Apparently, banning homework worked for a school in Barrie, ON:
Marks go up after school bans homework
No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks. At least not because kids didn't do their homework -- because there isn't any at one Ontario school.
Kids at Prince of Wales Public School in Barrie, Ont. are probably some of the happiest in the country. Not only because their school banned homework last year, but because their marks actually went up as a result.
"As a whole we found marks have started to go up, our Education Quality and Accountability Office data has improved since we started," Jan Olson, the school's principal said in an interview with CTV's Canada AM.
He says there are also fewer behavioural issues as a result of the ban, and academic improvement was observed across the entire spectrum of students: wealthy and poor, special needs and gifted.
The ban was put into place after the school looked at research on whether there was any relationship between homework and student achievement.
"We didn't find a whole lot of achievement correlation between those so we decided, 'why do we need to do it then?'" Olson said.
But before the school could start the policy, it had to duke it out with parents who grew up with the notion that homework is best for their kids, he said. Staff had to convince parents that the existing data and research suggest just the opposite -- that no homework is the best homework.
But the students don't get off scott free from their scholarly duties--- they still have to study for regular tests. But the lack of homework helps teachers monitor the progress of kids more accurately because they get daily feedback and don't have to wait to mark homework and hand it back days later.
Olson says the policy is making life easier for teachers too.
"Teachers at my school have found that when they focus on effective classroom practices, students are engaged more, students are willing to complete their work more effectively," Olson said.
And if kids do get any homework, it is assigned in relation to how it will work best with the curriculum. For example, students could be assigned to ask questions or create a dialogue with their parents.
It's "creating relationships but not encompassing the parents and family's whole life," Olson said.
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What I see as the biggest problem is that not giving them homework does not prepare them for the next level of education, be it a move from elementary to junior high, junior high to high school or high school to college, trade school or university. Many universities simply tell students they have X number of assignments due on certain dates at the beginning of the year and that's it. It's up to the student to know when it has to be done and do it.
