By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Homework: it’s as special a subject to parents as it is to their school-age children.
In September 2013, the Hopewell Valley school district adopted a policy on homework that sets a time limit on how much work students may get. The limit varies with the grade level.
The new policy resulted from 18 months of work by an advisory committee of teachers, parents, students and administrators.
The policy can be seen online at http://www2.hvrsd.org/boe/BoardPolicies/2330R.pdf.
As part of the implementation of the new policy, the district is reviewing it annually.
Members of the school community, including students, are being given an opportunity to give the district feedback on the policy in an online survey, sent to them by the school district, that takes a few minutes to complete. The intent of the survey is to measure the impact of the new homework policy.
The survey will close June 12 at midnight. The results will be posted on the district website. Information in the survey will be shared publicly. Inappropriate and/or personally identifiable information will be removed. All surveys are anonymous.
The homework policy adopted by the board sets time limits on the amount of homework students may be given. Homework is not to be assigned on a regular basis in kindergarten, first grade or second grade under the policy.
Homework is to be gradually introduced in grade three and is not to exceed 30 minutes a day during that year. In grades four and five, homework is to total “approximately 30 to 45 minutes a day,” the policy says.
At the middle school level, daily homework time is to average 45 to 60 minutes in grade six, 60 to 70 minutes in grade seven and 70 to 80 minutes in grade eight.
Advanced level classes may require an average of approximately 10 minutes per day per class.
At the high school level, courses required for graduation are to entail about 120 minutes of homework per week for each course. For honors courses, it’s 180 minutes per week; for advanced placement courses, 240 minutes per week.
