Schools

Get Ready for School, Get Ready for Homework

All the players involved in the homework equation in the Walnut Creek and Mt. Diablo school districts--notably students--now have guidelines on how teachers should assign work done outside class.

With school starting Wednesday in Walnut Creek's public schools, kids and their parents will need to get back into the school groove. And, that includes getting back into the routine of doing homework.

As the 2009-10 school year ended in June, two districts that provide K-12 education to Walnut Creek students adopted policies that attempt to deal with homework--an often muddled, frustrating and contentious issue for students, parents and teachers. 

The policies adopted by the boards of the Walnut Creek and Mt. Diablo Unified school districts essentially offer guidelines, not strict rules, on how to make homework "a routine" but "valuable part of learning."

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Neither policy gets into specifics about content.

But both policies make it clear that homework should be meaningful, reinforce concepts taught in class and be relevant to students' grade levels and abilities.

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Walnut Creek School District Superintendent Patricia Wool said that California has some of the toughest standards in the nation. The downside is that teachers often feel they must cram so much material into a class day, and add onto school work with home assignments, to make sure their students are keeping up with those standards.  

"We have so many standards," she said. "We have to ferret out what are the essential standards."

The purpose of the Walnut Creek school district policy, Wool said, is to "balance student learning in a standards-based environment and to help families balance home life."

MDUSD Trustee Gary Eberhart, who was on that district's committee to draft its new policy said: "Mostly what parents were looking for was consistency. Now parents and students have an understanding of what they can expect. Before, quite honestly, it varied pretty widely from instructor to instructor."

Eberhart added:  "The major message out there, is that educating kids at the levels they need to be educated at these days, we all need to chip in."

Both policies attempt to make clear the expectations the districts have for parents and their participation. The policies of both districts encourage parents to support and encourage their children to do homework, to cooperate with the school and to not do their children's assignments for them

Both policies also set guidelines for the amount of time students should spend on homework, depending on their grade. Attached are PDFs of the polices for both districts. 

Here is what the Walnut Creek School District says about suggested time limits for homework. The time limits listed below include reading:

Grades K-1: 0 to 20 minutes
Grades 2-3: 15 to 30 minutes
Grades 4-5: 30 to 60 minutes
Grade 6: 45 to 60 minutes
Grade 7: 60 to 75 minutes
Grade 8: 60 to 90 minutes

Here is the MDUSD policy with regard to time limits. Reading is added on to the suggested time:

Kindergarten: 10 minutes, with parents and guardians told they should read to their children daily
Grades 1-3:  About 20 to 30 minutes a night, plus an additional 10 to 20 minutes of reading
Grades 4-5: About 3o to 45 minutes a night, plus an additional 20 to 30 minutes of reading
Grades 6-8: Up to 105 minutes a night, with  an additional 20 to 30 minutes of reading
Grades 9-12: Up to 180 minutes a night, with an emphasis on independent research and reports.


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