Creating a Homework Policy With Meaning and Purpose

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We have all had time-consuming, monotonous, meaningless homework assigned to us at some point in our life. These assignments often lead to frustration and boredom and students learn virtually nothing from them. Teachers and schools must reevaluate how and why they assign homework to their students. Any assigned homework should have a purpose.

Assigning homework with a purpose means that through completing the assignment, the student will be able to obtain new knowledge, a new skill, or have a new experience that they may not otherwise have. Homework should not consist of a rudimentary task that is being assigned simply for the sake of assigning something. Homework should be meaningful. It should be viewed as an opportunity to allow students to make real-life connections to the content that they are learning in the classroom. It should be given only as an opportunity to help increase their content knowledge in an area.

Differentiate Learning for All Students

Furthermore, teachers can utilize homework as an opportunity to differentiate learning for all students. Homework should rarely be given with a blanket "one size fits all" approach. Homework provides teachers with a significant opportunity to meet each student where they are and truly extend learning. A teacher can give their higher-level students more challenging assignments while also filling gaps for those students who may have fallen behind. Teachers who use homework as an opportunity to differentiate we not only see increased growth in their students, but they will also find they have more time in class to dedicate to whole group instruction .

See Student Participation Increase

Creating authentic and differentiated homework assignments can take more time for teachers to put together. As often is the case, extra effort is rewarded. Teachers who assign meaningful, differentiated, connected homework assignments not only see student participation increase, they also see an increase in student engagement. These rewards are worth the extra investment in time needed to construct these types of assignments.

Schools must recognize the value in this approach. They should provide their teachers with professional development that gives them the tools to be successful in transitioning to assign homework that is differentiated with meaning and purpose. A school's homework policy should reflect this philosophy; ultimately guiding teachers to give their students reasonable, meaningful, purposeful homework assignments.

Sample School Homework Policy

Homework is defined as the time students spend outside the classroom in assigned learning activities. Anywhere Schools believes the purpose of homework should be to practice, reinforce, or apply acquired skills and knowledge. We also believe as research supports that moderate assignments completed and done well are more effective than lengthy or difficult ones done poorly.

Homework serves to develop regular study skills and the ability to complete assignments independently. Anywhere Schools further believes completing homework is the responsibility of the student, and as students mature they are more able to work independently. Therefore, parents play a supportive role in monitoring completion of assignments, encouraging students’ efforts and providing a conducive environment for learning.

Individualized Instruction

Homework is an opportunity for teachers to provide individualized instruction geared specifically to an individual student. Anywhere Schools embraces the idea that each student is different and as such, each student has their own individual needs. We see homework as an opportunity to tailor lessons specifically for an individual student meeting them where they are and bringing them to where we want them to be. 

Homework contributes toward building responsibility, self-discipline, and lifelong learning habits. It is the intention of the Anywhere School staff to assign relevant, challenging, meaningful, and purposeful homework assignments that reinforce classroom learning objectives. Homework should provide students with the opportunity to apply and extend the information they have learned complete unfinished class assignments, and develop independence.

The actual time required to complete assignments will vary with each student’s study habits, academic skills, and selected course load. If your child is spending an inordinate amount of time doing homework, you should contact your child’s teachers.

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teaching and learning homework policy

The power of a good homework policy

Published 18th March 2019 by Frog Education

With the homework debate continuing to rage and be fuelled by all parties involved, could publishing a robust homework policy help take some of the headache out of home learning?

What is a homework policy.

The idea of a homework policy is for the school to officially document and communicate their process for homework. The policy should outline what is expected of teachers when setting homework and from students in completing home learning tasks. It is a constructive document through which the school can communicate to parents, teachers, governors and students the learning objectives for homework.

Do schools have to have a homework policy?

It is a common misconception that schools are required by the government to set homework. Historically the government provided guidelines on the amount of time students should spend on home learning. This was withdrawn in 2012 and autonomy was handed to headteachers and school leaders to determine what and how much homework is set. Therefore, schools are not required by Ofsted or the DfE to have a homework policy in place.

