simple yet effective process.

Let’s get started.

Homework Strategies 1-4

The key to homework success is to eliminate all the obstacles—and excuses—that get in the way of students getting it done.

Add leverage and some delicately placed peer pressure to the mix, and not getting homework back from every student will be a rare occurrence.

Here is how to do it.

1. Assign what students already know.

Most teachers struggle with homework because they misunderstand the narrow purpose of homework, which is to practice what has already been learned. Meaning, you should only assign homework your students fully understand and are able to do by themselves.

Therefore, the skills needed to complete the evening’s homework must be thoroughly taught during the school day. If your students can’t prove to you that they’re able to do the work without assistance, then you shouldn’t assign it.

It isn’t fair to your students—or their parents—to have to sit at the dinner table trying to figure out what you should have taught them during the day.

2. Don’t involve parents.

Homework is an agreement between you and your students. Parents shouldn’t be involved. If parents want to sit with their child while he or she does the homework, great. But it shouldn’t be an expectation or a requirement of them. Otherwise, you hand students a ready-made excuse for not doing it.

You should tell parents at back-to-school night, “I got it covered. If ever your child doesn’t understand the homework, it’s on me. Just send me a note and I’ll take care of it.”

Holding yourself accountable is not only a reminder that your lessons need to be spot on, but parents will love you for it and be more likely to make sure homework gets done every night. And for negligent parents? It’s best for their children in particular to make homework a teacher/student-only agreement.

3. Review and then ask one important question.

Set aside a few minutes before the end of the school day to review the assigned homework. Have your students pull out the work, allow them to ask final clarifying questions, and have them check to make sure they have the materials they need.

And then ask one important question: “Is there anyone, for any reason, who will not be able to turn in their homework in the morning? I want to know now rather than find out about it in the morning.”

There are two reasons for this question.

First, the more leverage you have with students, and the more they admire and respect you , the more they’ll hate disappointing you. This alone can be a powerful incentive for students to complete homework.

Second, it’s important to eliminate every excuse so that the only answer students can give for not doing it is that they just didn’t care. This sets up the confrontation strategy you’ll be using the next morning.

4. Confront students on the spot.

One of your key routines should be entering the classroom in the morning.

As part of this routine, ask your students to place their homework in the top left-hand (or right-hand) corner of their desk before beginning a daily independent assignment—reading, bellwork , whatever it may be.

During the next five to ten minutes, walk around the room and check homework–don’t collect it. Have a copy of the answers (if applicable) with you and glance at every assignment.

You don’t have to check every answer or read every portion of the assignment. Just enough to know that it was completed as expected. If it’s math, I like to pick out three or four problems that represent the main thrust of the lesson from the day before.

It should take just seconds to check most students.

Remember, homework is the practice of something they already know how to do. Therefore, you shouldn’t find more than a small percentage of wrong answers–if any. If you see more than this, then you know your lesson was less than effective, and you’ll have to reteach

If you find an assignment that is incomplete or not completed at all, confront that student on the spot .

Call them on it.

The day before, you presented a first-class lesson and gave your students every opportunity to buzz through their homework confidently that evening. You did your part, but they didn’t do theirs. It’s an affront to the excellence you strive for as a class, and you deserve an explanation.

It doesn’t matter what he or she says in response to your pointed questions, and there is no reason to humiliate or give the student the third degree. What is important is that you make your students accountable to you, to themselves, and to their classmates.

A gentle explanation of why they don’t have their homework is a strong motivator for even the most jaded students to get their homework completed.

The personal leverage you carry–that critical trusting rapport you have with your students–combined with the always lurking peer pressure is a powerful force. Not using it is like teaching with your hands tied behind your back.

Homework Strategies 5-8

Next week we’ll cover the final four homework strategies . They’re critical to getting homework back every day in a way that is painless for you and meaningful for your students.

I hope you’ll tune in.

If you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

What to read next:

• A Powerful Way To Relieve Stress: Part One
• A Simple Exercise Program For Teachers
• How To Give Effective Praise: 6 Guidelines
• How To Make Your Routines More Effective
• 3 Misconceptions Of Effective Classroom Management

21 thoughts on “A Simple, Effective Homework Plan For Teachers: Part 1”

Good stuff, Michael. A lot of teachers I train and coach are surprised (and skeptical) at first when I make the same point you make about NOT involving parents. But it’s right on based on my experience as a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator the past 17 years. More important, it’s validated by Martin Haberman’s 40 years of research on what separates “star” teachers from “quitter/failure” teachers ( http://www.habermanfoundation.org/Book.aspx?sm=c1 )

I love the articles about “homework”. in the past I feel that it is difficuty for collecting homework. I will try your plan next year.

I think you’ll be happy with it, Sendy!

How do you confront students who do not have their homework completed?

You state in your book to let consequences do their job and to never confront students, only tell them the rule broken and consequence.

I want to make sure I do not go against that rule, but also hold students accountable for not completing their work. What should I say to them?

They are two different things. Homework is not part of your classroom management plan.

Hi Michael,

I’m a first-year middle school teacher at a private school with very small class sizes (eight to fourteen students per class). While I love this homework policy, I feel discouraged about confronting middle schoolers publicly regarding incomplete homework. My motive would never be to humiliate my students, yet I can name a few who would go home thinking their lives were over if I did confront them in front of their peers. Do you have any ideas of how to best go about incomplete homework confrontation with middle school students?

The idea isn’t in any way to humiliate students, but to hold them accountable for doing their homework. Parts one and two represent my best recommendation.:)

I believe that Homework is a vital part of students learning.

I’m still a student–in a classroom management class. So I have no experience with this, but I’m having to plan a procedure for my class. What about teacher sitting at desk and calling student one at a time to bring folder while everyone is doing bellwork or whatever their procedure is? That way 1) it would be a long walk for the ones who didn’t do the work :), and 2) it would be more private. What are your thoughts on that? Thanks. 🙂

I’m not sure I understand your question. Would you mind emailing me with more detail? I’m happy to help.

I think what you talked about is great. How do you feel about flipping a lesson? My school is pretty big on it, though I haven’t done it yet. Basically, for homework, the teacher assigns a video or some other kind of media of brand new instruction. Students teach themselves and take a mini quiz at the end to show they understand the new topic. Then the next day in the classroom, the teacher reinforces the lesson and the class period is spent practicing with the teacher present for clarification. I haven’t tried it yet because as a first year teacher I haven’t had enough time to make or find instructional videos and quizzes, and because I’m afraid half of my students will not do their homework and the next day in class I will have to waste the time of the students who did their homework and just reteach what the video taught.

Anyway, this year, I’m trying the “Oops, I forgot my homework” form for students to fill out every time they forget their homework. It keeps them accountable and helps me keep better track of who is missing what. Once they complete it, I cut off the bottom portion of the form and staple it to their assignment. I keep the top copy for my records and for parent/teacher conferences.

Here is an instant digital download of the form. It’s editable in case you need different fields.

Thanks again for your blog. I love the balance you strike between rapport and respect.

Your site is a godsend for a newbie teacher! Thank you for your clear, step-by-step, approach!

I G+ your articles to my PLN all the time.

You’re welcome, TeachNich! And thank you for sharing the articles.

Hi Michael, I’m going into my first year and some people have told me to try and get parents involved as much as I can – even home visits and things like that. But my gut says that negligent parents cannot be influenced by me. Still, do you see any value in having parents initial their student’s planner every night so they stay up to date on homework assignments? I could also write them notes.

Personally, no. I’ll write about this in the future, but when you hold parents accountable for what are student responsibilities, you lighten their load and miss an opportunity to improve independence.

I am teaching at a school where students constantly don’t take work home. I rarely give homework in math but when I do it is usually something small and I still have to chase at least 7 kids down to get their homework. My way of holding them accountable is to record a homework completion grade as part of their overall grade. Is this wrong to do? Do you believe homework should never be graded for a grade and just be for practice?

No, I think marking a completion grade is a good idea.

I’ve been teaching since 2014 and we need to take special care when assigning homework. If the homework assignment is too hard, is perceived as busy work, or takes too long to complete, students might tune out and resist doing it. Never send home any assignment that students cannot do. Homework should be an extension of what students have learned in class. To ensure that homework is clear and appropriate, consider the following tips for assigning homework:

Assign homework in small units. Explain the assignment clearly. Establish a routine at the beginning of the year for how homework will be assigned. Remind students of due dates periodically. And Make sure students and parents have information regarding the policy on missed and late assignments, extra credit, and available adaptations. Establish a set routine at the beginning of the year.

Thanks Nancie L Beckett

Dear Michael,

I love your approach! Do you have any ideas for homework collection for lower grades? K-3 are not so ready for independent work first thing in the morning, so I do not necessarily have time to check then; but it is vitally important to me to teach the integrity of completing work on time.

Also, I used to want parents involved in homework but my thinking has really changed, and your comments confirm it!

Hi Meredith,

I’ll be sure and write about this topic in an upcoming article (or work it into an article). 🙂

Overall, this article provides valuable insights and strategies for teachers to implement in their classrooms. I look forward to reading Part 2 and learning more about how to make homework a simple and effective process. Thanks

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Too Much Homework Hurts Your Students. Here’s What to Do Instead.

