Report: Contrary To Popular Belief, Amount Of Homework Hasn't Increased Much For Students
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Most people look back on their school days with some fondness, but there's one part of school that probably doesn't make anyone feel nostalgic: homework.
Over the past few decades, many have come to believe the take-home workload has increased for students, but a new report seems to dispel that.
According to part two of the 2014 Brown Center Report on American Education, the amount of homework today remains largely the same as the amount assigned 30 years ago, in 1984.
While students under the age of nine do seem to have slightly more homework than in years past, the amount of homework for 13-year-olds seems to have lessened slightly.
In fact, the slight increase for nine-year-olds was the one exception to the stable homework rate, leading researchers to conclude that:
"NAEP data do not support the idea that a large and growing number of students have an onerous amount of homework. For all three age groups, only a small percentage of students report more than two hours of homework. For 1984-2012, the size of the two hours or more groups ranged from 5-6% for age 9, 6-10% for age 13, and 10-13% for age 17."
So the next time your child complains about drowning in homework, you can remind him or her that 30 years ago, you had the same amount – and you survived.
For more information on the study, visit: www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2014/03/18-homework-loveless