The removal of official guidelines, however, does not give pupils the freedom to decide if they complete homework or not. Damian Hinds , Education Secretary, clarified that although schools are not obliged to set homework, when they do, children need to complete it in line with their school’s homework policy; “we trust individual school head teachers to decide what their policy on homework will be, and what happens if pupils don’t do what’s set.”

The majority of primary and secondary schools do set homework. Regardless of the different views on the topic, the schools that do incorporate homework into their learning processes, must see value in it.

Clearly communicating that value will demonstrate clarity and create alliance for everyone involved – both in and outside of school. This is where the publication of a good homework policy can help. 5 Benefits of publishing a good homework policy

#1 Manages students' workload

Studies have shown a correlation between student anxiety and demanding amounts of homework. One study found that in more affluent areas, school children are spending three hours per evening on homework. This is excessive. Secondary school students’ study between eight and ten subjects, which means they will have day-to-day contact with a number of teachers. If there is no clear homework policy to provide a guide, it would be feasible for an excessive amount of homework to be set.

A homework policy that sets out the expected amount of time students should spend on homework will help prevent an overload. This makes it more realistic for children to complete homework tasks and minimise the detrimental effect it could have on family time, out-of-school activities or students’ overall health and well-being.

#2 Creates opportunity for feedback and review

The simple act of having an official document in place will instigate opportunities for regular reviews. We often consider the impact of homework on students but teachers are also working out-of-hours and often work overtime . One reason is the need to set quality homework tasks, mark them and provide valuable feedback. No-one, therefore, wants home learning to become about setting homework for homework’s sake.

A regular review of the policy will invite feedback which the school can use to make appropriate changes and ensure the policy is working for both teachers and students, and serves the school’s homework learning objectives.

#3 Connects parents with education

Parents’ engagement in children’s education has a beneficial impact on a child’s success in school. Homework provides a great way for parents to become involved and have visibility of learning topics, offer support where needed and understand their child’s progress.

A good homework policy creates transparency for parents. It helps them to understand the value the school places on homework and what the learning objectives are. If parents understand this, it will help set a foundation for them to be engaged in their child’s education.

#4 Gives students a routine and creates good habits

Whether children are going into the workplace or furthering their education at university, many aspects of a student’s future life will require, at times, work to be completed outside of traditional 9-5 hours as well as independently. This is expected at university (students do not research and write essays in the lecture theatre or their seminars) and will perhaps become more important in the future workplace with the growth of the gig economy (freelancing) and the rise of remote working .

A homework policy encourages a consistency for out-of-school learning and helps students develop productive working practices and habits for continued learning and independent working.

#5 Helps students retain information they have learned

A carefully considered and well-constructed home learning policy will help teachers set homework that is most effective for reinforcing what has been taught.

A good homework policy will indicate how to set productive homework tasks and should limit the risk of less effective homework being set, such as just finishing-off work from a lesson and repetition or memorisation tasks. What makes a good homework policy?

A good homework policy will determine how much homework is appropriate and what type is most effective for achieving a school’s learning objectives. Publishing the homework policy – although it might not unify everyone’s views on the matter – fosters good communication across the school, sets out expectations for teachers and pupils, and makes that significant connection between parents and their children’s education. But most importantly, if the policy is regularly reviewed and evaluated, it can ensure home learning remains beneficial to pupils’ progress, is of value to teachers and, ultimately, is worth the time and effort that everyone puts into it.

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Advice on Creating Homework Policies

Getting students to work on their homework assignments is not always a simple task. Teachers need to take the initiative to create homework policies that encourage students to work hard to improve their achievement in the classroom setting. Educational leadership starts with making a policy that helps students learn and achieve while competing with extracurricular activities and the interests of students.

Set high standards

Homework policies need to have high standards to encourage students to work hard on achieving the best possible results. Student achievement in school improves when teachers set high standards and tell students that they are expected to meet the standards set in the classroom.

By setting high standards for the homework policy, teachers are ensuring that the students will be more willing to work on getting assignments done. The policies for homework that teachers and parents create can help improve student understanding of materials and result in better grades and scores on standardized tests.

Focus on study skills

Teaching students in their early education is a complicated task. Teachers need to balance the age of the students with the expected school, state and federal educational standards. Although the temptation to create a homework policy that focuses on repetition and traditional assignments can make the policy easy to create, it also removes the focus from establishing strong study skills and habits to engage students in education.

