Homework is a major part of a modern student’s day. Has the workload increased

for our generation? Brian Young, father of a Lincoln student, thinks “there is definitely more

homework for kids these days.” As a B student in high school, Young recalls spending about

four hours a week on his assignments. World History teacher Susan Snyder also remembers

having about four hours of homework during an average week of high school. Expectations

for today’s students are significantly greater. For instance, Snyder expects that an A student

in her class will need to spend three hours on World History homework in an average week. A

typical student has seven classes, so if each of their teachers assign three hours of homework

a week, a student striving for A’s would need to spend a total of 15 hours on their assignments

each week – or three hours every day. The hours increase when a student is dyslexic, a

perfectionist, or has other learning challenges.

Students that want higher grades will also need to spend more time working on

assignments at home. Sophomore Kate Fin spends about 11 hours on homework during an

average week. Fin strives for all A’s, and she feels the load is “ok”. Freshmen Elliott Elfick

spends around 15 hours on homework in an average week working for A’s and B’s. Elfick feels

“there should be less homework.”

Today’s student is expected to do almost as much homework in a single night as

their parents had to do over an entire week. But does this mean that today’s students are

learning more? Not necessarily. According to Harris Cooper, chairman of the psychology and

neuroscience department Duke University, academic research shows that “after a certain

amount of homework the positive relationship [between studying and learning] disappears

and might even get negative.” Researchers commonly refer to the decline in studying effects

as “the 10 Minute Rule” – multiply a child’s grade by 10 to find the most effective number of

minutes of homework a night. For high school students, studying helps learning between 90

minutes and two-and-a-half hours a night. Students that study longer will see little to no benefit.

Cooper argues, “all children can benefit from homework, but it is a very rare child who

will benefit from hours and hours of homework. The fact is, too much homework not only

crowds out time for other activities and increases stress on kids but there is no evidence

that those last three hours of a five hour homework binge accomplishes what it set out to do,

improve learning.”

The Lincoln High School policy handbook says “it is reasonable that the student expect

an average of two hours of homework or study daily” (page 12). Research at Lincoln illustrates

that students are being asked to spend more than two hours on their nightly assignments. It

could benefit students and teachers to communicate about what is a reasonable workload

and how long each assignment should take. Teachers should also be communicating with

one another to ensure that they are not overloading their students with an unhealthy and

unproductive amount of homework.

Cooper, Harris. “Homework’s Diminishing Returns.” The New York Times. The New

York Times Company, 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 2 April 2014.

Lincoln High School Student Handbook 2012-2013. Web. 15 May 2014.