• Post author: The CTTL
• Post published: February 28, 2019
• Post category: Teaching Strategies

At the CTTL , we’re focused on using the best of Mind, Brain, and Education Science research to help teachers maximize their effectiveness and guide students toward their greatest potential. Doing that often means addressing what we like to call “Learning Myths”—those traditional bits of teaching wisdom that are often accepted without question, but aren’t always true. We also like to introduce new insight that can change the classroom for the better. In our Learning Myths series, we’ll explore true-or-false statements that affect teacher and student performance; for each, we’ll dive into the details that support the facts, leaving teachers with actionable knowledge that they can put to work right away.

True or False? Homework should be given every night, as this routine promotes learning.

Answer: False! Nightly homework is unnecessary—and can actually be harmful.

Homework for homework’s sake, or homework that’s not tied into the classroom experience, is a demotivating waste of your students’ time and energy. The Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit puts it this way: “Planned and focused activities are more beneficial than homework, which is more regular, but may be routine or not linked with what is being learned in class.”

How might teachers put this insight into action?

Homework, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. The key is to make sure that every homework assignment is both necessary and relevant—and leaves students with some time to rest and investigate other parts of their lives. Here are four key mindsets to adopt as an educator:

Resist the traditional wisdom that equates hardship with learning. Assigning constant homework is often tied into the idea that the more rigorous a class is, the better it is. However, according to research from Duke University’s Professor Harris Cooper, this belief is mistaken: “too much homework may diminish its effectiveness, or even become counterproductive.” A better guideline for homework, Cooper suggests, is to assign 1-2 hours of total homework in high school, and only up to 1 hour in junior high or middle school. This is based on the understanding that school-aged children are developing quickly in multiple realms of their lives; thus, family, outside interests, and sleep all take an unnecessary and damaging hit if students are spending their evenings on busy work. Even for high schoolers, more than two hours of homework was not associated with greater levels of achievement in Cooper’s study.

Remember that some assignments help learning more than others—and they tend to be simple, connected ones. Research suggests that the more open-ended and unstructured assignments are, the smaller the effect they have on learning. The best kind of homework is made of planned, focused activities that help reinforce what’s been happening in class. Using the spacing effect is one way to help students recall and remember what they’ve been learning: for example, this could include a combination of practice questions from what happened today, three days ago, and five days ago. (You can also consider extending this idea by integrating concepts and skills from other parts of your course into your homework materials). Another helpful approach is to assign an exercise that acts as a simple introduction to material that is about to be taught. In general, make sure that all at-home activities are a continuation of the story that’s playing out in class—in other words, that they’re tied into what happened before the assignment, as well as what will happen next.

When it comes to homework, stay flexible. Homework shouldn’t be used to teach complex new ideas and skills. Because it’s so important that homework is closely tied with current learning, it’s important to prepare to adjust your assignments on the fly: if you end up running out of time and can’t cover all of a planned subject on a given day, nix any homework that relies on it.

Never use homework as a punishment. Homework should never be used as a disciplinary tool or a penalty. It’s important for students to know and trust that what they’re doing at home is a vital part of their learning.

Make sure that your students don’t get stuck before they begin. Teachers tend to under-appreciate one very significant problem when it comes to homework: often, students just don’t know how to do the assignment! Being confused by the instructions—and without the means to remedy the situation—is extremely demotivating. If you find (or suspect) that this might be a problem for your students, one helpful strategy is to give students a few minutes in class to begin their homework, so that you can address any clarifying questions that arise.

In order for students to become high academic achievers, they have to be learning in a way that challenges them at the right level— much like the porridge in the Goldilocks story, it’s got to be just right. Homework is a great tool, but it must be used wisely. Part of our role as teachers is to make sure that the time we ask our students to give us after they leave class is meaningful to their learning; otherwise, the stress and demotivation of “just because” homework can be detrimental to their well-being. As the CTTL’s Dr. Ian Kelleher advises, “The best homework assignments are just 20 minutes long, because those are the ones that the teacher has really planned out carefully.” Put simply: quality beats out quantity, every time.

Here at the CTTL, we’re all about quality over quantity. Case in point: our newest endeavor, Neuroteach Global , helps teachers infuse their classroom practices with research-informed strategies for student success—in just 3-5 minutes a day, on a variety of devices.

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• Professional development
• Managing resources

The role of homework

Homework seems to be an accepted part of teachers’ and students’ routines, but there is little mention of it in ELT literature.

The role of homework is hardly mentioned in the majority of general ELT texts or training courses, suggesting that there is little question as to its value even if the resulting workload is time-consuming. However, there is clearly room for discussion of homework policies and practices particularly now that technology has made so many more resources available to learners outside the classroom.

Reasons for homework

• Attitudes to homework
• Effective homework
• Types of homework
• Homework is expected by students, teachers, parents and institutions.
• Homework reinforces and helps learners to retain information taught in the classroom as well as increasing their general understanding of the language.
• Homework develops study habits and independent learning. It also encourages learners to acquire resources such as dictionaries and grammar reference books. Research shows that homework also benefits factual knowledge, self-discipline, attitudes to learning and problem-solving skills.
• Homework offers opportunities for extensive activities in the receptive skills which there may not be time for in the classroom. It may also be an integral part of ongoing learning such as project work and the use of a graded reader.
• Homework provides continuity between lessons. It may be used to consolidate classwork, but also for preparation for the next lesson.
• Homework may be used to shift repetitive, mechanical, time-consuming tasks out of the classroom.
• Homework bridges the gap between school and home. Students, teachers and parents can monitor progress. The institution can involve parents in the learning process.
• Homework can be a useful assessment tool, as part of continual or portfolio assessment.

Attitudes to homework Teachers tend to have mixed feelings about homework. While recognising the advantages, they observe negative attitudes and poor performance from students. Marking and giving useful feedback on homework can take up a large proportion of a teacher’s time, often after school hours.

• Students themselves complain that the homework they are given is boring or pointless, referring to homework tasks that consist of studying for tests, doing workbook exercises, finishing incomplete classwork, memorising lists of vocabulary and writing compositions. Where this is actually the case, the negative effects of homework can be observed, typified by loss of interest and a view of homework as a form of punishment.
• Other negative effects of poorly managed homework include lack of necessary leisure time and an increased differential between high and low achievers. These problems are often the cause of avoidance techniques such as completing homework tasks in class, collaborating and copying or simply not doing the required tasks. In turn, conflict may arise between learners, teachers, parents and the institution.

Effective homework In order for homework to be effective, certain principles should be observed.

• Students should see the usefulness of homework. Teachers should explain the purpose both of homework in general and of individual tasks.
• Tasks should be relevant, interesting and varied.
• Good classroom practice also applies to homework. Tasks should be manageable but achievable.
• Different tasks may be assigned to different ability groups. Individual learning styles should be taken into account.
• Homework should be manageable in terms of time as well as level of difficulty. Teachers should remember that students are often given homework in other subjects and that there is a need for coordination to avoid overload. A homework diary, kept by the learner but checked by teachers and parents is a useful tool in this respect.
• Homework is rarely co-ordinated within the curriculum as a whole, but should at least be incorporated into an overall scheme of work and be considered in lesson planning.
• Homework tends to focus on a written product. There is no reason why this should be the case, other than that there is visible evidence that the task has been done.
• Learner involvement and motivation may be increased by encouraging students to contribute ideas for homework and possibly design their own tasks. The teacher also needs to know how much time the students have, what facilities they have at home, and what their preferences are. A simple questionnaire will provide this data.
• While homework should consolidate classwork, it should not replicate it. Home is the outside world and tasks which are nearer to real-life use of language are appropriate.
• If homework is set, it must be assessed in some way, and feedback given. While marking by the teacher is sometimes necessary, peer and self-assessment can encourage learner independence as well as reducing the teacher’s workload. Motivating students to do homework is an ongoing process, and encouragement may be given by commenting and asking questions either verbally or in written form in order to demonstrate interest on the teacher’s part, particularly in the case of self-study and project work.

Types of homework There are a number of categories of useful and practicable homework tasks.

• Workbook-based tasks Most published course materials include a workbook or practice book, mainly including consolidation exercises, short reading texts and an answer key. Most workbooks claim to be suitable for both class and self-study use, but are better used at home in order to achieve a separation of what is done in class and at home. Mechanical practice is thus shifted out of class hours, while this kind of exercise is particularly suited to peer- or self-checking and correction.
• Preparation tasks Rarely do teachers ask learners to read through the next unit of a coursebook, though there are advantages in involving students in the lesson plan and having them know what is coming. More motivating, however, is asking students to find and bring materials such as photographs and pictures, magazine articles and realia which are relevant to the next topic, particularly where personalisation or relevance to the local context requires adaptation of course materials.
• Extensive tasks Much can be gained from the use of graded readers, which now often have accompanying audio material, radio and TV broadcasts, podcasts and songs. Sometimes tasks need to be set as guidance, but learners also need to be encouraged to read, listen and watch for pleasure. What is important is that learners share their experiences in class. Extensive reading and listening may be accompanied by dictionary work and a thematic or personalised vocabulary notebook, whereby learners can collect language which they feel is useful.
• Guided discovery tasks Whereas classroom teaching often involves eliciting language patterns and rules from learners, there is also the option of asking learners to notice language and make deductions for themselves at home. This leads to the sharing of knowledge and even peer teaching in the classroom.
• Real-world tasks These involve seeing, hearing and putting language to use in realistic contexts. Reading magazines, watching TV, going to the cinema and listening to songs are obvious examples, offering the option of writing summaries and reviews as follow-up activities. Technology facilitates chat and friendship networks, while even in monolingual environments, walking down a shopping street noticing shop and brand names will reveal a lot of language. As with extensive tasks, it is important for learners to share their experiences, and perhaps to collect them in a formal or informal portfolio.
• Project work It is a good idea to have a class or individual projects running over a period of time. Projects may be based on topics from a coursebook, the locality, interests and hobbies or selected individually. Project work needs to be guided in terms of where to find resources and monitored regularly, the outcome being a substantial piece of work at the end of a course or term of which the learner can claim ownership.

