Is homework a waste of time? Generally, yes, but with one exception, a new study on 8th-graders suggests:
They found that doing additional math homework had large and statistically significant effects on math test scores. They found that additional homework in science, English and history had little or no impact.
Actually, even math homework shows little effect for black students and for students whose parents don’t have a high-school diploma. Hmm…
Is that, hmmm, just Aretae-bait?
Of course it doesn’t. Feedback systems are the issue. Homework functions when you’ve got a parent sitting with you telling you when you’re right or wrong, or else you’re checking your answers in the back of the book.
If (a) you’re not checking your answers, or (b) someone else isn’t checking your answers, or (c) you’re just copying answers from the back of the book or (d) you’re not in any danger of getting anything wrong, then homework is the equivalent of letting someone get better at baseball pitching by throwing the ball with no plate to check against. No feedback, no value.
I bet you could rerun the experiment, and find that the kids who got better were those who were (a) super-conscientious, or (b) whose parents helped, the kids who didn’t get better were those who (a) were not super-conscientious (b) parents didn’t help (couldn’t or didn’t care).
Would explain Harlem Children’s Zone awfully well.
Well, it wasn’t just Aretae-bait. I think we agree, actually. The amount of homework assigned is not the same as the amount of homework done, the study admits, which actually explains quite a bit — but not the rift in effectiveness between math homework and other assignments.
Only math homework, apparently, lends itself to deliberate practice, with the kind of feedback that drives improvement. Writing an English paper and getting a B doesn’t seem to teach a student how to write or analyze literature better for next time.