Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Homework and Studying
One of the predictable after-school tasks for most students is homework or study-
ing. The amount of time devoted to these pursuits ranged widely, as did the prior-
ity that either was accorded. Students also seemed to vary in their understanding
of what kind of work is expected outside of class beyond the specified assign-
ments and whether ‘‘studying’’ was a routine activity or reserved for pretest
nights. Previous studies have indicated a considerable range in student reports of
time spent on homework; according to the most recent figures, nearly a quarter
of 13- and 17-year-olds surveyed report spending no time on homework, nearly
a third report spending less than an hour a day, and just over a quarter of both
age groups report spending 1 to 2 hours (NCES 1995).

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The time students actually spend on homework is difficult to determine. Many stu-
dents claim that it varies from 30 minutes to an hour, perhaps more before a test
or when a project is due. Those who claimed up to 3 or 4 hours a night often
qualified that with a disclaimer about the variety of interspersed tasks. High school
students, whose studying is less monitored by parents than that of their younger
siblings, often spread their homework throughout the evening, doing it between
phone calls and TV programs. As one 15-year-old replied:
Like when there is a game on, I’ll watch. Then at half time I do my work and
then comes second half. That is probably why it takes me 4 hours to do my
homework (laughs). If I went straight through it, it probably wouldn’t take me
that long. (Ninth-grade male, Hamilton)
Another 15-year-old said,
How many hours of my day are spent on homework, or how many hours am
I doing homework? If I have 2 hours of homework, it might take me 4 hours,
because I am a procrastinator. (Tenth-grade male, Springdale)
The amount of homework assigned varies with the type of classes in which stu-
dents are enrolled. Students on a college-preparatory track may have more rigor-
ous assignments than others and expect to spend more time on homework. A
high school freshman reported that ‘‘on the weekend I have about 3 or 4 hours
of homework to do, because I have projects all of the time, papers to write, and
research to do.’’ A college-bound senior, a recent immigrant in a poorer school
who has seized all that has been offered to her, enthusiastically described 3 hours
a night of work that included assigned work, optional activities, and preparation
for the two college courses she was taking on weekends.
Right now I am focusing on my American society class because we have a
mock trial coming up. I also spend a lot of time on chemistry and calculus.
I usually do my French during school . . . . And I’m reading a Russian novel
to prepare for a play that an English class is going to do—it’s not my class
but the teacher asked if I wanted to accompany them. I’m rereading the novel
on which the play is based—I thought it would be a good idea to do that.
(Twelfth-grader, Uptown)
Not all students found homework so interesting, particularly at the middle school
level, where assignments may consist of repetitious practice problems and fill-in-
the-blank worksheets. An eighth-grade male student at Vanderbilt noted:
I don’t do all my homework all the time. Maybe if I don’t have enough stuff
to do, then I’ll do my homework. But usually I just come in and do it in advi-
sory (class) and have all my homework done. I wish I had more challenging
homework. I would do it.

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The nature of homework. 
One might logically expect that ‘‘homework’’ would
consist of tasks that teachers expect students to do at home. It appears increas-
ingly common, however, that homework is often done in school and simply rep-
resents work that teachers expect to be done independently, usually before the
next class meeting. Class time may be provided for this, particularly if the planned
class lesson ends early, or students make use of study halls, advisory periods, or
lunch time. Accordingly, answers about the amount of time students spend on
homework need not indicate the time spent after school on this enterprise. An
eighth-grade junior high school student, asked about the amount of homework he
had, replied:
The teachers usually try to assign about 2 hours, but I can usually finish in
a short amount of time, 30 minutes to an hour or less, because some will let
you do it in class and we have a study hall course that everybody is in.
Two 11th-grade males, interviewed together, also called this a common practice
at their school. Homework consisted of what they were unable to finish in class.
One, who described working at a part-time job from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., followed
by basketball in the park till 8:00, said:
Then afterwards I will go home and do my homework, if I have it. Most of
the time I complete my homework at school. Usually I have homework in
English and math, but I have time to do it in class.
Teachers, especially those in poorer schools, offered their own rationale for the
practice of providing class time for homework:
Studying—that is a low priority to be honest. I know it is. That is why teachers
have to find ways to get them to study while in class, while they are in front
of us. And that is bad, because it takes away a lot of instructional time and
activity time, time that you could do something else if they did homework.
But many of them don’t take books home, so we know they don’t study. (Busi-
ness teacher, South Central)
These patterns may lead to less use of class time for direct instruction. Homework
time in class is generally silent, solitary time, with students completing work indi-
vidually.
Using class time for homework was also attributed to a lack of resources at South
Central:
I usually leave time in my lesson plan for each one to at least get a start on
the work so that at least they can get half of it done, and they will complete
the rest even in another class or during lunch. I also don’t include much
homework. In fact, a lot of the time I have no choice, because we only have
one set of books for the 160–175 students that I teach, and they can’t take

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the books home . . . . We really just have very little resources. And my first
year here I did give out homework, and I found myself losing books. I was
also setting students up for failure, because they wouldn’t do it, and I was hav-
ing all this anxiety because I thought that they weren’t doing my homework
because they didn’t like me. You just learn that that is just the way things are.
(English teacher, South Central)
Across town at Springdale High School, a teacher gave a different view:
I would say that each teacher gives anywhere between a half-hour to an hour
of homework per night, sometimes less. So the kids may have a couple of
hours of homework. If the kids are carrying five courses, then they may have
2 to 3 hours of homework, but they do have study hall time during the day
to do the homework . . . . Generally, most of the kids do their work. There
are some kids that grasp the concept and find the homework tedious. (Math
teacher, Springdale)
Students may attribute their academic achievements to the amount of homework
assignments given by teachers. At Uptown, two students who reported making B’s
and C’s on average were asked if they wanted to make A’s. The first commented,
‘‘Everybody does,’’ and his friend said, ‘‘Yeah. We do all our homework, but
teachers don’t give that much homework—so we don’t study that much.’’