Teachers may no longer be required to assign homework three to five times a week to students in kindergarten through eighth grade according to a proposed policy revision under consideration by the Montgomery County Board of Education.
The proposed update also addresses “chronic homework non-completion” and would allow students the ability to seek homework help during class time “as feasible and appropriate”
The proposed changes, which were presented during the March 19 school board meeting, are “substantial,” according to school board member Rebecca Smondrowski, who chairs the board’s Policy Management Committee.
On Monday, she said the removal of the requirement for elementary and middle school teachers to assign homework three to five times a week allows teachers to have more autonomy in the classroom.
“We want [teachers] to assign homework that is relevant and additive as opposed to just giving assignments just to give assignments,” she said, noting that the change doesn’t necessarily mean more or less work will be assigned.
The draft of the updated policy, last revised in 1986, is open for public comment until April 24. Comments must be submitted online and currently, an English version is only available. View the current policy at this link.
According to MCPS, the proposal reflects research-based best practices and input from students, teachers and other stakeholders. It also reaffirms the role that homework plays in and outside of the classroom.
Nico D’Orazio, a senior at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville and an education policy apprentice for the district’s Department of College and Career Readiness and Districtwide, led the effort to gather student input.
During the March 19 meeting, D’Orazio told the board he and MCPS staff members conducted focus groups with 13 classes from the elementary to high school level across the county.
“The conversations we had and the feedback we received from students were powerful. And you might assume that students would just say they don’t want any homework but that wasn’t the case,” D’Orazio told board members.
According to D’Orazio, students said they wanted to be allowed to complete homework and receive advice on the assignment during class time. They also asked that homework not include material they haven’t yet learned and that teachers take the homework they assign “seriously.”
D’Orazio noted that homework assignments that students can’t complete independently–due to parents or caregivers not knowing English or because the content has not been taught in class–can be a barrier for many and are a root cause for homework incompletion.
He added that students recognized the importance of reviewing homework in class with their teachers. “When students don’t have their homework reviewed or when they don’t talk about it in class, they feel like it’s not important,” D’Orazio said.
He also said students “considered homework as a powerful tool to their learning and a powerful tool to their review and raising their grade, rather than something they just have to do when they go home or for the weekend.”
The proposed update introduced by the school board’s Policy Management Committee and MCPS staff from the Office of General Counsel includes these revisions:
- Establishes teachers’ ability to determine the “nature, frequency and length of homework assignments” and emphasizes “meaningful instruction;”
- Mandates the policy to be reviewed on an ongoing basis rather than every three years;
- Have schools implement root cause analysis of chronic homework incompletion;
- Adds language that addresses students with individualized education programs (IEPs) or 504 plans; and
- Gives students opportunities to get homework help during class (when feasible) and to make up assignments that are “equivalent, but different” if absent;
After the comment period closes on April 24, the board’s policy committee will review feedback from the public and other stakeholders and make changes that are recommended by MCPS or board members. Then the policy committee will present the policy proposal to the school board to consider for approval. If the policy is approved, it could be implemented starting next school year, according to Smondrowski.
Board member Julie Yang (Dist. 3), cautioned MCPS staff on being overly prescriptive “of what a policy is in directing how our educators should do their job.”
“I think that is counterproductive for what we are trying to promote, the professionalism in our teachers, to have agency in our teachers in motivating them to do the best work with our students,” Yang said.