If you were an administrator in Union 98 in Maine, you spent your summer on a district wide task force discussing homework and pouring over the results of a survey. The survey found that a majority of the students and a third of the parents felt homework had a negative effect on family life. When asked how much homework is completed, 82% of the parents believe their students complete all their homework compared to only 35% of teachers who said that students completed all their homework. After all the hard work, school policies remained intact, 10 minutes a night per grade and teachers were admonished to communicate with each other about how much homework they were assigning.

This unremarkable story was probably a common one, as districts around the country were barraged with parents complaining about summer homework and national news stories were trying to make sense of what appears to be the latest trend in homework. This fall there will be two new books out critical of homework and no doubt debates will heat up again as the media highlights the tensions that exist over homework.

Federal NCLB legislation as well as the standards movement have put increasing pressure on schools and teachers to ensure that their students perform to ever higher levels of academic achievement, While many argue that increased gains in student achievement levels can only be accomplished by heavier homework loads, teachers know that learning has to be much more fully under their control if students are to succeed in meeting new standards. For many teachers, this means that schools can no longer rely on homework as a viable pedagogical tool. Most teachers know from their experience that homework is often more trouble than it is worth, yet few have the opportunity to discuss with their colleagues the complex issues associated with homework given the charged nature of the homework debate.

The most immediate problem with homework in an age of accountability is that teachers don’t really know who completes the homework and therefore are unable to closely structure and track student learning.  I have begun calling homework a black hole in the educational experience and the term has resonance with teachers, who are increasingly convinced that if they are going to be held accountable for their students’ learning they want more control over the total learning process.

With accountability for student learning residing on the school itself it seems now is the time to ask, how can we leave chunks of student learning up to chance and in the hands of non-professionals—parents? If I were responsible for the test scores of my students, I would certainly want greater control of their learning.

 Etta Kravolec is the co-author of the  book The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning