Broward schools move to balance homework load (from Miami Herald)

Broward schools move to balance homework load
BY HANNAH SAMPSON
Danielle Jensen has had days when she couldn't go to dance class because she had so much homework. She wanted to join the volleyball team, but decided she couldn't juggle the practice with her studies. Sometimes she even brings her books to the dinner table.
Danielle, 11, is in sixth grade.

''It's sad to watch your 11-year-old kind of start acting like an 18-year-old,'' said Danielle's mom, Rosemarie Jensen of Parkland, a former elementary teacher who believes her daughter's workload is far too heavy.

When the Broward School Board opened up the district's website for feedback on the issue, dozens of parents responded with complaints. Parents say forcing a student to toil for hours a night takes away meaningful family time and opportunities for other educational and healthy activities including sports and music lessons.

But school districts say homework is important because it helps kids learn independence and responsibility, serves as a link between school and home and reinforces skills that students have learned in class.

''You introduce new materials, you want to make sure that you give students an opportunity to demonstrate that they understand the materials that have been taught,'' said Earlean Smiley, Broward's deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

But she acknowledged that teachers need to have greater coordination and consideration of how much homework they assign so students are not overwhelmed.

To that end, the Broward School Board took a first vote Tuesday on an updated homework policy. For the first time, Broward is giving parents an idea of guidelines for how much homework their students should get. The policy also urges teachers to better collaborate so that students aren't loaded up with projects at the same time.

Broward's guidelines say kids should have 10 minutes times their grade level. In other words, a third-grader should have about 30 minutes of homework, while a high school senior should have about two hours.

Recommendations vary somewhat, but experts say levels of daily homework for elementary schoolchildren should be no more than 30 minutes; for middle-schoolers, a maximum of an hour; and 1 ½-2 hours for high school students.

Karen Rivo, PTSA president at Miami Beach Senior High and chairwoman of an advisory committee on family involvement in Miami-Dade, said too much homework putspressure on families.

''What we see today is parents are so stressed in their lives,'' she said. ``Our schools need to be sensitive to the kind of homework they give and make sure it's not needless busywork.''

Education professor Dorene Ross, who teaches at the University of Florida, said excessive amounts of homework hurt student achievement.

''Too much homework is counter-productive,'' Ross said.

Miami-Dade's homework policy includes guidelines that recommend 30 minutes for kids in kindergarten and first grade; 45 for second- and third-graders; 60 for fourth- and fifth-graders; 75 for middle schoolers and two hours for high school students. All students are also supposed to spend 30 additional minutes reading.

Sara Bennett, an attorney who runs the website stophomework.com and co-author of The Case Against Homework, said Broward's changes sound like ``a start.''

``The question that I think every school should ask and every teacher should really be asking themselves is: What is the goal of their homework and why is it important and why is it more important than what a child might be doing that evening?''

Amy Phillips, a professor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, is not philosophically opposed to homework. But said she has seen her kids, a senior and a freshman at Coral Glades High, spend hours on their assignments.

''There just are not enough hours -- especially for these high school students that need a lot of sleep and have to have part-time jobs and want to do extra-curricular work -- to accomplish it in the amount of time that they need to,'' she said.

Darla March, of Miami, said her three sons' homework helps keep her in touch with what they are learning. The boys, who are 7, 10 and 13, attend Cypress Elementary and Palmetto Middle and spend between 20 minutes for the youngest and 2 ½ hours a day for the oldest on homework.

''I find it helpful as a parent to see my kids review whatever concept they learned in school, to do some of the test preparation work at home so it doesn't take instructional time,'' March said, but added: ``There has to be a balance to allow them to have fun and go outside.''

Rosemarie Jensen, the Parkland mom whose Westglades Middle sixth-grader is often overwhelmed by homework, said regular doses of an hour and a half of homework would be acceptable. And much of the work, she said, would be better done in class.

''I don't care if you work her to the bone in there,'' Jensen said. ``But give me my kid back at night.''