Creating a homework policy for younger students in the elementary grades should avoid traditional assignments and focus on building study skills and encouraging learning. Older students after elementary school are ready to take on written assignments rather than using technology and other tools.

Putting more focus on study skills will set a stronger foundation for homework in the future. As students get into higher grades, the type of assignments will focus on writing with a pen or pencil. The age of the student must be considered and the goal is to create a strong foundation for the future.

Involve the parents

Getting parents involved in the homework policy will encourage students to study and complete the assigned tasks. Asking parents to get involved to facilitate assignments will ensure students are learning without the parents completing the assignment for their child.

The goal of involving the parents in the homework policy is getting the family to take an interest in ensuring the assignments are completed. The best assignments will allow the student to manage the work without seeking answers from a parent. That allows parents to supervise and encourage their child without giving the answers.

Give consequences for incomplete assignments

Homework is an important part of providing educational leadership in the classroom. Although parental involvement and high standards can help encourage students to study, it is also important to clearly state the consequences if assignments are incomplete or not turned in on time.

A clear homework policy will lay out the possible consequences of avoiding assignments or turning in incomplete work. Consequences can vary based on the student grade level and age, but can include lowering the grades on a report card or taking away classroom privileges.

Although it is important to provide details about the consequences of avoiding the assignments, teachers can also use a reward system to motivate students to complete their work. Rewards can focus on the entire class or on individual rewards, depending on the situation. For example, teachers can give a small candy when students complete five assignments in a row.

Consequences and rewards can serve as a motivating factor when it comes to the homework policy. By clearly stating the potential downsides and the benefits to the student, it is easier for students to focus on the work.

Creating homework policies is part of educational leadership in the classroom. Although homework must focus on helping students achieve, it also needs to clearly state the expectations and give details about the benefits and consequences of different actions. By giving a clear policy from the first day of school, the students will know what to expect and can gain motivation to work on achieving the best results.

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How to Write the Perfect Homework Policy

Author: Naimish Gohil

Posted: 10 May 2017

Estimated time to read: 4 mins

Homework is an integral part to the learning process and as such, each school should have a clear homework policy readily available to teachers, students and parents that sets out your expectations when it comes to home-learning .

how to write the perfect homework policy

A clear and effective homework policy will mean that quality and quantity of homework can be easily tracked and all stakeholders are on the same page. We've created our own Homework Policy that you can adapt for use in your school or use as an outline when creating your own policy:

1‭. ‬Introduction

This is the school’s policy for the provision of homework to pupils and has been drawn up in accordance with guidance from the DFE and Sutton Education Trust‭.‬ It must be recognised that parents play a vital role in the education of their child‭, ‬therefore it is important and valuable to‭ ‬have a good home-school partnership‭, ‬of which a homework policy must address‭.‬

2‭. ‬Homework‭ - ‬A definition

Homework is defined as any work or activity that students are asked to undertake outside of lesson time‭, ‬either on their own or‭ ‬with the aid of parents and carers‭. ‬Homework doesn’t necessarily have to be completed at home but can be completed in free periods and after-school homework clubs‭. ‬We see work completed outside of lesson time as a valuable part of a student’s learning‭.‬

3‭. ‬The purpose of homework‭ ‬

The school regards the purpose of homework as being to‭:‬

  • ‭ Provide learners with the opportunity to work on an activity that is relevant to learning outcomes‭, ‬or that contributes to gaining qualifications/accreditations‭.‬
  • Develop an effective partnership between the school‭, ‬parents and carers in pursuing the academic aims of the school and the development of their child‭.‬
  • Consolidate and reinforce skills and understanding prior to the following lesson‭, ‬particularly in English and Mathematics‭.‬
  • Extend learning across the curriculum‭, ‬for example through additional reading‭.‬
  • Encourage pupils as they get older to develop the confidence‭, ‬self-discipline and independence to develop organisational skills‭.‬

As a school‭, ‬we encourage children to pursue out-of-school activities‭. ‬Homework should be used to effectively reinforce and/or extend what is learned in school‭. ‬We hope that children will feel a sense of personal satisfaction in a task completed well and that their efforts will be recognised and praised both at home and at school‭. ‬

