Homework: How much is too much?

"I like homework, actually," said Casey, 15, a freshman at McKeesport Area High School. "I'd rather have a teacher that gives homework than doesn't, because it helps you comprehend and understand what the lesson is about," she said.

Casey might have an atypical opinion, but children who don't like homework might be on to something: Research shows that too much homework can hurt student achievement, particularly among younger students.

"When you sort through all of it, what it tends to show is (homework) has a positive effect at the high-school level," said Patte Barth, director of the Center for Public Education, a division of the Reston, Va.-based National School Boards Association. "But with younger kids, there's really very little evidence of a positive effect on their learning."

Gerald Le Tendre, a researcher at Penn State, compared student achievement in nations where children do a lot of homework and those where they don't. His study, released earlier this year, shows homework has a slight beneficial effect in middle school but could be harmful in elementary school. He found that too much homework -- more than four hours a day -- does not help children.

"Our study suggests that, as a national policy, homework is not very effective," he said.

Districts around the region take a variety of positions on homework. Many have no policies and leave it up to teachers. Other districts set limits.

Baldwin-Whitehall School District officials revised their guidelines three years ago. They recommend teachers assign no more than 10 minutes a night for grades one through three, 30 to 60 minutes for grades four and five, 60 to 90 minutes for middle school and one to three hours for high school.

"Children do spend the entire day at school working," Baldwin-Whitehall Assistant Superintendent Lucille Abellonio said. "If they come home and have a high amount of homework, I could see where they're tired."

The Franklin Regional School District in Westmoreland County bases its homework guidelines on the age and grade level of the child.

Emery D'Arcangelo knows homework from two perspectives. He's superintendent of Franklin Regional and the father of five children.

"If there isn't a strong relationship between that assignment and what goes on in the classroom, then homework can be punitive from the student perspective," he said. "The key with everything is balance, and that's the key to homework."

The Seneca Valley School District in Butler County takes a middle course. It stops short of setting limits -- requiring instead that the amount not be so much that it interferes with household chores. And it requires teachers to return the assignments "within a reasonable amount of time" and not to use homework as a form of punishment.

Scott Hagy, principal of Keystone Oaks High School in Dormont, said his students are expected to spend at least 20 minutes a night on math, the area where they get their most homework.

The high school offers free tutoring and transportation home after classes so that students can get help with their homework. "We wish that more students would take advantage," he said.

The North Allegheny School District's homework guidelines recommend between 10 minutes a night in first grade and up to an hour in fifth grade. High-school teachers may use their discretion.

"At the middle-school level, parents are advised if students are working longer than 90 minutes to complete all of their homework, they should contact the school and talk to a teacher or counselor," North Allegheny spokeswoman Joy Ed said.

Officials with the Pittsburgh Public Schools are in the process of revising the district's homework policy, Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said. The current policy on homework is "very vague and means very little," he said.

"I'm more worried about kids doing too little homework than too much, and I'm more worried about us having too low expectations than too high expectations in regard to the amount of work students do outside of class," he said.

Bricker enjoys doing homework while her mother, Cathy Callahan, is cooking. She likes the aroma of her mother's spicy chicken, steaks and breaded pork chops.

"The smell of the food helps me understand what I'm doing," the teenager said.

Casey gets some of her homework done at an after-school program called the Penn State Educational Partnership Program, which is geared for college-bound students.

Her brother, Michael Roney, 10, a fourth-grader at Cornell Intermediate School, spends about 25 minutes a day doing math after school.

"I don't really like homework, but I do it anyway," he said. "I'd rather play outside than do homework."

Callahan said she never has to push her children to do their homework.

"They know what they're doing," she said.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News