The author reports on a "flip model" of instruction that has gotten national media attention lately, thanks to its promotion by Khan Academy, the high-profile nonprofit online-tutoring library created by Salman A. Khan, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who was looking for a way to help his young relatives with their homework. The…

Many educators and parents would agree that it is important for parents to spend time in their children's classrooms, to closely monitor homework, or to read to children at home. Try telling that, though, to a 13-year-old, argues Harvard University researcher Nancy E. Hill. In a series of studies and a new book, Hill makes the case that both…

A study released last fall by the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, showed that, contrary to what many observers suspected, the amount of time spent on homework has not increased for children in the upper-middle grades. But it has jumped significantly for 6-to 8-years-olds, which would include…

This article discusses student pressure as a subject of debate. The latest debate about schoolwork is being fueled by three recent books: "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn, "The Case Against Homework" by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, and "The Overachievers", by Alexandra Robbins, which depicts overextended high…