Homework tasks should be undertaken to the best of‭ ‬their ability‭. ‬We hope that parents and carers will be willing and able to give their active support to ensure that work completed at home is done so conscientiously and in the best possible conditions‭.‬

4‭. ‬Current practice‭ ‬

At the beginning of the academic year‭, ‬each year group will be informed about what is expected of them with regards to homework‭.‬

5‭. ‬Time to be spent completing homework

Based on current good practice‭, ‬we ask pupils to spend the following amount of time on homework‭:‬

Years 7‭ ‬to 9‭:                   ‬1‭ - ‬2‭ ‬hours per day

Years 10‭ ‬&‭ ‬11‭:                ‬1‭ - ‬3‭ ‬hours per day‭ ‬

Pupils may be expected to undertake a variety of homework activities‭. ‬These activities will differ depending on the teacher and‭ ‬subject‭. ‬Examples include‭: ‬Reading tasks‭, ‬numeracy tests‭, ‬spelling tests‭, ‬quizzes‭, ‬project work‭, ‬classwork extensions‭, ‬coursework‭, ‬essays and research activities‭.‬ As a general rule‭, ‬teachers will not usually set substantial homework tasks to be completed for the next day‭, ‬pupils will have at least two days to complete any work set‭.‬

6‭. ‬Pupil feedback

The school recognises the importance of providing prompt and actionable feedback to pupils‭, ‬parents and carers‭. ‬Feedback will include how well homework tasks have been tackled‭, ‬and the knowledge‭, ‬skills and understanding developed‭.

‬A variety of methods will be used to provide feedback‭, ‬such as an appropriate comment of praise‭, ‬appreciation or area for improvement‭. ‬Any given feedback will vary according to the age of the pupil‭.‬

7‭. ‬Where to access the school homework policy

The school will use newsletters to inform parents and carers about the school’s homework policy and secure their involvement‭. ‬The homework policy‭, ‬as well as useful information for parents in supporting their child’s learning‭, ‬is displayed on the school website‭. ‬

Parents’‭ ‬Evenings and New Intake Evenings will be used to promote this partnership and obtain feedback‭ (‬e.g‭. ‬English and Mathematics workshops‭). ‬Homework questionnaires will be used where appropriate to ascertain parent views‭. ‬Parents will be consulted about any significant changes to the policy that are being considered by the governing body‭.‬

8‭. ‬Reviewing the policy

The homework policy will be reviewed every year‭. ‬Where significant changes to the policy are felt to be required‭, ‬proposals will‭ ‬be presented to the governing body and parents consulted‭.‬

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Education Secretary: I trust head teachers to decide their homework policies

teaching and learning homework policy

Education Secretary Damian Hinds has today written an op-ed for the Sunday Times setting out his position on homework, which has been followed up with a news story . He says that ultimately up to heads and school leaders to decide whether to set homework and what the consequences should be if children do not complete their homework set.

The Education Secretary said:

