School’s out for the winter break in most metro Atlanta school districts by the end of this week. Some students will likely go into the two-week break with homework to complete before school resumes in January.
A new survey of more than 1,000 parents shows they’d rather have a break from homework over the holidays.
Prodigy, a company that specializes in game-based learning, surveyed parents with students in grades K-8 in October. The majority of them said that holiday homework interferes with family time over the break and causes stress for their children.
Nearly three-quarters of the parents surveyed said they want schools to stop assigning homework over holiday breaks. According to the research, they may be on to something.
There is little evidence to suggest homework is always a good thing for student achievement. Some schools have opted to do away with the practice entirely — particularly for elementary school students — though some researchers think that homework can help younger students develop good study habits.
Older students tend to benefit more from homework. Another recent study of more than 4,000 eighth graders in Ireland found that daily homework assignments were effective in improving achievement in mathematics, and assignments every other day helped boost science performance.
But other researchers believe students in low-income families tend to benefit less, possibly due to limited resources like help or internet access.
The question of homework has grown more contentious since the COVID-19 pandemic, when more pressure was put on parents to assist students at home with remote learning and in catching up when they eventually returned to classrooms.
Though learning loss has been top of mind for educators in recent years, it’s considered a larger issue over the longer summer breaks. Most of the parents said in the Prodigy survey that they weren’t concerned about potential learning loss over the holidays; rather, they largely believed that concerns about holiday learning loss are exaggerated. They’d prefer their child take the time to relax.
Back to school
Here’s when classes resume for students in January for school systems in the metro Atlanta area.
Jan. 6: Cherokee, Cobb, Forsyth, Gwinnett
Jan. 7: Atlanta, Clayton, Decatur, DeKalb, Fulton, Marietta
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