Marion County schools will do away with homework

We’ve all heard the excuse, “My dog ate my homework.” Now, Marion County students won’t have to worry about giving that excuse anymore.

The newly elected superintendent Heidi Maier, sent an automated message to parents on Wednesday stating, “Traditional homework as we know it will disappear, at least for elementary students. Instead of working on classroom assignments at home, we want students reading at home for 20 minutes every evening, and we want you to read with them.”

Administrators said, the new policy will give teachers more time in their day to actually do what they're paid to do, and that’s teaching students. Teachers will spend less time grading homework assignments and more time planning the school day.

“If you look at the latest research it shows you that -- at that elementary level -- that doing homework each evening is not as beneficial as we thought it once was,” said Kevin Christian of Marion County Public Schools. “It's become more of a tedious meaningless task than an actual learning process,”

The most recent research FOX 13 found was a meta-analysis published in 2006. It found that research's role in forming homework policies and practices has been minimal. This is because the influences on homework are complex and no simple general finding is applicable to all students.

Read the findings yourself here: http://classtap.pbworks.com/f/Does+Homework+Improve+Achievement.pdf

This is not the first time in elementary school has done away with homework. In February, a principal at the Orchard School in Vermont banned it.