One of the tougher things I’ve taken on recently was solving a ‘part-whole model’, involving nine ducks and a jagged shoreline. This was, I should clarify, a piece of homework for one of my children, not something called for in my day job. Homework is a staple of school life, and of home life. Parents know this. After all, almost every one of us will have done homework ourselves as a child and most of us will be drafted in to help with it at some point as a parent, carer or grandparent. There has been some high-profile interest of late on social media suggesting that homework is bad for children, at least in the first half of schooling. There have even been subsequent questions about its legal status. Just to be clear: schools are not obliged to set homework, and some don’t. But when schools do set homework, children do need to do it. We trust individual school head teachers to decide what their policy on homework will be, and what happens if pupils don’t do what’s set. Policy and approach won’t be the same in all cases. Autonomy for schools, and the diversity that comes with it, is at the heart of this government’s approach to education. Of course, schools should, and do, communicate with parents. Parents need to know where they stand. Teachers obviously need to be realistic about expectations, and they know this. Obviously, no one wants children spending an inordinate amount of time every night doing homework. Clearly, there are other important things to do, too – like playing outside, family time, eating together. Good homework policies avoid excessive time requirements – focusing on quality rather than quantity and making sure that there is a clear purpose to any homework set. In 2011 we helped set up the Education Endowment Foundation as an independent expert body to study and advise on “what works” in education. It has established that, although there are more significant educational improvements derived from homework at secondary school, there can still be a modest but positive impact at primary level. Homework isn’t just some joyless pursuit of knowledge. It’s an integral part of learning. Beyond the chance to practice and reinforce what you’ve learned in class, it’s also an opportunity to develop independent study and application – and character traits like perseverance. Children need to know that what they do has consequences. At secondary school, if a pupil doesn’t complete their homework, they risk falling behind. They may also hold up others – clearly it is harder for the teacher to keep the whole class moving forward if some are doing the homework and others aren’t. At primary school, too, we all want our children to develop their knowledge – but we also want them to develop values. Homework set at primary school is likely to be of relatively shorter duration. But if a child is asked to do it and they don’t, for that to have no consequence would not be a positive lesson. Ultimately, of course, the responsibility for a child’s educational development is a shared one. Parental involvement makes a big difference, from the very earliest stage. In the early years parents can support their child’s development through story telling, singing or reading together. Later on, homework can give an ‘in’ for continued involvement in learning. Homework should not in general require adult help, and with today’s busy lives it certainly can be hard to find the time. But I know as a parent that we are called on as reinforcements if an assignment is especially challenging. Other times, it falls to parents just to give a nudge. I want all children to enjoy their progress through school and they will have a much better chance of doing this if they are not having to play catch-up during the day. Parents need to trust teachers, with all their experience of teaching and learning – and know that their child’s homework is not just proportionate, but will be of lasting benefit. From motivation and self-discipline to the wonder of independent learning, homework can teach children about far more than the part-whole model, some ducks and a jagged shoreline.

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Do your homework

Thandi Banda

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Help your students succeed in exams with these targeted and teacher-tested homework strategies

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Source: © Natalia Smu/Shutterstock

Targeted homework tasks can be a student’s (and their teacher’s) best friend when it comes to exam performance

Homework plays a vital role in consolidating in-class learning. Effective science homework provides the extension to learning that students need to succeed, and gives us vital data to inform our planning. An EEF study on the impact of homework in secondary schools  says that regular homework can have the same positive effect as five additional months in the classroom, as well as ‘enabling pupils to undertake independent learning to practise and consolidate skills and revise for exams’. That said, getting students to complete homework is no mean feat.

There are multiple strategies we can implement to ensure homework has meaning and students appreciate the benefits of homework in their learning. This is especially useful when they’re preparing for exams.

Strategies to engage your students

A few strategies have worked well for me with exam classes.

I deliver the homework in chunks (eg half termly), clearly explaining the rationale. As an example, my year 11 chemistry students performed poorly on electrolysis and titration calculation in their mock exams so, after reteaching, I wanted to ensure they rehearsed the concepts. As part of the homework they had to repeat tasks on these concepts. We then reviewed and adjusted the plan as a class to focus on their weaker areas.

I give praise often. Students love rewards in whatever form. I always discuss what rewards the class prefers. You can use stickers, certificates, etc.

It’s important to be flexible. An exam year can be a stressful time for students and so flexibility is key. I ask my students about the minimum they could manage. They feel valued and part of the decision-making process, making them more likely to complete it.

Identify students/parents/carers who need support. With some of my students, I had the most success in this area by meeting with or emailing their parents/carers and providing strategies for completion, such as doing the homework every Saturday at a specific time. An email every so often to check how they are doing goes a long way.

Using online platforms

When I was a faculty lead, homework was a key focus for our department and so we did some research into online retrieval platforms which were easy to manage, self-marking and provided both students and teachers with information on learning gaps. We found several platforms to fit our criteria, such as quizzing platforms,  Kay Science  – great for missed learning catch up, revision and intervention for small groups – and  Carousel – that helps students embed long-term knowledge. We then took a few key steps to increase buy-in.

Often students struggled with passwords, regardless of ease, so we booked laptops for all classes and the teacher modelled logging in, and checked every student could log in and complete a task. At times students would say they didn’t know the answers, but often this was because they’d not watched the videos. So we reminded them to do that first. There was also a short video of how to log in on the school’s homework platform for extra support.

