History Paper

How effective is Homework? Homework has been a popular topic of debate in education. Throughout the 20th century, educators commonly believed that homework helped create disciplined minds. By 1940, growing concern that homework interfered with other home activities sparked a reaction against it. This trend was reversed in the late 1950s when the Soviets' launch of Sputnik led to concern that U.S. education lacked rigor; schools viewed more rigorous homework as a partial solution to the problem. By 1980, the trend had reversed again, with some theorists claiming that homework could be disastrous to students' mental health. Since then, serious arguments for and against homework have continued to linger. We now stand at an interesting intersection in the evolution of the homework debate. Arguments against homework are becoming louder and more popular. At the same time, a number of studies have provided growing evidence of the usefulness of homework when used effectively. Flipped classes imply students do their learning before they come to class. Harris Cooper, a professor at Duke produces three different studies analyzing different factors that affect homework in the home, homework’s effectiveness on testing, and is there a different in homework effectiveness in elementary and secondary education. The first study that Cooper did was a study on the relationships among attitudes about homework and how they affect student achievement. The general reason that teachers give out homework is so that students can learn and retain material based on that homework assignment. Before Cooper’s study there has been different type of large scale studies using large databases on the effects of student achievement through homework. Keith et al, studied eighth grade student reports of time spent on homework were significantly related to a composite achievement based on standardized test scores. Another by Keith, studied