Conclusion Finally, a word about the Internet. The Web appears to offer a wealth of opportunity for self-study. Certainly reference resources make project work easier and more enjoyable, but cutting and pasting can also be seen as an easy option, requiring little originality or understanding. Conferring over homework tasks by email can be positive or negative, though chatting with an English-speaking friend is to be encouraged, as is searching for visual materials. Both teachers and learners are guilty of trawling the Net for practice exercises, some of which are untried, untested and dubious in terms of quality. Learners need guidance, and a starting point is to provide a short list of reliable sites such as the British Council's  LearnEnglish  and the BBC's Learning English  which provide a huge variety of exercises and activities as well as links to other reliable sources. Further reading Cooper, H. Synthesis of Research on Homework . Educational Leadership 47/3, 1989 North, S. and Pillay, H. Homework: re-examining the routin e. ELT Journal 56/2, April 2002 Painter, L. Homework . English Teaching Professional, Issue 10, 1999 Painter, L. Homework . OUP Resource Books for Teachers, 2003

First published in October 2007

Mr. Steve Darn I liked your…

Mr. Steve Darn I liked your method of the role of the homework . Well, I am one of those laggard people. Unfortunately, when it comes to homework, I definitely do it. Because, a student or pupil who understands new topics, of course, does his homework to know how much he understands the new topic. I also completely agree with all of Steve Darn's points above. However, sometimes teachers give a lot of riff-raff homework, just like homework is a human obligation. This is a plus. But in my opinion, first of all, it is necessary to divide the time properly, and then to do many tasks at home. Only then will you become an "excellent student" in the eyes of the teacher. Although we live in the age of technology, there are still some people who do not know how to send homework via email. Some foreign teachers ask to send tasks by email. Constant email updates require time and, in rare cases, a fee. My above points have been the cause of constant discussions.

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Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

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From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take-home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

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Homework in the 21st Century Teaching and Learning

The aim of the K to 12 Basic Education Program is to provide the Filipino Learners with the necessary skills and competence to prepare them to take on challenges of the 21st Century. While we all struggle on shifting schools and teaching in the 21st century, more bills and policy recommendations have been filed to guarantee effective implementation of the K to 12 program.

The recent issues about homework which divides our society is a proof that we may not be ready yet to fully embrace the 21st Century teaching and learning. The 21st Century students, Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2009) and Generation Alpha (born since 2010) continue to be educated in the same manner their teachers were taught in the past. Many teachers complain that today’s learners are disengaged and unmotivated. These are the same students who challenge the standardized curriculum as merely rote learning at a one-size-fits-all pace. They are the students who keep on asking themselves why they still need to go to school when they could learn the same information faster by watching a YouTube video or playing a computer game in their bedrooms. To these digital natives, past methods make little sense because they are able to learn and think differently. They are able to teach themselves about any topic they are interested in because answers to their questions are just a quick search away. Making use of information is far more important to them than simply knowing things.

These students who are advanced users of technology (yes! far better than the teacher does) regard obsolete methods of teachers as no longer relevant and not helping them. Therefore, there is a crucial need to examine matters that have stayed the same in schools: Are we still in the traditional classroom set-up? Are teachers equipped to be 21st Century teaching and learning facilitators? Is homework still relevant in the 21st Century?

Table of Contents

Advantages of Homework

Homework, according to Dr. Linda Milbourne, is intended to be a positive experience that encourages children to learn. Teachers assign homework to help students review, apply and integrate what has been learned in class; to extend student exploration of topics more fully than class time permits, and to help students prepare for the next class session. Teachers believe that homework helps children to acquire effective habits of self-discipline and time management. It is hoped to develop children’s initiative to work independently where they can gain a sense of personal responsibility for learning. Research skills such as locating, organizing and condensing information may be developed, and children will be given the opportunity to learn to use libraries and other reference resources.

Disadvantages of Homework

However, giving of homework, as part of the daily lesson plans, becomes a controversial issue among teachers, parents, and students. Contemporary critics are questioning the impact and benefit homework does on student learning and on how it has aided the students in becoming life-long learners. While it is true that students’ homework may not be included in the recording of formative and summative assessment as components in the grading system under DepEd Order 8, s. 2015, these critics strongly believe that homework given by the teachers are not actually meeting the purposes they are intended for. They see homework as activities where students figure out the content that the teacher did not have time to “cover” during school hours. According to them, students do busywork to demonstrate to their parents and teachers that they are doing “something”. The students of this generation see homework as meaningless assignments to merely “justify” their quarterly grades. But when teachers do not give homework, parents see it as a lack of academic instruction. And of course, we are all aware that most of the submitted assignments were not actually done by those who comply to this requirement. It is their parents who are doing homework for their children in order to have a “better” project than their classmates or parents are doing homework for their children because they are too frustrated or stressed out that their children cannot complete it themselves.

Recent Research Findings

Joseph S.C. Simplicio in his study on Homework in the 21st century: the antiquated and ineffectual implementation of a time-honored educational strategy, concluded that although the practice of assigning homework on a daily basis has been deemed academically sound by most in the educational community, on the opposing side, many parents with children in grades ranging from kindergarten through college argue that students are expected to spend too much of their out of school time completing homework assignments that are often redundant and meaningless.

Alfie Kohn in his article on The Truth About Homework pointed out that homework might be used for certain skills that need to become automated, but not to create understanding. According to him, the widely held belief that homework reinforces the skills that students have learned or, rather, have been taught in class has not been substantially supported. He added that it wouldn’t make sense to say “Keep practicing until you understand!” because practicing doesn’t create understanding. Just as giving kids a deadline doesn’t teach time-management skills. According to Kohn, what might make sense is to say “Keep practicing until what you’re doing becomes automatic.

Teachers and Homework by Stephen Carr talk about homework as enrichment and calls for a commitment to quality and time appropriate homework. According to him, “Teachers should make homework a task that has some worth – some value to a student’s life. Never, ever should it be a busy work. Assigning 50 problems to complete at home is worthless.”

These studies conclude that homework assignments are mostly meaningless, busywork, and take time away from “just being a kid. It is for these reasons that Rep. Evelina Escudero introduced the “No Homework Policy” to promote quality family interaction. This bill is also intended to compel schools and teachers to come up with a more holistic and effective pedagogy.

“There is a need for all educators to seriously reflect and discuss whether homework is a component in the child’s learning that stands strong and unaltered by the winds of time. Does it have a place in the 21st-century teaching and learning? or is it a practice that needs to be changed for the sake of precious family quality time? Would it be the only effective method to reinforce learning goals?”

As a mother and teacher, I agree with Usec. Diosdado San Antonio when he said that homework may be allowed but should be given in moderation and no homework should be given to learners during weekends. I also agree with the sentiments of teachers that there is no need to penalize those who give homework to ensure compliance. Before we defend our beliefs, there is a need for all educators to seriously reflect and discuss whether homework is a component in the child’s learning that stands strong and unaltered by the winds of time. Does it have a place in 21st-century teaching and learning? or is it a practice that needs to be changed for the sake of precious family quality time? Would it be the only effective method to reinforce learning goals?” Let us weigh all the consequences before we agree or disagree. It is the welfare of the learners that matters the most.

Margarita Lucero Galias

Margarita L. Galias began her career in education as a high school math and physics teacher in Immanuel Lutheran High School in Malabon City and Manila Central University, Caloocan City before serving as a public school teacher in Sorsogon City in 1995. She was a university scholar and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Education, major in Math-Physics from De La Salle Araneta University. She also holds a master’s degree in Management, major in Administration and Supervision from Sorsogon State College. She is now currently employed in Mercedes B. Peralta Senior High School as a classroom teacher and a guidance counselor designate.

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Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > The Pros and Cons of Homework

School Life Balance , Tips for Online Students

The Pros and Cons of Homework

Updated: July 16, 2024

Published: January 23, 2020

Remember those nights when you’d find yourself staring at a mountain of homework, eyes drooping, wondering if you’d ever see the light at the end of the tunnel? The debate over homework’s role in education is as old as time. Is it a crucial tool for reinforcing learning or just an unnecessary burden?

For college students, this question takes on new dimensions. Juggling homework with the endless amount of classes, part-time jobs, and social lives can feel like walking on thin ice. The pressure to maintain grades, meet deadlines, and still find time for friends and relaxation can be overwhelming. So, is homework a friend or foe?

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The homework dilemma.