We mapped homework to the curriculum. Students had to be familiar with the content, so homework tasks supplemented in-class learning.

We did everything we could to minimise barriers. All students who had a record of incomplete homework were encouraged to attend homework club and we allowed extensions in case they just forgot. The barriers to completing homework varied between households and sometimes a conversation to identify them and offer support was all that was needed.

The senior leadership team knew what platform we were using, so they could discuss it with all students, parents and governors. We also presented the chosen retrieval platform to parents and carers to increase buy-in.

Over time we noticed a spike in submissions as students got more familiar with the platform. Teachers praised students who showed the most progress, which meant previously disengaged students felt successful and motivated to complete more tasks.

Thandi Banda

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Case study: transforming your homework policy.

teaching and learning homework policy

Homework. Love it or hate it, one thing is indisputable: it is one of the hottest topics of discussion within schools and among students and parents.

In recent years, many schools have overseen changes in their homework policies and our school – The King’s CE Academy in Kidsgrove – is no exception.

While we have found a “no-homework” policy pleases only a few, having a table of creative but generic homework tasks for teachers to choose from – differentiated using chilli peppers! – infuriates the masses.

For some parents, no matter how much homework is set it will never be enough. For others, trying to fit homework in between a 12-hour work shift, extra-curricular clubs, and family life is a logistical nightmare.

And even though our own internal data analysis shows, consistently, that those students who commit to homework in the long term go on to achieve significantly better outcomes at GCSE compared to those who do not, raising the profile of learning outside of school was proving to be an on-going challenge.

To this end, over four years, we compared a student's average commitment to homework grade when they were in year 11 to the outcomes they went on to achieve in their GCSE examinations. The values in the table below represent GCSE grades, where positive figures indicate over-performance and negative figures indicate under-performance.

teaching and learning homework policy

For example, in 2021:

  • A student who averaged an “outstanding” commitment to homework (grade 1)achieved, on average, over half a GCSE grade better (+0.53) than the national average performance in each of their Best 8 GCSEs.
  • A student who averaged a “requires improvement” commitment to homework (grade 3) underperformed, on average, by more than one whole GCSE grade (–1.18) than the national average performance in each of their Best 8 GCSEs.

Rather than continuing the debate for and against homework, we decided to focus our attention on the quality of homework set, ensuring all stakeholders could recognise and appreciate the value it brings.

Drawing on research from Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering (2007), we concluded that homework should always add value to the learning process for teachers and students.

According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), homework can have a positive impact (offering an additional five months of progress across a year) on the progress of disadvantaged students in secondary schools with very small cost implications.

As such, it would be remiss of us to discard this as a tool to support learning and progress. This is where “meaningful homeworks” came in to play.

Meaningful homeworks

When pulling together our new programme, we agreed that homework needed to be:

  • Meaningful work (not “busy-work”) linked to the key skills and knowledge being developed in lessons at that point in time and higher level skill tasks that move away from comprehension questions, poster-making, and spelling worksheets.
  • Set at the “right time” to reflect the learning journey of the students.
  • Framed with the “why” – so students become a part of the bigger picture.
  • Responded to with timely feedback.

How did we achieve this?

The first thing we did as a teaching and learning team was to remove the weekly homework rota, replacing it with the simple expectation that staff would set one to two homeworks each half-term (depending on the subject and allocated time).

Using their curriculum overviews as a guide, teachers now carefully plan a homework that aims to develop and extend the learning taking place in lessons, focusing explicitly on the application of key skills and knowledge that were being honed that term.

Most importantly, teachers have control over when the homeworks are set meaning they are aligned with the sequence of learning.

Documenting the meaningful homeworks on each subject’s curriculum overviews gave this new strategy gravitas – stakeholders could see how we valued the work completed at home and considered it to be as important as the work completed in class.

As a school, we expect parents and carers to participate in their child’s education by accepting their part in overseeing the work done at home. Publishing the homework overviews, with modelled examples on the website, has given parents and carers a clear overview of what homework their child should be receiving each term and a platform for them to engage in discussion about it.

