미국의 경쟁력 있는 우수 학교 중 일부 학교들이 숙제를 줄이거나 아예 없애는 정책을 쓰고 있다고 월스트리트저널이 21일 보도했다. 이 같은 움직임은 애틀랜타의 웨스트민스터고교, 로스앤젤레스의 하버드-웨스트레이크 중고교, 뉴욕시의 리버데일 컨트리 학교 등 주로 잘사는 지역 학교들에서 나타나고 있다. 학교들의 숙제가 계속 늘어나는 전국적인 추세에 대한 반발 움직임이기도 하다.
하버드-웨스트레이크 중고교는 요즘 일주일에 코스당 3시간 이상 숙제를 내주지 않는다. 대략 과거보다 30% 정도 숙제부담이 줄었다. 코네티컷주 뉴헤이븐의 홉킨스 고교는 교사들이 숙제를 내기 전에 보다 신중히 생각할 수 있도록 교사 간 토론프로그램을 운용하고 있다. 이 학교 존 로버츠(Roberts) 교감은 “문제 5개를 풀어서 개념을 이해할 수 있다면 15개 문제를 풀게 할 필요가 없다”고 말했다.
최근 미국 내 대부분 학교는 각종 학력평가 시험에 대비하기 위해 숙제의 양을 늘려왔다. 미시간대학의 2004년 조사결과에 따르면 6~17세의 미국 학생이 숙제에 할애하는 시간은 주당 4시간에 달하는 것으로 나타났으며, 이는 1981년에 비해 51%나 늘어난 것이다.
숙제를 줄이는 이유는 숙제가 많으면 오히려 학교성적이 오르지 않는다는 인식 때문이다. 지난 2003년 펜실베이니아주립대가 세계 41개국을 대상으로 실시한 연구결과를 보면, 하루 4시간 이상 숙제를 하는 학생의 비율과 해당국 학생들의 수학 평균점수는 대체로 반비례하는 추세로 나타났다.
해리스 쿠퍼 듀크대 심리학 교수는 “초등학생에게 적은 양의 숙제는 학습습관과 독서능력과 같은 학업능력을 길러주는 데 도움이 될 수 있지만 지나치면 숙제와 학업성취 사이에 별다른 상관관계가 없는 것으로 나타났다”고 밝혔다. 쿠퍼 교수는 특히 “고학년으로 갈수록 가정 내 학습이 중요한 의미를 갖지만 중학생의 경우 하루 90분, 고등학생은 90분에서 150분 이상을 넘기면 숙제의 장점이 사라지게 된다”고 덧붙였다.
Schools turn down the heat on homework
By Nancy Keates, The Wall Street Journal
Some of the nation's most competitive schools are changing their homework policies, limiting the amount of work assigned by teachers or eliminating it altogether in lower grades. There also is an effort by some schools to change the type of homework being assigned and curtail highly repetitive drudge work.
The moves are largely at elite schools in affluent areas, including the lower school at Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif., Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles and Riverdale Country Day School in New York City. The effort is by no means universal, and in fact some national statistics show that the amount of homework is continuing to grow.
Still, the new policies at such schools are significant because moves by institutions of this caliber are closely watched by educators and often followed.
Seventeen-year-old Jacob Simon endorses the new approach. When he gets home from school, he usually watches sports on TV. But the senior at Gunn High School isn't slacking off: He's taking five Advanced Placement courses this year, including calculus and physics. What's changed is his school's efforts to -- in the words of one of its teachers -- "make the homework assignments worthy of our students' time." Mr. Simon says, "It's nice to be able to relax a little."
Last fall, the Greenville, S.C., school district reduced the amount of time students had to spend on assignments each night. The 74-school district also limited how much homework could count toward a final grade. This academic year, Sparhawk, a private school in Amesbury, Mass., eliminated homework up to second grade, delayed it for third grade until January and enacted time restraints for fourth through sixth grades.
Getting rid of busywork is the focus at Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Mass., which banished midterm exams this school year. And for the first time, juniors will spend 10 days in history class writing a required thesis, which they previously wrote at home. The change will free up students' evenings and will also ensure they're doing the work correctly, says social studies director Diane Hemond.
Several new books and studies have documented the negative effects of too much homework and found no corresponding improvement in academic performance.