A large amount of college students report feeling overwhelmed by their academic workload, leading to high levels of stress and anxiety. According to Research.com , 45% of college students in the U.S. experience “more than average” stress, with 36.5% citing stress as a major impediment to their academic performance. This stress often stems directly from the homework load, leading to symptoms like headaches, exhaustion, and difficulty sleeping. The intense pressure to manage homework alongside other responsibilities makes us question the true impact of homework on students’ overall well-being.

And then there’s the digital twist. A whopping 89% of students confessed to using AI tools like ChatGPT for their assignments. While these tools can be a godsend for quick answers and assistance, they can also undermine the personal effort and critical thinking necessary to truly understand the material.

On the brighter side, homework can be a powerful ally. According to Inside Higher Ed , structured assignments can actually help reduce stress by providing a clear learning roadmap and keeping students engaged with the material. But where’s the balance between helpful and harmful? 

With these perspectives in mind, let’s dive into the pros and cons of homework for college students. By understanding both sides, we can find a middle ground that maximizes learning while keeping stress at bay.

The Pros of Homework

When thoughtfully assigned, homework can be a valuable tool in a student’s educational journey . Let’s explore how homework can be a beneficial companion to your studies:

Enhances Critical Thinking

Homework isn’t just busywork; it’s an opportunity to stretch your mental muscles. Those late-night problem sets and essays can actually encourage deeper understanding and application of concepts. Think of homework as a mental gym; each assignment is a new exercise, pushing you to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in ways that strengthen your critical thinking skills .

Time Management Skills

Do you ever juggle multiple deadlines and wonder how to keep it all together? Regular homework assignments can be a crash course in time management . They teach you to prioritize tasks, manage your schedule, and balance academic responsibilities with personal commitments. The ability to juggle various tasks is a skill that will serve you well beyond your college years.

Reinforcement of Learning

There’s a reason why practice makes perfect. Homework reinforces what you’ve learned in class, helping to cement concepts and theories in your mind. Understanding a concept during a lecture is one thing, but applying it through homework can deepen your comprehension and retention. 

Preparation for Exams

Think of homework as a sound check and warm-up for exams. Regular assignments keep you engaged with the material, making it easier to review and prepare when exam time rolls around. By consistently working through problems and writing essays, you build a solid foundation that can make the difference between cramming and confident exam performance.

Encourages Independent Learning

Homework promotes a sense of responsibility and independence. It pushes you to tackle assignments on your own, encouraging problem-solving and self-discipline. This independence prepares you for the academic challenges ahead and the autonomy required in your professional and personal life.

The Cons of Homework

Despite its potential benefits, homework can also have significant downsides. Let’s examine the challenges and drawbacks of homework:

Impact on Mental Health

Homework can be a double-edged sword when it comes to mental health . While it’s meant to reinforce learning, the sheer volume of assignments can lead to stress and anxiety. The constant pressure to meet deadlines and the fear of falling behind can create a relentless cycle of stress. Many students become overwhelmed, leading to burnout and negatively impacting their overall well-being. 

Limited Time for Other Activities

College isn’t just about hitting the books. It’s also a time for personal growth, exploring new interests, and building social connections. Excessive homework can eat into the time you might otherwise spend on extracurricular activities, hobbies, or simply hanging out with friends. This lack of balance can lead to a less fulfilling college experience. Shouldn’t education be about more than just academics?

Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to homework, more isn’t always better. Piling on assignments can lead to diminished returns on learning. Instead of diving deep into a subject and gaining a thorough understanding, students might rush through tasks just to get them done. This focus on quantity over quality can undermine the educational value of homework. 

Inequity in Education

Homework can sometimes exacerbate educational inequalities. Not all students can access the same resources and support systems at home. While some might have a quiet space and access to the internet, others might struggle with distractions and lack of resources. This disparity can put certain students at a disadvantage, making homework more of a burden than a learning tool. 

Dependence on AI Tools

With the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT , homework has taken on a new dimension. While these tools can provide quick answers and assistance, they also pose the risk of students becoming overly reliant on technology. This dependence can take away from the actual learning process, as students might bypass the critical thinking and effort needed to truly understand the material. Is convenience worth the potential loss in learning?

Finding the Balance

Finding the right balance with homework means tackling assignments that challenge and support you. Instead of drowning in a sea of tasks, focus on quality over quantity. Choose projects that spark your critical thinking and connect to real-world situations. Flexibility is key here. Recognize that your circumstances are unique, and adjusting your approach can help reduce stress and create a more inclusive learning environment. Constructive feedback makes homework more than just a chore; it turns it into a tool for growth and improvement.

It’s also about living a well-rounded college life. Don’t let homework overshadow other important parts of your life, like extracurricular activities or personal downtime. Emphasize independent learning and use technology wisely to prepare for future challenges. By balancing thoughtful assignments with your personal needs, homework can shift from being a burden to becoming a helpful companion on your educational journey, enriching your academic and personal growth.

Homework has its pros and cons, especially for college students. It can enhance critical thinking, time management, and learning, but it also brings stress, impacts mental health, and can become overwhelming. Finding the right balance is key. 

Focus on quality assignments, maintain flexibility, and make sure your homework complements rather than dominates your life. With a thoughtful approach, homework can support your educational journey, fostering both academic success and personal growth.

How can I manage my time effectively to balance homework and other activities?

Create a schedule that allocates specific times for homework, classes, and personal activities. Use planners or digital calendars to keep track of deadlines and prioritize tasks. Don’t forget to include breaks to avoid burnout.

How can I reduce the stress associated with homework?

To manage stress, practice mindfulness techniques like meditation or deep breathing exercises. Break assignments into smaller, manageable tasks and tackle them one at a time. If needed, seek support from classmates, tutors, or mental health professionals.

Is using AI tools for homework cheating?

While AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for quick assistance, relying on them too much can hinder your learning process. Use them as a supplement rather than a replacement for your own effort and critical thinking.

How can teachers make homework more equitable?

Teachers can offer flexible deadlines, provide resources for students who lack them, and design assignments that account for different learning styles and home environments. Open communication between students and teachers can also help address individual challenges.

What are some strategies to make homework more meaningful?

Focus on quality over quantity by designing assignments that encourage deep thinking and application of knowledge. Integrate real-world problems to make homework more relevant and engaging. Provide constructive feedback to help students learn and grow from their assignments.

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7 Teacher Ideas for Supporting Students Who Aren’t Doing Any Work at All

We asked. You answered.

What do you do when your students aren’t doing any work? Whether you are a new teacher or a veteran, we all struggle with this. We want to teach and help our students learn, not spend hours taking away points in Class Dojo or making exceptions. So it did not surprise me when I saw a teacher post, “Warning vent ahead: I am so tired of students not doing their work. I want to celebrate those who do, but penalize those who don’t” in our WeAreTeacher HELPLINE Facebook group .

I can relate to her frustration. But penalizing students who aren’t doing any work doesn’t solve the problem. There are ways we can help students who aren’t doing any work. We asked you, and you answered.

How we respond to missing or late work says a lot about what we think it means to be a teacher.

There’s a reason why the Facebook discussion over this topic generated so many comments. We want our students to learn, but in order for us to determine if they have learned, we need them to do the work. If students don’t do any work this feels impossible. As one teacher, Mary, put it, “I feel like I am a project manager sometimes more than a teacher. I’m dependent on the kids to their work so I can do my job.” So what do we do? A common thread in the comments was: before we put a zero in our grade books, it’s worth evaluating if the work we’re asking students to do is meaningful. Do they have the skills they need to complete it? Is it too much? Not enough? If we know we are asking students to do work that is fair, we can shift our attention to why they aren’t doing it. Here are some ways teachers are helping students who aren’t doing any work.

1. Mark it missing, and ask what’s going on. Their answer might surprise you.

After 21 years of teaching, I realize that kids have issues we aren’t aware of. Mark it missing. Then ask the kid what’s going on. Their answer might surprise you. Compassion and understanding have to be at the front of all we do. —Michelle

I am showing grace, but they must show effort and communication with me. Yes, zeros happen but can be overturned. Students need to follow through. —Tara

2. Invite students to reflect on why they aren’t doing any work.

I have an online form that the students fill out when they submit assignments after the due date. One field they have to fill out explains why it’s late. That has been eye-opening, and when they tell me what’s going on, I often offer grace and no penalty for being late. —Chris

We have to reach out and give students a hand who aren’t doing any work by getting them started on the missing assignment, helping them to clarify their thinking, or even making ourselves available during the day or after hours to help them achieve success. —Shelly

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3. Teach students coping strategies.