A consistent approach

This was a whole-school effort, one which required a change of culture. As such, the approach needed to be consistent for all staff. When setting homework, staff are expected to allocate time at the end of the lesson to talk through the task and expectations. This is important because it allows teachers to articulate its relevance to current and future learning, highlight their expectations in terms of quantity and quality (displaying models), and where appropriate provide scaffolding and answer any questions students may have.

All homeworks are then recorded on the school’s management information system using the following three headings: Tasks. Guidance. Success Criteria.

Removing barriers

During the implementation stage, we considered the common barriers that our children face when completing homework: lack of clarity, lack of purpose, and a lack of space and resources.

To combat these, we have set up a homework club with a dedicated learning assistant who can provide both a quiet space and support for those students who need it to complete their work. Students can attend voluntarily or be referred by a member of staff, depending on their needs and circumstances.

Feedback to homework

Providing timely feedback has played a fundamental role in the success of meaningful homeworks across the school. Students need to see that their efforts have not been in vain and have been acknowledged, rewarded, and have supported learning in future lessons.

For staff, workload has decreased – instead of setting and marking a piece of homework every week, they are now setting one or two a half-term. As the homework is substantial, it means staff are also able to use this as an assessment piece to inform on-going progress.

Lessons learned

The main take-away for this difficult issue is that the clearer the person setting homework is about what the task is designed to achieve, the more likely it is to be of value.

Be transparent with staff and parents so that expectations are well managed. And remember that less is more and while the tasks set should be specific and focused, so too should the timely feedback.

Aimee Williams is d irector of school improvement at the Three Spires Trust, a multi-academy trust based in Staffordshire. She is also a Specialist Leader of Education for both English and teaching and learning.

Further information & resources

  • EEF: Homework, Teaching and Learning Toolkit, last updated 2021: https://bit.ly/3oYWpHZ
  • Marzano & Pickering : The case for and against homework, Educational Leadership (64,6), 2007: https://bit.ly/3JmS9sP
  • SecEd Podcast: Making homework effective, 2022.

Related articles

Getting homework right and developing independent learners, improving your homework provision, key stage 3: effective homework.

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Inequalities in Home Learning and Schools’ Remote Teaching Provision during the COVID-19 School Closure in the UK

Sait bayrakdar.

King’s College London, UK

Ayse Guveli

University of Essex, UK

Associated Data

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-soc-10.1177_00380385221122444 for Inequalities in Home Learning and Schools’ Remote Teaching Provision during the COVID-19 School Closure in the UK by Sait Bayrakdar and Ayse Guveli in Sociology

Millions were affected by COVID-19 school closures, with parents and schools caught unprepared. Education is expected to play a role in creating equal opportunities, so transferring schooling responsibilities to families may have increased learning inequalities generated by family backgrounds. We examined the time students spent on home learning and explored the role of the schools’ distance teaching provision in explaining differences traditionally attributed to parental education, eligibility for free school meals, ethnic background and single parenthood. Using the Understanding Society COVID-19 dataset, we found children who received free school meals, single-parent families and children with parents with lower formal education qualifications and Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds spent significantly less time on schoolwork. However, schools’ provision of offline and online distance teaching and homework checking significantly increased the time spent on learning and reduced some inequalities, demonstrating the policy relevance of digital preparedness to limit learning loss in school closures.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed homes into classrooms in a matter of weeks around the world. The learning environment radically changed, and many schools had to create distance teaching resources overnight. UK schools closed on 20 April 2020 for all students except children of key workers and children with special needs. While many schools tried to deliver learning materials in the form of online teaching sessions, online and offline tasks and homework, provision was not universal. Inequalities quickly attracted attention, with special concerns about marginalised students with limited resources available to them ( Engzell et al., 2020 ; UNESCO, 2020 ; Van de Werfhorst et al., 2020 ).

Home learning may have generated new inequalities and exacerbated existing ones; alternatively, schools’ involvement in home learning and provision of distance teaching may have mitigated disparities. We investigated whether parental background was linked to inequalities in the time students spent on schoolwork during the 2020 lockdown; rather than simply accepting the general understanding of a link between parental background and learning inequalities, we also considered the effect of schools’ provision of learning opportunities on these inequalities. Since we had no direct measure of learning during the lockdown, we used the amount of time students spent on home learning each day as an indicator of learning.

