By Mary Olsen ’24
Do you dread doing your homework every night? Well, 90.8% of students at Central Catholic feel that homework is stressful to them. Homework can often feel very overwhelming and not helpful. So, is homework really beneficial to students?
A strong benefit of homework is that it allows students to score higher on tests. According to The Highschool Journal, “students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework ‘scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” Therefore, doing your homework can lead to higher chances of getting into college, because higher test scores mean better grades and a better overall application.
Not only does homework increase test scores, but homework also helps students understand the topic better. According to the University of San Diego, “students typically retain 50% or less of what they hear, read or see in class; additional engagement with course content helps increase that retention.” Consequently, students will fully understand and learn the material with homework.
According to a poll taken here at Central Catholic, 59% of students feel that homework has helped them succeed on tests and 76.7% of teachers at CCHS feel that homework is beneficial for students to succeed – proving that the majority of people at CCHS see homework as essential for students’ learning.
CCHS Student and Teacher Polling
However, what about the those who find homework not useful?
Many students become agitated from hours of homework they receive every night. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says students who receive an hour or more of homework are not getting any benefit from the homework. In addition, over assigned homework can lead to physical and mental health issues, such as sleep deprivation.
Students have many commitments outside of school which carve into time for their homework. As a CCHS teacher said, “there are many demands on student time outside of the classroom and there is no uniformity in home life so success should be measured on achievement in the classroom where more variables can be controlled.” A student may struggle learning new material in homework if they are filled with activities outside of school. It is also difficult to ask questions on homework outside of school, so if a student is confused they most likely won’t be able to understand the material.
In addition, students may find some homework useless and simply “busy work”. However, students find certain types of homework helpful. For example, a CCHS freshman said, “the most valuable homework is homework that is based on quiz and test material.This will help students succeed and learn better.” Test or quiz review helps students prepare for the upcoming exam in order to do the best they can.
As studies show, homework helps students in many aspects such as higher test scores, but it can also harm students by contributing to stress when given too much homework. The writer of this article, Mary Olsen, thinks if homework is balanced, it is beneficial. Students will overall be more successful with homework as long as they don’t have to spend hours on it. So, the perfect balance of time spent on homework will allow students to succeed and be heathly!
