Letter to the Editor: LAUSD Limits Significance of Homework

By Norbert Weinberg, Director of The Huntington Learning Center

Is homework worth 10 percent of your child’s grade - or 50 percent or 0 percent?

LAUSD has announced that it will limit the weight given to homework to no more than 10 percent of the overall grade.

Since we work with students, both in a private setting, and through a federally funded program through the local public schools, we work with students for whom homework is truly an issue. We don’t focus on homework itself, however, but on the support skills needed to do homework effectively. This is an opportunity to discuss this in our community while the homework crunch time is in recess, along with our kids.

We are concerned by the dangerous message that the “10 percent” solution to homework sends students. We’d appreciate the opportunity for readers to air their opinions (pro and con).

This is a simplified expression of the dilemma:

If homework does not improve student skills and performance, then any homework, no matter what the weighted final grade, is meaningless.

If homework does improve student skills and performance, notifying students that it counts no more than 10 percent of the final grade, despite the amount or hours required, “disincentives” students who most need that effective support.

Consider a medical analogy: if a treatment is effective, the patient must be encouraged to take it, but if the treatment is ineffective, it should not be offered. How many parents would trust  a physician with such a waffling prescription.

Meaningful homework must include several elements: drills to lead to mastery of skills essential to independent thinking and learning, assignments that lead the student to critical thinking and comprehension of subject matter without an instructor’s or parent’s intervention, and long range assignments that guide the student to independent planning and organization. In all cases, homework should be part of preparation for adult responsibility and independence.

At a time when schools are facing severe cuts in classroom, the district, school administrators, and teachers need to provide more, not less, homework that is meaningful and effective to compensate for this. The legitimate need of students who can’t do their homework because they struggle to support themselves and their families should be met; that should not affect educational policies for the majority of the students who are under the legal working age. Civic organizations need to be drafted into the effort as well, to create a homework support network of volunteers who can meet in school, libraries, or community centers.

A blunderbuss “10 percent” weighting is unfair to the students who need homework the most. Those parents who have the dedication to education will see to it that their children work hard on their own, those parents who have the funding will seek outside support to compensate, and the gap between achieving and underachieving students will only grow. The misery is only compounded thereby.

P.S. We offer some homework relief for parents through a free workshop for parenting support groups, such as your local school PTA, as long as it is within a 20 minute drive of our center at Encino Town Center. (Logistics prevent us from getting farther out). Please contact us about it.