I saw an increase in work getting done when I taught students coping strategies. Begin or end a class with meditation exercises to help students get focused. Check in with students during independent work. These are simple and small ways to support your students .—Kerith

4. Ask students to write a weekly email and set goals.

I have my students send a weekly email home that includes what we have been doing in class and a picture of the grades from Powerschool. They also have to include a goal on how they will get missing assignments in. I email this to parents with me cc’d in and goes in as a grade. —Lea

5. Consider grading assessments, but not homework or other types of practice.

I grade the assessments only and make sure they align with the standards. This will give them a grade based on what they know and can do. If they do not complete the assessments, give an incomplete. —Caitlin

Keep it simple. We’re grading them on the work that they do, not the work that they don’t do. —Kevin

6. Try positive reinforcement and celebrate students’ small wins.

I created a board called “Make yourself PROUD!” I post weekly the names of the students that are on task and send home certificates every month. —Kristy

Kids want to do well. Sometimes they just need more encouragement. Although it is exhausting to see so many half-assed assignments. I just try to convey that it’s not what I expect from them. I have a copy-paste response: This assignment is designed to demonstrate your understanding. Please review the material and when you turn in an example of your understanding, your grade will reflect that! You got this! Go give it another go!—Tuesday

7. Even when you’ve tried everything, never give up on your students.

Separating behavior from assessment is critical! We cannot possibly understand all of the reasons why students may not be completing their work . It is easy to just say they are lazy/choosing not to do the work and should be punished so they learn accountability but this is not really in the best interest of the child. Many students do not respond well to this punitive system and will continue to fail. —Caitlin

I finally came to the conclusion that I have my core students who deserve attention because they participate and do their assignments. For the others, after months of messages home and DoJoing the names of students who have done their homework, I can keep the light on…be excited and encouraging when they do appear. —Marie

Looking for more? Here are some ideas for how to address missing work.

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Plus, 5 practical ways teachers can respond to, “i don’t get it.”.

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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.

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China: Mother claims son developed vitiligo after teacher slaps him for not doing homework

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A mother in China claimed her son now has vitiligo, a chronic autoimmune condition that results in patches of skin losing pigment, after a teacher slapped the boy in the face for not doing homework.

The mother, surnamed Huang, said she took her son Liu, 11, to the hospital after noticing his face was swelling badly.

Liu, a pupil at Yifu Primary School in southwest China’s Yunnan province, told his mother that a teacher had hit him in front of the class.

The boy said the teacher brought him to the front of the classroom because he had not completed his mathematics homework. Then, the teacher slapped the right side of the boy’s face three times and the left once.

Father of Teen Suspect Charged in Georgia School Shooting

The father, Colin Gray, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the authorities said. An official said the charges stemmed from him “knowingly allowing his son” to have a weapon.

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Sean Keenan Glenn Thrush Rick Rojas and Emily Cochrane

Sean Keenan and Rick Rojas reported from Georgia, Glenn Thrush from Washington and Emily Cochrane from Nashville.

Here’s the latest on the investigation.

Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old accused of killing two teachers and two students at his Georgia high school, was arrested and charged on Thursday with second-degree murder in connection with the state’s deadliest school shooting, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

In addition to two counts of second-degree murder, Mr. Gray, 54, was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to a statement. At a news conference on Thursday night, Chris Hosey, the G.B.I. director, said the charges were “directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon.” He declined to offer much more detail, other than to note that Mr. Gray was in custody.

The arrest came after new details emerged on Thursday about the teenage suspect’s interest in previous massacres and his father’s ownership of several guns, including a military-style rifle like the one used in the attack.

Two family members told The New York Times that the youth, who has been charged with four counts of felony murder, had a troubled home life. “My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” said his grandfather, Charles Polhamus. An aunt, Annie Brown, texted: “The adults in his life let him down.”

There were also growing questions about potentially missed opportunities to prevent the attack. Sheriff’s officers interviewed the teenager over a year ago about school shooting threats made on social media, but found no definitive evidence that the boy had posted the messages, according to an investigative report obtained by The Times.

Here’s what else to know:

The victims: Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14-year-old students at Apalachee High School, were killed, along with Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall, who were teachers, state officials said. The nine other people in hospitals with injuries were all expected to survive. Read more about the victims .

The suspected shooter: Officials charged the accused shooter, identified as Colt Gray, 14, with four counts of felony murder and said he could face additional charges. His first court appearance will be Friday at 8:30 a.m. The boy’s aunt, Ms. Brown, said via text that her nephew “was actively seeking help” for his mental health.

The weapon: The shooter used a black AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, officials said in arrest warrants. Records from a 2022 eviction obtained by The Times show that the suspect’s father had owned a black AR-15 at the time. It was later returned to him. AR-15s are one of the most common weapons used in mass shootings.

The investigation: The police found evidence of the suspect’s interest in mass shootings during a search of his room on Wednesday, according to the two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. The 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which left 17 people dead, drew his particular interest.

Previous encounter: Mr. Gray told sheriff’s investigators last year that his son did not have “unfettered” access to firearms. He said he would be “mad as hell” if the teenager had made online threats about a school shooting, because “then all the guns will go away,” according to an interview transcript obtained by The Times. Read more about the interview .

Emily Cochrane and Jacey Fortin

The father of the accused shooter has been charged with second-degree murder.

The father of the 14-year-old accused of killing four people at his Georgia high school was arrested and charged on Thursday with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the attack, the state’s Bureau of Investigation said.

The father, Colin Gray, 54, was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, officials said at a news conference on Thursday night.

The charges against Mr. Gray are “directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Chris Hosey, the bureau director, said at the news conference. He declined to provide details, including what evidence had given the authorities probable cause to charge Mr. Gray in the attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga.

Earlier on Thursday, Charlie Polhamus, the teenager's maternal grandfather, said he believed his grandson was responsible for what happened, but he also cast some of the blame on the tumult in the teenager’s home life with his father, who had split from Mr. Polhamus’s daughter. “My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” Mr. Polhamus said.

When investigators looking into an online threat spoke to Mr. Gray last year, he said he had been teaching his son, then 13, about hunting and guns to divert his attention from video games. The teenager denied making the threat to “ shoot up a middle school ” and claimed his account on the social media platform Discord had been hacked, according to a transcript of the May 2023 interview .

Mr. Gray told the investigator that he had often discussed “all the school shootings, things that happen.” He also suggested that he had emphasized the dangers of using a firearm.

“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” Mr. Gray told the investigator at the time.

It was unclear on Thursday evening whether the father or son had legal representation. A man who answered the door at the Gray home on Wednesday night refused to speak with a reporter.

Records from an eviction two years ago show that Mr. Gray owned an array of weapons, including an AR-15-style rifle. Officials said that type of firearm was used in the shooting on Wednesday morning.

Georgia lawmakers have steadily loosened gun laws in recent years, including with a 2022 measure that allows most residents to carry a firearm without a permit. The state is not among those, for example, that penalizes failing to safely store a firearm.

It was unclear what the precedent was in Georgia for charging parents in connection with a serious crime committed by their children. Asked on Thursday, Mr. Hosey said he was unaware of the details.

Though four people, two teachers and two children, were killed in the attack, Mr. Gray has been charged with only two counts of second-degree murder. In Georgia, that charge applies when a person is accused of causing a death while committing cruelty to children in the second degree, which involves criminal negligence.

The charges in Georgia came months after a mother and father in Michigan were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with their teenage son’s deadly attack on a high school in 2021. Four students were killed and seven others were wounded in what became Michigan’s deadliest school shooting.

The parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were the first in the country to be directly charged for the deaths caused by their child in a mass shooting, and the prosecutions were seen as part of a national effort to hold some parents responsible for enabling deadly violence by their children.

Reporting was contributed by Johnny Kauffman , Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Isabelle Taft .

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Isabelle Taft

Though four people — two adults and two children — were killed in the attack, the suspect's father has been charged with only two counts of second-degree murder. In Georgia, that charge applies when a person is accused of causing a death while committing cruelty to children in the second degree, which involves criminal negligence.

Emily Cochrane

The authorities were unable to answer in detail a question about whether there was a precedent in Georgia for the arrest of a parent. A mother and father in Michigan were convicted earlier this year after their son killed four people in a deadly school shooting, widely seen as the first such instance in the country.

Gray is in custody and the charges are “directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Hosey said. He is declining to offer more detail.

Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said the charges stem from Gray “knowingly allowing” his son to possess a weapon.

Sean Plambeck

The authorities in Georgia say they have arrested the suspect’s father, Colin Gray, and charged him with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it would provide more details about the charges at an 8 p.m. news conference.

Johnny Kauffman

Charlie Polhamus, the shooting suspect’s maternal grandfather, said he and many in his family were grappling with pain after the shooting. “I understand my grandson did a horrendous thing — there’s no question about it, and he’s going to pay the price for it,” Polhamus said in a brief interview at his home.

Polhamus, 81, said he believed his grandson was responsible, but also cast some of the blame on the tumult in the teen's home life. The boy lives with his father, who split from Polhamus’s daughter. “My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” Polhamus said.

Valerie Boey

Annie Brown, the shooting suspect’s aunt, said in a text message about her nephew that “the adults in his life let him down,” adding that “he was actively seeking help” regarding his mental health.

In an epidemic of mass shootings, there is a persistent threat of copycat violence.

As the United States confronts yet another outburst of mass gun violence, this time in Georgia, experts and law enforcement officials say they’re also increasingly grappling with the threat of copycat killers.

Investigators have not yet publicly described a motive for the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., on Wednesday, in which two students and two teachers were killed.

But law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said it appeared that the 14-year-old suspect had shown an interest in other mass shootings, particularly the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people.

Researchers who have studied the actions of those who perpetrate mass violence say that behavior would fit a familiar and disturbing pattern.

“It’s some kind of a really deviant cultural script that they’re following,” said Jeffrey W. Swanson, a sociologist at Duke University. “It’s not the act of a healthy mind.”

Some experts have cautioned against highlighting too much about the assailants to avoid inspiring future mass killers.

