Graduation Date
5-2011
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department or Program
Education
Department or Program Chair
Madalienne F. Peters, EdD
First Reader
Madalienne F. Peters, EdD
Abstract
Over the years the amount of homework and what kind of homework students are completing on a nightly basis has changed dramatically. From the early 1900s when homework was abolished because it was considered a violation of child labor laws to today when after No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2002, the focus has moved to evaluating academic success from a standardized test. Teachers are expected to fit so much learning into a day of school, that homework is used to fit in what they could not get into the day at school. Being one day behind can set teachers behind for the whole year and cause them even more stress about how their students will perform on the standardized test at the end of the school year. Teachers are given little or no training in the subject of homework. Some school districts dictate how much time students must spend on homework each night. However, teachers are on their own in regards to what they assign for homework each night. This qualitative research using interview questions given to classroom teachers revealed that teachers are focusing on the quality of the homework they assign. Students are benefitting academically from this extra time that teachers are spending, making sure that their students are receiving and completing quality assignments. Teachers need to understand the effectiveness of assigned homework. They must avoid giving busywork just to make sure that the students are completing a certain amount of homework each night.