In a SmartBlog post, middle school teacher Mark Barnes argues that homework is at odds with the goals of effective instruction today:
This practice of assigning homework, simply because it'[s] something that's always been done, is not only absurd and outdated, it is undermining effective 21st-century teaching and learning. Most teachers link homework to grades so the students who don't do homework don't learn the material—mainly because not enough teaching is being done in class—and many would-be learners grow to hate school because they wind up with poor grades and, ultimately, feel like failures. ...
Meanwhile, educators attending a school district committee meeting in Wisconsin enthusiastically maintain that the Common Core State Standards will require teachers to be more diligent about assigning homework to help students catch up on material and make courses more rigorous.
Who’s right? Why the disconnect?