In the aftermath of the rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999, news coverage prominently highlighted the images and motivations of the two killers and inadvertently fueled their infamy . The Columbine effect , as it has since been called, has been cited as having influenced multiple conflicted and isolated young people who mimicked that deadly violence in their own communities.

The shooter at Virginia Tech University, who killed 33 people in 2007, idolized the two Columbine killers as “martyrs.” The attacker who killed 20 young students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 had compiled a database on the Columbine violence.

And the assailant who killed three students and three staff members at a private Christian school in Nashville last year “considered the actions of other mass murderers,” the police said at the time .

News outlets like The New York Times have in recent years developed guidelines for reporting on mass shootings, which include focusing on the victims and survivors and avoiding repetitive or prominent use of the shooter’s name and image.

The surviving families of the Nashville shooting have also cited the Columbine research in a bid to keep the writings left by the assailant from being published. (A court decision in their favor has been appealed.)

But reducing the amount of attention given to the perpetrators of mass violence is only one aspect of countering the epidemic of gun violence, experts say. President Biden renewed a push on Thursday to require the safe storage of guns, while other Democrats and gun violence survivors have pushed to curb access to firearms.

“It’s not a one-thing problem and it’s not a one-thing solution,” said Dr. Swanson, who has led gun violence research that has formed the foundation for extreme risk protection order laws.

Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

“There are too many people who are able to access guns that shouldn’t be able to,” President Biden said in his first remarks about the Georgia school shooting. “Let’s require safe storage of firearms. I know I have mine locked up,” he said, adding, “You've got to hold parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns.”

Sean Keenan and Isabelle Taft

Sean Keenan reported from Jackson County, Ga.

The suspect’s father told investigators he would be ‘mad as hell’ if his son had made online threats.

The father of the teenager accused of Georgia’s deadliest school shooting told investigators looking into an online threat last year that he had been teaching his son about guns and hunting, and that the boy claimed that his account had been hacked.

“I’m going to be mad as hell if he did” make threats about a school shooting, said the father, Colin Gray, according to a transcript of the May 2023 interview obtained by The New York Times. “Then all the guns will go away,” he added.

Records from an eviction the previous year show that Mr. Gray owned several weapons, including an AR-15, the type of firearm that officials say was used in the shooting on Wednesday morning at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga.

Mr. Gray said he wanted to get his son, Colt, now 14, interested in the outdoors, and away from video games, according to the interview transcript. The son, then 13, had recently shot his first deer, and his father kept a photo on his phone of the animal’s blood smeared on the boy’s cheeks — a common tradition among hunters.

Mr. Gray said that he and his son had often discussed “all the school shootings, things that happen.” He told the investigator with the Jackson County sheriff’s office: “He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them.”

Mr. Gray said his son had been picked on during the last three months of the school year, which had just ended at the time of the interview. The problems had escalated to the point where he had trouble concentrating on his final exams, he said.

Mr. Gray said he had been to his son’s middle school frequently, talking to the principal and asking for support. “He gets flustered and under pressure,” he said of the boy. “He doesn’t really think straight.”

The investigator was looking into tips about a post made in a chat group on Discord, a social media site, about a potential school shooting. The post, which had been reported to the F.B.I., was linked by investigators to the account associated with Mr. Gray’s son.

Mr. Gray said in a follow-up phone call with an investigator that he didn’t know much about Discord, and that he had asked his son to “dumb this down for me.” His son had told him about people called “raiders” who could break into other people’s Discord accounts, he said. “They can make it … basically say whatever they want to about you,” Mr. Gray said his son had explained.

The son told the investigator that he had not used Discord in months and was only on TikTok to watch videos. The investigator ended one interview by telling the teenager, who had just finished seventh grade, to focus on getting good grades.

“It’ll set you up for the rest of your life,” he said.

In a follow-up phone call with Mr. Gray, an investigator told him he wasn’t sure they would be able to get to the bottom of who had made the post on Discord. He assured the father he didn’t think his son was being dishonest, and encouraged him to make sure his son’s identity had not been stolen.

Mr. Gray said his son was eager for the situation to be resolved. “He wants to know what happened,” he told the investigator.

President Biden said he and the first lady, Jill Biden, were mourning for those killed in Georgia. “Students, just young teenagers. Educators, just doing their job. A community, like so many around the country, just getting back to school. And a joyous and exciting time just shattered, absolutely shattered.”

President Biden again called on Congress to pass an assault rifle ban and other gun control measures in the wake of the school shooting in Georgia. “We need more than thoughts and prayers,” Biden said before an economic speech in Wisconsin. “Some of my Republican friends in Congress just finally have to say, ‘Enough is enough, we have to do something.’”

Biden, speaking in the rural town of Westby, Wis., appeared focused on calling for gun control measures without alienating gun owners. “We cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence,” he said in his first remarks on the Georgia shooting.“My dad is a hunter,” Biden added. “I don’t know a whole lot of deer wearing kevlar vests.”

The suspect has been charged with four counts of felony murder, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. His first court appearance will be tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. The agency said the “complex investigation” is ongoing, and officials expect to file additional charges.

Sean Keenan

The shooting suspect’s father, Colin Gray, told a Jackson County sheriff’s department investigator in May 2023 that his son, then 13, had been picked on at school, according to an interview transcript obtained by The New York Times. The problems had escalated to the point where “his finals were last week, and that was the last thing on his mind,” the father said.

The suspect's father told the investigator that he was teaching his son about firearms and the outdoors to get him away from video games. “He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” the father told an investigator, according to the transcript.

The suspect’s father, Colin Gray, told investigators from the Jackson County sheriff’s department last year that he didn’t know anything about his son making online threats about a school shooting, which the boy had denied. “I’m going to be mad as hell if he did, and then all the guns will go away,” Mr. Gray said, according to an interview transcript obtained by The New York Times.

When the suspect's family was evicted from their Jackson County home in 2022, sheriff’s deputies removed several weapons, including a black AR-15 rifle with a scope — the type of weapon used in Wednesday's school shooting — as well as boxes of ammunition, records showed. All of the weapons, which also included handguns and bows, were marked as "released to owner."

Troy Closson Dana Goldstein and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

Security measures may have prevented the shooting from being “way worse.”

The deadliest episode of school violence in Georgia’s history could have ended with even more bloodshed, if not for the school’s newly installed security systems, according to law enforcement officials.

The Wednesday shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., killed two teachers and two students, and injured at least nine others. But the gunman may have been stopped from taking more lives after a staff member appeared to activate an alarm that triggered a police response, officials said.

All teachers at the school were equipped with an ID badge on a lanyard that had a panic button, which alerts the police to an active threat, according to the authorities. The badges can also initiate a schoolwide lockdown when activated, according to Centegix, the company that makes them.

The alert system can send both administrators and responders details on the floor and classroom where the staff member sends up the alarm, and it operates outside of a school Wi-Fi network, according to Centegix.

The security measure had been installed at the high school about a week before the shooting, law enforcement officials told reporters.

“This could’ve been way worse,” Jud Smith, the Barrow County sheriff, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, schools have sought ways to bolster security and save lives during a shooting. They have turned both to technology and training to help students and teachers prepare for the worst.

Ninety-five percent of schools now conduct lockdown drills, according to a 2017 federal report, while nearly two-thirds of secondary schools have sworn law enforcement officers working on campus. School spending on security topped $3 billion annually in 2021, with companies marketing electronic locks, software to look for threats in students’ social media posts and many other services and gadgets.

Still, there is little evidence suggesting that these efforts prevent gun violence. Armed police officers were on duty during several mass shootings, including the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. In Uvalde, Texas, law enforcement conducted an elaborate school-shooting role-play less than two years before a gunman there killed 19 students and two teachers.

At Apalachee High on Wednesday, the police accused a 14-year-old of bringing a military-style rifle into the school building and killing two educators and two 14-year-old students on Wednesday.

The school did not have metal detectors, according to a teacher at the school, but doors always locked automatically when they closed. Experts who study school shootings say locks are one of the most effective and cheapest security measures. Georgia law enforcement officials said more families may have lost loved ones if classroom doors at the school did not lock.

Stephen Kreyenbuhl, 26, was teaching a world history class on Wednesday in a hall around the corner from the classrooms where the shooting occurred. He said that as gunshots rang out, a lockdown alert flashed on a screen in his classroom, indicating that another staff member had activated their ID alarm. He said the gunman did not enter his classroom because the door was locked.

Mr. Kreyenbuhl and law enforcement officials also credited school resource officers at the high school with their handling of the shooting. “His response was probably under 120 seconds,” the teacher said of one of the officers.

Mr. Smith, the sheriff, said at a news conference that at least two school resource officers were regularly stationed at the high school, and Mr. Kreyenbuhl said they were armed. When they were alerted to a potential gunman, one “engaged him, and the shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up” he would be shot, the sheriff said.

He did not identify the school resource officers, and the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, which certifies the state’s public safety workers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still, Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, said at a news conference that the security protocols “prevented this from being a much larger tragedy.”

Georgia has loosened its gun laws in recent years. Here’s how it compares with other states.

When Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law in 2022 that allowed most Georgia residents to carry a firearm without a concealed carry permit, he celebrated the expansion of gun rights in the state.

