Homework: Is It Obsolete?

(For an accompanying YouTube video, please click here.)

Homework seems to be as ubiquitous to education as desks, shiny red apples, and bright yellow school buses. For years it has been an unspoken (or sometimes even spoken truth) that if you are a student, you will have homework just as you will have to carry heavy backpacks and find gum under your desk.

Over the past decade, however, I have seen increasing pushback both in the classroom and from parents. Some have argued that homework is no longer necessary (or perhaps never was), while some parents have expressed displeasure over their children not receiving it and teachers that their students are regularly not completing it.

During my time as an educator, I have seen frustrated educators:

• Reduce their students’ grades by a full letter.
• Assign detention or working lunches for incomplete assignments.
• Have students line up to call home and let their parents know they didn’t complete their homework.
• I have even seen students lose access to sports, recess, and field trips over missing homework.

From an opposing perspective, I have had parents contact me irate that students are receiving consequences for missing assignments, making the argument that school is for learning and home is for family. Parents have gotten into power struggles with teachers over whether the assignment was clear, whether the deadlines were explicitly established, and whether the student had gotten enough instruction to successfully complete the assignment.

With all of the push and pull of this ongoing conflict, I have asked myself time and again, “Is this all worth it?” After all, is there a clear correlation between homework completion and achievement? Is this practice that I myself have supported actually supporting student learning?

The answer is a qualified yes. Harris Cooper finds, “The correlation between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes was found to be positive and statistically significant. However, the relationship was much stronger for students in secondary school (grades 7 through 12) than for students in elementary school” (2006, p. 1). Essentially, the impact of homework in younger grades is small but gradually increases as students get older.

It should be noted as well that homework is not a numbers game. For homework to have a meaningfully positive impact, students must be making a concerted effort to complete the assignments with fidelity. Xu et al. (2026) writes, “Recent evidence suggests that while homework effort is a significant mediator for academic achievement, the time spent on homework often lacks a direct positive correlation, as struggling students may spend more time on tasks with lower results.”

Thus, the old adage of “practice makes perfect” only works with the addendum, “Perfect practice makes perfect.”

The Hidden Costs

Further complicating matters is the impact that excessive homework can have, particularly on high-achieving students. These students often face physical and emotional costs due to heavy homework loads, with research linking excessive assignments to chronic stress, sleep deprivation, and a significant decrease in the time available for extracurricular and social development (Galloway et al., 2013).

As an educator, I witnessed this firsthand, particularly among students participating in accelerated, college-bound programs, which were notorious for burning students out by the time they graduated. High schools that had some of the most rigorous entrance requirements subsequently saw a significant portion of previously college-bound students choosing not to go to college due to exhaustion, anxiety, and apathy.

Homework does not just complicate the lives of high-achieving students. It also places students from historically marginalized populations at a disadvantage. Cathy Vatterrott (2018) writes, “Homework is a primary driver of the achievement gap, as it assumes every student has a quiet place to work, a parent available to help, and the high-speed internet necessary to complete assignments. When we grade homework, we are often grading a student’s environment rather than their intellect” (p. 24). When taking into consideration that students of means are more likely to benefit from homework, this means that students who might lack the adequate support structures and environment end up falling further behind their economically advantaged peers.

A Path Forward

So where does this leave us as educators? Like any modern and substantial question, there is not a definitive answer. The clearest takeaway that I have found as an educator is to reserve homework for the activities that truly require extended time to complete (essays, novel studies, extended practice problems, research projects, etc). Keeping equity in mind, however, also means ensuring that the playing field is leveled to the greatest possible extent.

Historically, I have achieved this by offering workshop time in my classroom to ensure that all students have a set amount of time to work on these assignments. Furthermore, I have also allowed for homework correction and revision when appropriate and possible to ensure that students who struggled with accurate completion have targeted instruction to ensure that they are able to “practice perfectly.”

Finally, I made a significant shift during my time as a classroom instructor away from the punitive consequences for not completing homework. At first, I fell into the “threaten and shame” trap. “You did not complete your homework, so I will not sign off on your academic eligibility form for basketball” or “That is it, we are calling your parents after class to discuss you missing this assignment.” It did not take too long for me to realize that I could catch a lot more flies with honey. Since then, I have shifted to a problem-solving approach for assignment completion. If there is a barrier preventing a student from assignment completion, then the natural consequence is the student meeting me after class to develop a solution for when they can complete it.

Ultimately, our goal shouldn’t be to make homework obsolete, but to make it equitable, intentional, and — most importantly — purposeful.

References

Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), 1–62.

Galloway, M., Conner, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-achieving high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81(4), 490–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2012.745469

Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs (2nd ed.). ASCD.

Xu, J., Avcı, S., Özgenel, M., & Núñez Pérez, J. C. (2026). Student perceptions of homework feedback quality: Do homework purpose, effort, and management matter? Psychology, Society & Education, 18(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.21071/pse.v18i1.18230