To improve homework quality in the classroom, teachers should clear up homework fogginess and use strategies for success, including creating goal-directed assignments, balancing homework, allowing time to finish assignments, viewing homework-assignment time as part of the learning process, helping students organize their homework, and helping…

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…

Homework is one of the most important practices for establishing a successful academic environment. From the literature and an elementary school teacher survey, seven purposes of homework were identified: practice, participation, personal development, parent-child relations, policy, public relations, and punishment. Using data from elementary…

North Carolina students taking statewide achievement tests in grades 6 and 9 were ased two questions about the amount of time they spend doing homework: how much time do you spend doing assigned homework, and how much time do you spend doing work which is not assigned or required by the teacher? The results were compared with their scores on the…

Five elementary school students who were inattentive or low achieving were studied as they participated in peer-mediated instruction. Students provided peer support to students with disabilities by adapting curricula, supervising assignments, and facilitating socialization. Serving as a peer support person positively affected the academic…

Home-based consultations about homework were conducted over a 12-week period with nine families of elementary students with mild handicaps to determine the extent to which consultations increased academic responding time, and to document home and school factors that contribute to work incompletion problems. The intervention was implemented by…

Describes the use of a telecommunications network by elementary school students in Texas for doing extra-credit homework. A pilot project in an innercity school that used equipment provided by a local corporation is described, use of the network during summer vacation is examined, and expansion of the program is discussed. (six references) (LRW)

This action research project evaluated an intervention to improve student motivation, attendance, homework return, and academic growth. Participating were 22 third graders and 53 middle school students in two growing middle class communities in north central Illinois. Inadequate student motivation was documented through data on attendance, student…