MDUSD Joins Walnut Creek School District in Wrestling the Homework Monster

As kids and their parents get into the swing of summer, it is the last thing on their minds: homework. But summer will go by a lot more quickly than many of us would like, and the kids will be back in school. They, and parents, will be facing the often nightly task of homework.

Last week,  the Mount Diablo Unified School District joined the Walnut Creek School District in adopting a policy that attempts to create guidelines for teachers, administrators and families on how much homework teachers should assign and what everyone's role is in the homework equation.

Like the policy that the Walnut Creek School District Board just adopted, this policy essentially offers guidelines, not strict rules, on how to make homework "a routine" but "valuable part of learning." The MDUSD policy, like Walnut Creek's also doesn't get into specifics about content.

Notably, the policy makes it clear that the district expects parents to play an important role in encouraging their children to do homework,  and helping out as much as they can—without,  of course, doing the assignments for them. 

The policy was the culmination of a year's worth of study by a committee of teachers, administrators and parents.

"Mostly what parents were looking for was consistency," said MDUSD Trustee Gary Eberhart and a member of the committee. "Now parents and students have an understanding of what they can expect. Before, quite honestly, it varied pretty widely from instructor to instructor."

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

The policy leaves it to the administrators at each school to come up with a homework plan than is in accordance with the policy. Among other things, it says that teachers should:

--Ensure that assignments are relevant to the grade level and are based on concepts taught in class.

--Help students with time management techniques

--Minimize overlapping deadlines

--Take into account students' range of abilities

For parents and guardians, it says it is their responsibility to:

--Support and encourage their children to finish homework

--Contact their child's teacher if the student finds homework especially challenging or has trouble finishing the assignment.

"We can ask parents to do this," Eberhart said. "We can't force it. I was at a meeting, where a parent said, 'I'm not going to have my kid do all this homework. This is ridiculous.' I said, 'Then your child is going to suffer.' We can provide guidance but your child needs to feel you're excited about the work. We don't have nearly as much influence as a parent does."

And, the new policy suggests time limits:

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.

To Eberhart,  a key component was that it requires teachers to provide students with makeup homework if parents and students ask for it.