Researchers at Indiana University discovered that math and science homework may improve standardized test grades, but they found no difference in course grades between students who did homework and those who didn't. But when middle school students were assigned more than an hour and a half of homework, their math and science test scores went down. For example, some middle school teachers have found success with online math homework that's adapted to each student's level of understanding. To be effective, homework has to meet students' needs. It's more about what kind of homework students have and how much. Some researchers say that the question isn't whether kids should have homework. He suggested that more research needed to be done on homework's effect on kids.įurther reading: Get Homework Done and Turned In Cooper also found that some research showed that homework caused physical and emotional stress, and created negative attitudes about learning.

This could simply mean that kids who do homework are more committed to doing well in school. He recommends following a '10 minute rule': students should receive 10 minutes of homework per day in first grade, and 10 additional minutes each subsequent year, so that by twelfth grade they are completing 120 minutes of homework daily.īut his analysis didn't prove that students did better because they did homework it simply showed a correlation. His meta-analysis of homework studies showed a correlation between completing homework and academic success, at least in older grades.

What Research Says about HomeworkĪccording to Duke professor Harris Cooper, it's important that students have homework. But studies about the effectiveness of homework have been conflicting and inconclusive, leading some adults to argue that homework should become a thing of the past.

For years, teachers and parents thought that homework was a necessary tool when educating children. It used to be that students were the only ones complaining about the practice of assigning homework.

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