Community Tackles Homework Together

The Montville Township High School cafeteria was filled with parents, as well as some teachers and students on Tuesday night as a special public meeting was held before the board of education meeting to discuss homework in the district.

Jackie Ritschel, chairwoman of the board’s curriculum and instruction committee that ran the meeting, said the district has been receiving an increasing number of questions regarding the quality, quantity and equity of homework since in November. The documentary takes a look at the negative impact the educational system can have on students and their families.

“Jackie and the committee felt it was very important to have an opportunity to call a town-wide meeting in order for people to have an opportunity to express their thoughts,” superintendent Paul Fried said.

Fried said Tuesday’s meeting was the first of what will end up being two meetings. The second, which he targets for the fall, will allow everybody to talk more fully about homework and “what it means to individuals in our community, individuals in our teaching staff, faculty, parents and our children.”

“We have a good turnout tonight,” he said, referring to the seats filled with mostly parents, as well as students and teachers. “I hope we have a better turnout in the fall.”

He said one of his hopes from this meeting is that the administration will be able to take the notes and comments gathered, summarize them efficiently and find a place for them on the district website so that those who both were and were not able to attend can take a look at them.

Although he said he is unsure what direction the administration might go with the information discussed at the meeting, it will be up to the board of education to accept, reject or modify any decisions.

“We may go in the direction of a full-term task force coming together after this conversation to bring recommendations to the board,” Fried said.

Before splitting attendees up – first by parent, student or teacher and then by grade level – Karen Chase, the district’s supervisor of curriculum and instruction, gave a brief PowerPoint presentation explaining the need to gather the public’s perception of homework and the impact it has on both students and their families.

During the reviews of the group discussions, delivered at the end of the meeting by teachers and school faculty serving as facilitators for the individual groups, five topics seemed to recur.

Meaningful vs. Busy Work

All of the focus groups, including the student ones, retained the bottom line that homework is a necessity, especially as reinforcement for lessons learned during the day.

Doug Sanford, the high school’s incoming principal, spoke with teachers from third to fifth grade and said they viewed the meaningfulness of homework based on what the teachers did with that work the following day. This could include simply collecting the homework and filing it away or going over it the next day with the students.

“It gives teachers feedback to see how well students are able to work independently with the topic,” Sanford said.

After speaking with parents of high school students, guidance director Fran Schlenoff said they felt summer homework should be more closely evaluated for its level of productivity and meaningfulness.

Too Much Work

Only the student and parent groups seemed to mention an overload of homework.

Robert R. Lazar Middle School principal Sharon Carr admitted that students at the school receive a lot of homework.

Carr said the parents she talked to felt that, by the time their children get home from school between 4:15 and 5 p.m., they have no time for themselves.

“So they are starting their homework tired,” Carr said, “and there’s a lot of homework to do.”

Jennifer Sowa, the district’s supervisor for special services, received feedback from a group made up of middle school students and one high school student that homework is not necessarily needed every day in every subject.

“If teachers could balance it so there wasn’t a lot at the end of the marking period or not give homework while they are studying for tests, that would help a lot,” Sowa said.

Chase said all of the elementary students in her focus group agreed that they would like to see a reduction in homework amount. One of her students even argued that “homework kills millions and millions of trees.”

Work-Play Balance

Some students find it difficult to find time for after-school activities.

Chase said one of the elementary school kids with whom she spoke came prepared with a little sheet discussing how too much homework can interfere with outdoor time, which, as she repeated, “is effective in fighting obesity, provides for exercise, allows for team sports, learning musical instruments, supports family time and provides breaks to socialize.”

“All students said they didn’t start homework directly after school,” Chase said. “They feel, after the stress of the day and working hard, that they need a little bit of a break before they can tackle their homework.”

William Mason Elementary School principal David Melucci, who is the father of three, said he can sympathize with “putting on my administrative hat during the day and then coming home and seeing the realization that my kids are playing sports and how much family time is taken away.”

Homework Equity

Speaking for teachers from kindergarten to second grade, Melucci said several teachers often feel compelled to give a specific piece of homework because their colleagues are doing so.

“Speaking from an elementary standpoint, if one fourth grade teacher does something, they all like to do it,” Melucci said. “This way, parents don’t go and say, ‘Why is that teacher giving homework?’”

Carr mentioned a suggestion from the parents of middle school children that teachers should try to collaborate more to make sure not everything is due the same day.

She also touched upon a balance in homework equity based on class placement levels.

“Honors children are still children, and they deserve extra time as well,” Carr said.

Parents’ Involvement

One topic that was echoed only by the teachers’ groups was parental involvement and the extent to which parents can help their kids through homework and know what is going on day-to-day.

Melucci said parents of younger students often say they don’t know why their kids are struggling.

“When kids are doing homework, parents should do it with them to be able to see how and why they are struggling,” he said.

Sanford said the third to fifth grade teachers viewed homework as a way for parents to view firsthand the actual work that is being done with their children.

“You can sit down at the dinner table with your son or daughter and see what happened in math class during the day or what happened in social studies class,” Sanford said. “And you can find a way to get involved instead of just emailing back and forth with the teacher.”

Other Public Meetings

Fried mentioned at the end of the meeting that there are plans to hold a similar meeting in the near future regarding ethics, cheating and plagiarism.

He said he and the board are still trying to identify workable dates to hold that meeting and that the public would be alerted as soon as possible.