"There's been a sea change," says Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who adds that a growing number of the more than 250 schools she visits a year are addressing the issues of stress, including homework. Stressed Out Students, a Stanford University program, is working with 52 schools across the country to help find ways to reduce pressure; some 30 other schools have asked for help. "Homework is a key component," says SOS director Denise Pope.
Dave Deggeller, Mr. Simon's math teacher at Gunn High School, has started giving students fewer problems for homework if he sees overlap in the exercises. He now occasionally allows them to choose which problems to review, and rather than assign all "drill and kill" problems, he mixes in exercises that "force students to think at a higher level."
Harvard-Westlake, an independent middle and high school in Los Angeles, now has a three-hour per course, per week limit, and gives out anonymous surveys every semester to gauge the workload. English teacher Larry Weber says the revised policy might mean 20 minutes a night of "Jane Eyre" instead of 30 minutes, which has resulted in fewer books assigned per course. "We'd much rather have them read slowly and more in-depth," he says.
The Hopkins School in New Haven, Conn., has had ongoing discussions with teachers to encourage them to think more carefully about the kind of homework they give. "If five problems help students understand a concept then don't assign 15," says Assistant Head of School John Roberts.
There's little disagreement over making sure the homework assigned is effective. Still, some school administrators say teachers can have a hard time paring it down -- especially those who have higher level, AP classes and think the students need to learn too much to squeeze into class time. Many schools have started requiring teachers to hold weekly meetings to coordinate assignments so students aren't overwhelmed.
At her old school in Merrimac, Mass., 10-year-old Sammi Marden had up to three hours of homework a night. "I felt really overwhelmed because we didn't learn any of that stuff at school so I didn't know what to do at home," she says. When her mom, Sue Marden, switched her to Sparhawk, which recently cut homework at its lower school, Sammi says she stopped crying so much. "Now I have more time to play."
Sparhawk's program coordinator for the lower school, Bethany Nelson, cites several reasons for the new policy: research showing homework doesn't help elementary school kids learn, the tendency for parents to help so much that students don't get the organizational practice that is the one real benefit of homework, and the stress and conflict it creates during the increasingly fewer hours families have to spend together.
The University School in the Cleveland area held parent coffees last week in part to discuss stress and homework. The upper school of Episcopal Academy in Marion and Devon, Pa., is considering new guidelines for how much work each course should have. The National Cathedral School, an independent school for girls in Washington, D.C., is reviewing its curriculum and doing a time study that tracks how much homework students are doing.
To be sure, plenty of schools have added homework over the years, thanks to increased AP classes or more state-mandated tests. A 2004 survey by the University of Michigan, the most recent national comprehensive study, showed that American students aged 6 to 17 spent nearly four hours on homework a week -- or just under 50 minutes per weekday. That's up 51 percent over 1981.
Riverdale in New York is taking steps to address the steady increase. The school recently set a limit of no more than 45 minutes of homework in each subject area for the upper school. If kids aren't finished after that time, they're to stop working. Kent Kildahl, head of the upper school, says the school wanted to help reduce pressure and ensure students led a balanced life, leaving more room for activities like sports or music. "Homework is important but it should not be overwhelming," he said in a letter to parents in the fall. Mr. Kildahl says the experiment is working, but there are kinks. Not everyone works at the same pace, and teachers' estimates of 45 minutes of work can vary. In addition, kids tend to focus on upcoming tests and end up working longer hours.
Students may have a hard time taking advantage of the relaxed standards. Needham, Mass., High School senior Ariana Wermer-Colan approves of the recent "reduced homework" vacation this past winter break and the planned "no homework" vacation for April break. But she spent a lot of time studying over this Christmas break anyway. "It's too competitive not to," says Ms. Wermer-Colan, who has applied to 11 colleges, including Yale, Brown, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania, and spends anywhere from six to eight hours on Sundays doing homework.
The movement is being fed in part by a growing debate, both academic and popular, over homework and how children spend their time. Two books out last year -- "The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing," by Alfie Kohn and "The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It," by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish -- argue homework can even impair young kids' ability to learn.
In October, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a report saying federal programs like the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, as well as parents who push children too hard and put too much emphasis on schoolwork, have resulted in too little unstructured playtime, which helps in emotional development.
