Elementary Grades – Grades Pre-Kindergarten – 5
All students should use their time at school to the fullest extent because of the availability of trained teachers and resource materials. Also, ample time for a normal home life is imperative.
Homework that is done by students should promote meaningful learning. Students should not be expected to do work at home that they do not understand or know how to do.
The purpose of homework assignments in the elementary grades should fulfill one or more of the following needs:
1. To help develop a sense of responsibility and effective work habits.
2. To make up incomplete assignments due to absence.
3. To promote enrichment experiences.
4. To practice educational skills.
5. To encourage creativity.
Teachers should be reasonably sure that students do have the materials necessary to do meaningful homework when assignments are made. The amount of homework can be expected to change as the student progresses through school.
Middle School – High School – Grades 6 – 12
Homework is valuable for all middle school and high school students. It fulfills the following needs:
- Homework places the responsibility of learning on the student. By setting his/her own schedule and budgeting his/her own time, the student develops habits of self-discipline and good work procedures.
- To be effective, learning cannot be confined to the classroom. It is hoped that classroom stimulation will encourage self-induced homework to become the norm for the student wishing to broaden and deepen his intellectual growth.
- Homework provides the student opportunities to practice and master content or skills introduced in school in the privacy of his/her home. Because no immediate resource person is available, the student learns to depend upon his/her own capabilities.
- Homework can encourage creativity.
It is difficult to state explicitly how much time each student should spend on homework. Some students are stimulated more than others, some wish to do more homework, and some work at a rate several times that of others. It is recognized that courses may demand that the work be done only at school where specific materials are located.
Date of Adoption/Revision:
July 1979
July 1993
August 1996
June 1999
June 2002
June 2005
June 2008
October 2011
September 2017
