My partner Sally shared with me a piece in Teacher Magazine on homework, and in particular the thoughts of Rick Wormeli, a TLN (Teacher Leaders Network) forum member who writes and speaks about homework issues frequently as a professional development consultant, which I attempt to summarize below…

1. “Homework” should be reframed as nightly “practice”, to remind both teacher and students of it’s true role in learning. So, as Wormeli illustrates, “Students, your science practice tonight will be…,”

2. Nowhere else in the world is practice graded. Practice should be a time to wrestle with ideas, hunches and explore. Grading this exploration can easily inhibit it.

3. Grades (for example on homework) should not be compensation for work done but an accurate indicator of a student’s acquisition of knowledge. As Wormeli says…

If we include such factors as homework performance; the number of days he used a quiet, indoor voice; whether she brought her supplies in a timely manner; if she completed tasks assigned, met deadlines, or brought in canned food for food drives; or a host of other distorting factors, we remove all validity in the initial report of what the students knows and can do regarding the standards/outcomes. Now the grade can no longer be used to inform academic decisions, document progress, or provide accurate feedback. Our enterprise is undermined.

4. Sticking with and completing difficult tasks can build character…

But responding with inappropriate grading policies is not the way to build moral fiber.

5. Numerous research reports show that homework has a very small correlation with student achievement in schools.

6. Wormeli suggests that if teachers consider what they would do if they could not assign homework it can improve their approach to instruction.

Wormeli’s re-frame of “homework” as “practice” seem to me like a reasonable approach to this issue and would seem to minimize the current high-stakes gaming of the system.