Ongoing research by Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, suggests a small amount of homework may help elementary-school students develop study habits and skills that improve with practice, like reading. Beyond that, he says, he's found little or no relationship between homework and achievement. And while at-home studies are more important for older kids, he says, after a certain point -- about 90 minutes a night for junior-high students and between 90 and 150 minutes for high-school students -- the benefits of homework diminish.
하버드-웨스트레이크 중고교는 요즘 일주일에 코스당 3시간 이상 숙제를 내주지 않는다. 대략 과거보다 30% 정도 숙제부담이 줄었다. 코네티컷주 뉴헤이븐의 홉킨스 고교는 교사들이 숙제를 내기 전에 보다 신중히 생각할 수 있도록 교사 간 토론프로그램을 운용하고 있다. 이 학교 존 로버츠(Roberts) 교감은 “문제 5개를 풀어서 개념을 이해할 수 있다면 15개 문제를 풀게 할 필요가 없다”고 말했다.
최근 미국 내 대부분 학교는 각종 학력평가 시험에 대비하기 위해 숙제의 양을 늘려왔다. 미시간대학의 2004년 조사결과에 따르면 6~17세의 미국 학생이 숙제에 할애하는 시간은 주당 4시간에 달하는 것으로 나타났으며, 이는 1981년에 비해 51%나 늘어난 것이다.
숙제를 줄이는 이유는 숙제가 많으면 오히려 학교성적이 오르지 않는다는 인식 때문이다. 지난 2003년 펜실베이니아주립대가 세계 41개국을 대상으로 실시한 연구결과를 보면, 하루 4시간 이상 숙제를 하는 학생의 비율과 해당국 학생들의 수학 평균점수는 대체로 반비례하는 추세로 나타났다.
해리스 쿠퍼 듀크대 심리학 교수는 “초등학생에게 적은 양의 숙제는 학습습관과 독서능력과 같은 학업능력을 길러주는 데 도움이 될 수 있지만 지나치면 숙제와 학업성취 사이에 별다른 상관관계가 없는 것으로 나타났다”고 밝혔다. 쿠퍼 교수는 특히 “고학년으로 갈수록 가정 내 학습이 중요한 의미를 갖지만 중학생의 경우 하루 90분, 고등학생은 90분에서 150분 이상을 넘기면 숙제의 장점이 사라지게 된다”고 덧붙였다.
Schools turn down the heat on homework
By Nancy Keates, The Wall Street Journal
Some of the nation's most competitive schools are changing their homework policies, limiting the amount of work assigned by teachers or eliminating it altogether in lower grades. There also is an effort by some schools to change the type of homework being assigned and curtail highly repetitive drudge work.
The moves are largely at elite schools in affluent areas, including the lower school at Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif., Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles and Riverdale Country Day School in New York City. The effort is by no means universal, and in fact some national statistics show that the amount of homework is continuing to grow.
Still, the new policies at such schools are significant because moves by institutions of this caliber are closely watched by educators and often followed.
Seventeen-year-old Jacob Simon endorses the new approach. When he gets home from school, he usually watches sports on TV. But the senior at Gunn High School isn't slacking off: He's taking five Advanced Placement courses this year, including calculus and physics. What's changed is his school's efforts to -- in the words of one of its teachers -- "make the homework assignments worthy of our students' time." Mr. Simon says, "It's nice to be able to relax a little."
Last fall, the Greenville, S.C., school district reduced the amount of time students had to spend on assignments each night. The 74-school district also limited how much homework could count toward a final grade. This academic year, Sparhawk, a private school in Amesbury, Mass., eliminated homework up to second grade, delayed it for third grade until January and enacted time restraints for fourth through sixth grades.
Getting rid of busywork is the focus at Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Mass., which banished midterm exams this school year. And for the first time, juniors will spend 10 days in history class writing a required thesis, which they previously wrote at home. The change will free up students' evenings and will also ensure they're doing the work correctly, says social studies director Diane Hemond.
Several new books and studies have documented the negative effects of too much homework and found no corresponding improvement in academic performance.
"There's been a sea change," says Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who adds that a growing number of the more than 250 schools she visits a year are addressing the issues of stress, including homework. Stressed Out Students, a Stanford University program, is working with 52 schools across the country to help find ways to reduce pressure; some 30 other schools have asked for help. "Homework is a key component," says SOS director Denise Pope.