The law “makes sure that law abiding Georgians — including our daughters and your family, too — can protect themselves without having to ask permission from state government,” he said at the time .

Republicans in control of state government have steadily loosened restrictions on firearm ownership in recent years. The state does not have universal background checks for gun purchases, safe storage laws or a so-called red-flag law — measures that have been instituted elsewhere in the nation in response to gun violence.

It remains unclear how the 14-year-old suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting obtained the weapon, which the police have described as an AR-15-style rifle.

Last year, officers with the sheriff’s office in Jackson County, Ga., interviewed the suspect and his father during an investigation into online shooting threats, the F.B.I. said on Wednesday. The child denied making the threats, the authorities said. His father told investigators that there were hunting guns at their home, but that his son did not have unauthorized access to them.

“There are too many people who are able to access guns that shouldn’t be able to,” President Biden said on Thursday. “Let’s require safe storage of firearms. I know I have mine locked up.”

“You’ve got to hold parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns,” he added.

Georgia law prohibits an adult from “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” selling or giving a handgun to a minor. An adult who is found guilty of breaking the law could be charged with a felony and face some prison time or a fine.

There are some exceptions , including if a minor is attending a hunting or firearms course, doing target practice on a range, participating in a competition, or if the minor is at home and has parental permission to access the weapon. But those exceptions do not apply if the minor is convicted of a forcible felony, like murder.

“Firearms are not the enemy,” said State Senator Frank Ginn, a Republican, on Thursday. “The enemy is the mentally deranged, and that’s where I want to try to make sure that we do all we can to get those people help that need it long before they pull a gun.”

Experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions said that by not penalizing negligent storage or imposing any safe storage requirements, the law is less effective at reducing gun violence and firearm-related deaths involving children.

“Georgia’s law is not actually geared toward preventing unauthorized access of firearms by children — it’s instead focused on punishing adults who recklessly or intentionally give children handguns,” said Tim Carey, a law and policy adviser with the center.

Georgia has experienced mass gun violence before, notably in 2021, when eight people were killed in a rampage at three Atlanta area spas . But the attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., in which four people were killed, was the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history.

A State Senate committee dedicated to studying safe firearm storage gathered for a previously scheduled meeting on Thursday, where it heard emotional pleas for the legislature to incentivize the safe storage of firearms, including storing guns unloaded and locked away.

“Are we talking, or are we doing something to try to make sure that legislation is passed in order to give us some kind of relief when it comes to guns?” said State Senator David Lucas, a Democrat.

“It’s just unimaginable that a 14-year-old would go out and do something,” he added, noting that he owned multiple guns. “I would assume that somewhere, somebody missed something.”

Georgia has also not approved legislation for law enforcement to intervene if someone raises concerns about a person using a gun to harm themselves or others.

It is also not among the nearly two dozen states with a red flag law , which allows a judge to sign off on the temporary confiscation of a firearm if law enforcement or, in some cases, a family member, warn about a person’s credible risk to do harm.

“Nobody is taking anybody’s gun, but we can and should create a framework that makes gun ownership safer, not just for the owner, but for the common good,” said Heather Hallett, a representative from the Georgia Majority for Gun Safety.

Jen Pauliukonis, the director of policy and programming at the Johns Hopkins center, said that red-flag laws can enable law enforcement to intervene if a child is seen as a possible threat.

“It’s not always written into the state law that it’s allowed, but quite often it’s done in practice when law enforcement realizes that the parent is not taking the threat seriously,” Ms. Pauliukonis said. Sometimes, she added, parents are allowed to retain access to their firearm, but are required by a judge to keep it away from their child.

She pointed to research that showed that such orders had reduced intimate partner violence, suicide attempts and plans for mass shootings in states where red-flag laws were in place.

Jeffrey W. Swanson, a sociologist at Duke University who has studied violence and mental illness for more than three decades, said that the transition between adolescence and young adulthood, was “a relatively high-risk time, particularly for young men, for not just mass shootings, but violence and aggression.”

The protection law, he added, “is an important policy because it’s nimble, it’s risk-based and focused on individual circumstances.”

But such laws have faced resistance from conservatives, who frequently raise concerns about infringing on Second Amendment rights. A 2022 bipartisan compromise in Congress, which ended a decades-long stalemate on gun safety legislation, did not enforce a national red-flag law, but instead incentivized passage of such measures on the state level.

Rather than restrict firearm access, Republicans instead often favor putting money toward mental health programs and hardening school safety protocols.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.

Sean Keenan and Rick Rojas

Sean Keenan reported from Jefferson, Ga., and Rick Rojas from Atlanta.

A report details the investigation of the Georgia suspect in a prior school shooting threat.

The anonymous tips were sent to the F.B.I. last May from as far away as Australia, warning that a user on Discord, a social media platform, had threatened in a chat group to possibly “shoot up a middle school.” The authorities were led to a 13-year-old living in Jackson County, Ga.

A report from the Jackson County sheriff’s office, obtained by The New York Times, detailed how investigators looked into but were unable to definitively link those threats to the teen, who is now in custody after a shooting on Wednesday morning at his high school in Winder, Ga. He is accused of killing two students and two teachers.

Hours after the shooting, the F.B.I. disclosed that law enforcement had investigated the online threat, which was made in May 2023. But the report from the sheriff’s office reveals more about how the authorities were able to trace the post to the teenager, and why — after interviewing the boy and his father — they did not take further action, other than a warning to his middle school.

According to the report, the F.B.I. received several tips from users with internet addresses in Palmdale, Calif., Los Angeles and Cockburn, a city in Western Australia, which included the posts made in a group chat on Discord. The email associated with the account belonged to Colt Gray, the teen accused of the shooting at his school.

The investigators found that the username on the Discord account had been written in Russian. “Translation of the Russian letters spells out the name Lanza,” the investigator wrote in his report, noting that it was the surname of the perpetrator of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six teachers were killed.

In interviews with investigators, both Mr. Gray and his father, Colin Gray, said that they did not speak Russian, and the boy denied that he had been the author of the threats. He said that he had previously had a Discord account, but had deleted it, claiming he had been repeatedly hacked and was “afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes,” an investigator wrote.

The teenager told an investigator “he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” according to the report. During the interview, an investigator noted that the boy was calm and had a reserved demeanor.

His father told an investigator that he and his wife were divorced and had been evicted from their home. His wife took their younger two children, he said, and he and his son had moved into a new home.

The father also told an investigator that his son had experienced “some problems at West Jackson Middle School and now that he was going to Jefferson Middle School it was a lot better.”

Colin Gray also told investigators that he had hunting rifles in the house, but that his son did not have “unfettered” access to them.

Sheriff Janis G. Mangum of Jackson County said on Thursday morning that her office had notified Jefferson Middle School, where Mr. Gray had been enrolled, but classes had already ended for the school year. This year, Mr. Gray had just started as a freshman at Apalachee High School in Winder, which is in neighboring Barrow County.

After interviewing the father and son on May 20, 2023, the investigators determined that they had exhausted their efforts.

“Due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI,” an investigator wrote, “the allegation that Colt or Colin is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated.”

Sheriff Mangum said in an interview on Thursday that she was anguished about the violence at Apalachee High School, but also said that her office had investigated last year’s threat thoroughly and taken the inquiry as far it could.

“It’s not like we didn’t investigate it,” she said. “It’s not just that we didn’t do anything.”

She added: “I’m broken to think about what happened yesterday. That could have been any school. There’s other schools where this has happened. There’s evil in our society.”

Glenn Thrush

Police found evidence that the 14-year-old suspect had an interest in mass shootings during a search of his room on Wednesday, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. He appeared to be particularly obsessed, they said, with the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people.

Sheriff Janis G. Mangum of Jackson County, Ga., said in an interview that her agency had taken the 2023 investigation into online threats, which led them to the accused shooter, as far as possible. “It’s not like we didn’t investigate it,” Mangum said, adding, “I’m broken to think about what happened yesterday. That could have been any school.”

Law enforcement officers were led to the accused shooter more than a year ago after threats to “shoot up a middle school” were made on Discord, according to a sheriff's office report obtained by The New York Times. The boy, who was 13 at the time and living in Jackson County, Ga., denied making them, and investigators could not definitively link him to the posts, the report said.

According to the report, the suspect told Jackson County sheriff's office investigators in May 2023 that he used to have an account with Discord, a social media platform, but deleted it, claiming he had been repeatedly hacked and was “afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.”

The suspect was booked overnight into the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice said. The facility in Gainesville, which serves some counties northeast of Atlanta, is roughly 30 miles from Winder, where the shooting took place.

Christina Morales Rachel Nostrant Kate Selig and Rukmini Callimachi

What we know about the Apalachee High School shooting victims.

On the day she died, Cristina Irimie brought in desserts and other treats that she had baked for her math students at Apalachee High School to celebrate her 52nd birthday, which came on Aug. 24.

By day’s end at the school in Winder, Ga., that typically kind gesture seemed like a thought from another world after a 14-year-old student shot and killed Ms. Irimie and three others in the deadliest episode of school violence in Georgia history.

Also killed were Richard Aspinwall, 39, a math teacher who was also the school football team’s defensive coordinator, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.

