Students concerned about the homework policy
By Tyler Crowell,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–
After school, many students cross the street and finish homework or study at the Yolo Library. Sports players with only 30 minutes until practice still plug away at homework; it is almost as if they know that they have a long night ahead of them.
On June 21, 2010, the Davis school board approved a new homework policy that should have kept those long nights away. Some teachers however, still do not follow the policy and as a result students end up doing more work.
“Teachers are always trying to find a way around the homework policy,” sophomore Jaleel Demiri said.
The 2010 Homework Policy states that math and English classes may have up to 30 minutes of homework per night while all other classes may have only 20 minutes. Therefore students should only have about two hours and 40 minutes of homework every night.
The only classes that do not fall under the 2010 Homework Policy are AP and honors classes for which any amount of homework may be assigned.
Any homework assigned over the holiday is also not acceptable. That is so students can spend more time relaxing with family and less on trying to finish an assignment.
The 2010 Homework Policy suggests teachers assign different types of homework so that students can work on different study skills.
But has the policy been carried properly at DHS? The answer is: not fully. Even Dianna Henrickson, a parent member of the committee agrees.
Photo Illustration: Students work hard to get their homework done every night. But are they doing too much?
“Implementation has not been 100 percent. I don’t know if this is because teachers don’t understand the policy or for some other reason,” Henrickson said.
Out of 31 students surveyed, all 31 said that they had been assigned work over a weekend or holiday this year, and when asked whether they can point to any one class that breaks the homework policy regularly, 24 students said that they could. Students did not include AP or honors classes when they responded to questions.
Only nine students said that they have enough time every night to get their homework done before midnight.
“I definitely have one-half hour to one hour of math every night,” sophomore Chase Brookman said.
Brookman is in Introduction to Analysis and since this is not an AP class, the homework policy mandates that Chase be given at most 30 minutes of homework per night.
“We get marked down if we stop [working on homework] after 30 minutes,” Demiri said.
According to Henrickson, a student should set up an appointment to speak to the teacher if he feels that the teacher in question has not been following the homework policy. If the problem is still not resolved, she recommends that the student speak to his counselor or to the principal.
“I’ve observed how difficult it can be for students (and parents) to raise such concerns,” Heidy Kellison, another member of the committee, said.
However, not everyone has problems with their homework. Jordan Frost says that he usually finishes his homework pretty quickly, and that most of the time, his teachers give him time to finish his work during class.
In the end, it is the learning that matters and, “healthy teacher/student relationships produce greater gains for learning and achievement than homework,” said Kellison.