Dave Deggeller, Mr. Simon's math teacher at Gunn High School, has started giving students fewer problems for homework if he sees overlap in the exercises. He now occasionally allows them to choose which problems to review, and rather than assign all "drill and kill" problems, he mixes in exercises that "force students to think at a higher level."
Harvard-Westlake, an independent middle and high school in Los Angeles, now has a three-hour per course, per week limit, and gives out anonymous surveys every semester to gauge the workload. English teacher Larry Weber says the revised policy might mean 20 minutes a night of "Jane Eyre" instead of 30 minutes, which has resulted in fewer books assigned per course. "We'd much rather have them read slowly and more in-depth," he says.
The Hopkins School in New Haven, Conn., has had ongoing discussions with teachers to encourage them to think more carefully about the kind of homework they give. "If five problems help students understand a concept then don't assign 15," says Assistant Head of School John Roberts.
There's little disagreement over making sure the homework assigned is effective. Still, some school administrators say teachers can have a hard time paring it down -- especially those who have higher level, AP classes and think the students need to learn too much to squeeze into class time. Many schools have started requiring teachers to hold weekly meetings to coordinate assignments so students aren't overwhelmed.
At her old school in Merrimac, Mass., 10-year-old Sammi Marden had up to three hours of homework a night. "I felt really overwhelmed because we didn't learn any of that stuff at school so I didn't know what to do at home," she says. When her mom, Sue Marden, switched her to Sparhawk, which recently cut homework at its lower school, Sammi says she stopped crying so much. "Now I have more time to play."
Sparhawk's program coordinator for the lower school, Bethany Nelson, cites several reasons for the new policy: research showing homework doesn't help elementary school kids learn, the tendency for parents to help so much that students don't get the organizational practice that is the one real benefit of homework, and the stress and conflict it creates during the increasingly fewer hours families have to spend together.
The University School in the Cleveland area held parent coffees last week in part to discuss stress and homework. The upper school of Episcopal Academy in Marion and Devon, Pa., is considering new guidelines for how much work each course should have. The National Cathedral School, an independent school for girls in Washington, D.C., is reviewing its curriculum and doing a time study that tracks how much homework students are doing.
To be sure, plenty of schools have added homework over the years, thanks to increased AP classes or more state-mandated tests. A 2004 survey by the University of Michigan, the most recent national comprehensive study, showed that American students aged 6 to 17 spent nearly four hours on homework a week -- or just under 50 minutes per weekday. That's up 51 percent over 1981.
Riverdale in New York is taking steps to address the steady increase. The school recently set a limit of no more than 45 minutes of homework in each subject area for the upper school. If kids aren't finished after that time, they're to stop working. Kent Kildahl, head of the upper school, says the school wanted to help reduce pressure and ensure students led a balanced life, leaving more room for activities like sports or music. "Homework is important but it should not be overwhelming," he said in a letter to parents in the fall. Mr. Kildahl says the experiment is working, but there are kinks. Not everyone works at the same pace, and teachers' estimates of 45 minutes of work can vary. In addition, kids tend to focus on upcoming tests and end up working longer hours.
Students may have a hard time taking advantage of the relaxed standards. Needham, Mass., High School senior Ariana Wermer-Colan approves of the recent "reduced homework" vacation this past winter break and the planned "no homework" vacation for April break. But she spent a lot of time studying over this Christmas break anyway. "It's too competitive not to," says Ms. Wermer-Colan, who has applied to 11 colleges, including Yale, Brown, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania, and spends anywhere from six to eight hours on Sundays doing homework.
The movement is being fed in part by a growing debate, both academic and popular, over homework and how children spend their time. Two books out last year -- "The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing," by Alfie Kohn and "The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It," by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish -- argue homework can even impair young kids' ability to learn.
In October, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a report saying federal programs like the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, as well as parents who push children too hard and put too much emphasis on schoolwork, have resulted in too little unstructured playtime, which helps in emotional development.
Ongoing research by Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, suggests a small amount of homework may help elementary-school students develop study habits and skills that improve with practice, like reading. Beyond that, he says, he's found little or no relationship between homework and achievement. And while at-home studies are more important for older kids, he says, after a certain point -- about 90 minutes a night for junior-high students and between 90 and 150 minutes for high-school students -- the benefits of homework diminish.
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