Jordan Rushing, who leads the school’s math department, said that Mr. Aspinwall and Ms. Irimie were beloved by their students. Mr. Aspinwall was known for his kind and calm demeanor while teaching math, a subject that can be stressful. Ms. Irimie’s life experience as an immigrant from Romania helped her bond with her students, some of whom were not fluent in English.

“Everybody needs to know what phenomenal people they were and what we lost,” he said.

At least nine others were injured. Law enforcement officials said that the victims taken to the hospital were expected to make a full recovery.

The gunman has been charged with four counts of felony murder. His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

Cristina Irimie

Ms. Irimie, a native of Apoldu de Jos, a village in the Transylvanian mountains of Romania, immigrated to the United States after the fall of one of the Eastern Bloc’s most ruthless brands of Communism.

Her entry point was her mastery of Romanian folkloric dance: She came in 1996, a member of a dance troupe performing on the sidelines of the Atlanta Olympics, said Emanuel Popovich, a relative.

Romania’s economy was on its knees and the entire dance troupe, called Dumbrava Sibiului, ended up defecting, said Anca Belju, a friend.

For years before Ms. Irimie’s departure from Romania, she had been a teacher at School No. 25 in the town of Sibiu — located around 30 minutes from her village — where she taught children ages 7 to 10, said Ms. Belju, whose son was one of her students.

Ms. Irimie met her husband, a fellow Romanian, in the United States. Repeated treatments to have her own children, including I.V.F., failed, Mr. Popovich said. She doted on students as if they were her own, relatives, her friend and her priest said.

“She took care to teach them as well as she possibly could, to explain concepts to them,” he said in Romanian. “She did everything she could for them.”

“To think that a student could do this to her,” he said, his voice trailing off.

Gabrielle Buth, Ms. Irimie’s niece, called her a dedicated goofball who was integral to the Romanian community in Atlanta and so deeply in love with her husband that it made people envious when they saw them together.

Ms. Irimie was well known for “always being one of the first” to volunteer at her Orthodox church and for Romanian festivals in the United States.

When she and her family were told that Ms. Irimie might have been one of the victims, Ms. Buth said she had called her over and over again, waiting for her to answer her phone the way she always did: in Romanian, saying “da, iubită” or “yes, my love.”

The returned call never came.

Richard Aspinwall

Marquel Broughton, 24, was coached by Mr. Aspinwall — known to the players as Coach A — when he was a sophomore at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville, Ga., in 2015.

Mr. Aspinwall, the outside linebackers coach, promoted Mr. Broughton, then a sophomore, from second-string safety to starting outside linebacker. Despite being relatively small for the position at 5’7” and about 160 pounds, Mr. Broughton said that Mr. Aspinwall recognized potential that he hadn’t seen in himself.

Mr. Broughton described Mr. Aspinwall as someone who was not inclined to give rousing speeches in front of the whole team. Instead, he said that Mr. Aspinwall excelled in one-on-one conversations that left players feeling “like you can attack the world, that you can do anything.”

“That’s who Coach A was as a person,” Mr. Broughton said. He added: “He always uplifted you in ways you couldn’t uplift yourself. He put everything into what he did, whether it was family, football or math.”

Without Coach A, Mr. Broughton said he wasn’t sure his football career would have taken off. He went on to play football at the United States Military Academy, where he was a two-time captain, and he is now a second lieutenant in the Army.

Mr. Aspinwall was a devoted father to his two young daughters and was thrilled when he found out his first child would be a girl, said Michael Bowbliss, 50, a special-education teacher at Mountain View High School.

During halftime at the high school football games he coached, he gave his daughters kisses. He wouldn’t leave home to meet friends until the girls were asleep, Mr. Bowbliss said.

“Everything he did was for his girls,” he said. “He was a phenomenal girl dad.”

Mason Schermerhorn

Mason Schermerhorn was described by friends of his family as a lighthearted teenager who liked spending time with his relatives, reading, telling jokes and playing video games. He had recently started at the school.

“He really enjoyed life,” said Doug Kilburn, 40, a friend who has known Mason’s mother for a decade. “He always had an upbeat attitude about everything.”

Louis Briscoe, a co-worker and friend of Mason’s mother, said the boy and his family were looking forward to an upcoming vacation to one of his favorite places, Walt Disney World.

When Mr. Briscoe learned about the shooting at the high school in the afternoon, he called Mason’s mother to ask if everything was OK. She told him, “Mason’s gone.”

“My heart just dropped,” Mr. Briscoe, 45, said. He added, “Nobody should have to go through this type of pain.”

Christian Angulo

Lisette Angulo, Christian Angulo’s eldest sister, described her brother as “a very good kid,” who was “very sweet and so caring.”

“He was so loved by many,” Ms. Angulo said in a statement on her brother’s GoFundMe page. “His loss was so sudden and unexpected. We are truly heartbroken. He really didn’t deserve this.”

Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

The suspect was interviewed about online threats of a school attack last year.

Federal investigators said on Wednesday that the suspect in the shooting at a Georgia high school had been interviewed more than a year ago by local law enforcement officials in connection to threats made online of a school shooting.

The authorities were led to the suspect, Colt Gray, who was 13 at the time, after the F.B.I.’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips in May 2023 reporting threats that had been posted on an online gaming site warning of a school shooting at “an unidentified location and time,” according to statements from the F.B.I. field office in Atlanta and local law enforcement officials. The threats included photographs of guns.

Investigators from the sheriff’s office in Jackson County, Ga., interviewed the suspect and his father, the F.B.I. said. His father told investigators that he had hunting guns in the house, but said that his son did not have unsupervised access to the weapons. The suspect denied making the threats.

The F.B.I. said that the Jackson County authorities alerted local schools “for continued monitoring of the subject.” But it was unclear if officials at Apalachee High School, where the shooting took place and the suspect was a student this year, had been among those informed; the school is in Winder, Ga., in neighboring Barrow County.

The F.B.I., in its statement, said that investigators lacked probable cause to arrest the teenager or “take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels.”

In a separate statement, Janis G. Mangum, the sheriff in Jackson County, said that a “thorough investigation was conducted,” but that “the gaming site threats could not be substantiated.”

Ms. Mangum cautioned residents to be careful of posts containing misinformation circulating online. “My phone is blowing up with messages from people about social media postings about other possible incidents,” she said in a note on Facebook. “To my knowledge, there is not a list indicating any of this.”

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

Some quick thinking by one student ‘saved us,’ a classmate says.

Bryan Garcia heard what sounded like gunfire — boom, boom, boom, he said — coming from outside his math class at Apalachee High School. A lockdown alert flashed on a screen inside the room.

Following protocol, the students and teacher ran to the back of the class and huddled in the corner furthest from the door.

Bryan looked toward the door. It was open.

Almost immediately, Bryan said, a classmate ran across the room and slammed the door shut.

“He saved us,” Bryan said.

Another student, Nahomi Licona, described a similar scene in her math class. As students hustled to the back of the room, she said, one of them ran up to close the door. They heard gunshots, then footsteps, then lots of shouting, she said.

Nahomi, 15, a sophomore, said her family moved to the United States nine years ago from Guatemala. Walking beside Nahomi on Wednesday afternoon, her mother, Jackeline, said shootings in their native country tended to happen in the streets, not in schools. Nahomi said she recognized the sound of gunfire at once.

“It’s normal over there, but it’s still scary,” Nahomi said. She added: “I never expected to hear that in a school.”

Within a few minutes, Bryan said, school resource officers responded. Bryan said he heard a confrontation involving the shooter, whom the authorities identified as a 14-year-old student at the school. The officers were engaging the suspect, Bryan said, telling him to raise his hands and surrender.

Nahomi said she knew people were at least injured while she was evacuating the school. In a hallway, she said, she saw white powder used to absorb blood.

Richard Fausset

Reporting from Winder, Ga.

A mother and daughter endured lockdowns in separate schools before they could reunite.

Anetra Pattman, 43, was teaching social sciences at the alternative school in Barrow County, Ga., when she received a text on Wednesday at 10:24 a.m.

It was from her 14-year-old daughter, Macey Wright, at Apalachee High. It said, “Mom, I heard gunshots. I’m scared. Please come get me.”

Dr. Pattman knew that she could not hurry to her daughter. She had to stay with her own students, and keep calm.

“At that moment, the primary thing was continuing this communication with my daughter, but now I’m also responsible for keeping my other children safe,” she said of her students.

Then her own school went into hard lockdown mode. Her students hid in the corner. Lights out. Quiet. They stayed that way from 11 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m.

The reunion of mother and daughter finally came about an hour later. A friend had picked Macey up from Apalachee and taken her to a convenience store, where her mother was waiting. They hugged each other and cried.

Two students and two teachers were killed at Apalachee, the authorities said, and at least nine other people were injured.

Macey’s friend, a fellow freshman, had been shot in the shoulder, and Macey was worried about her. She told her mother she did not want to go back to school and get shot.

It was difficult for Dr. Pattman, an educator for 22 years, to accept that so many students have to live with such a possibility every day that they set foot on an American high school campus. But she said that she and her daughter would find a way to soldier on. She spoke on Wednesday afternoon with a resolve that seemed laced with resignation.

“I think most of it just comes from not living in fear, knowing that things like this happen,” she said. “Not just in schools, but in grocery stores, in churches. I’m almost to the point where I feel that no place is exempt.”