Education is an important determinant of an individual’s life prospects ( Hout and DiPrete, 2006 ; Machin, 2006 ). Schools develop talents and abilities and play a key role in equalising opportunities by providing arguably the most direct route for social advancement. That said, research shows formal education does not completely level the playing field ( Breen, 2004 ) and schools more often reward children from families with relatively higher socio-economic and cultural capital and marginalise others ( Archer, 2008 ; Bourdieu, 2002 ; Collins, 2009 ). When schools are closed and unable to deliver learning (or deliver it in an unsystematic and selective manner), and teaching responsibilities are transferred to families, existing social inequalities in learning may be amplified because the extent to which children can continue learning at home may depend on the resources available to the family.

Recent literature shows examples of losses in learning during the pandemic-related school closures for all children ( Burgess and Sievertsen, 2020 ), with more losses among working-class families ( Andrew et al., 2020 ; Bayrakdar and Guveli, 2020a ; Engzell et al., 2020 ). Drawing on these studies, we examined the time spent on learning by parental socio-economic characteristics, ethnicity and single parenthood. Using information from parents on schools’ provision of distance teaching, we also investigated whether schools’ involvement might explain disparities in home learning. Our findings showed that schools’ remote teaching provision explained a considerable part of the inequalities in home learning, thus pointing to the failures of the institutions and school systems as the main source of inequalities.

Family Background and Educational Inequalities

Scholars have often scrutinised the role of schools in societies. Some consider schools are the engines of social and cultural reproduction ( Bourdieu, 2002 ; Collins, 2009 ), while others contend schools fuel equal opportunities in societies. On the one hand, formal education provides young people with the information and skills needed to participate in society and succeed in the labour market. Schools are seen as the main mechanism of social mobility, allowing marginalised individuals to improve their social and economic status ( Machin, 2006 ). The classic social mobility literature suggests the impact of parental background on educational attainment and other life prospects will decrease, and talent, skills and educational credentials will become more decisive over the course of industrialisation ( Blau and Duncan, 1967 ; Coleman et al., 1966 ; Erikson and Goldthorpe, 2010 ; Guveli, 2006 ; Machin, 2006 ). Accordingly, social policies aim to minimise the impact of family background on education, to ensure equal opportunities for all members of society regardless of social or family background ( Morgan et al., 2006 ; Roemer, 1998 ). Schools seek to prepare, select and distribute children into privileged middle-class positions, thus supposedly functioning as a meritocratic social force.

On the other hand, education systems and policies are recognised as sources of inequality, maintaining and reinforcing the interests and privileges of the middle classes ( Bourdieu, 2002 ; Collins, 2009 ; Gillborn, 2005 ; Ladson-Billings, 1998 ). Studies find prejudice and discriminatory processes engrained in the education system and school culture adversely affect students with working-class, ethnic minority and atypical family backgrounds ( Archer, 2008 ; Bokhove and Hampden-Thompson, 2021 ; Van den Bergh et al., 2010 ). The so-called meritocratic systems are likely to favour those who have the privilege to define the merits; as such, they may preserve social inequalities and support the decisive role of parental resources in formal educational attainment over time ( Bayrakdar and Guveli, 2020b ; Breen, 2004 ; Mijs, 2016 ; Rotman et al., 2016 ).

The UK is no exception. At various key stages of education, students from working-class families acquire disproportionately lower qualifications, follow less privileged career routes and enter less prestigious universities than their more privileged peers ( Bukodi and Goldthorpe, 2013 ; Heath and Clifford, 1990 ; Sullivan et al., 2013 ). Recent administrative data indicate children entitled to free school meals (FSMs) because of family poverty have 18–20% lower attainment than their more advantaged peers ( Social Mobility Commission, 2019 ).

There are also differences for some (but not all) ethnic minority groups. For example, students with Black-African, Black-Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, on average, have lower grades than their White comparators, even though these gaps have diminished in the last decade ( DfE [Department for Education], 2015 ; Rothon, 2007 ). Once socio-economic resources are controlled, the formal education gap for Black-African, Black-Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani students is reduced, suggesting ethnic inequalities are intertwined with social class inequalities in creating unfavourable outcomes for these students. Some scholars explain the remaining gap by pointing to discrimination, racism and other forms of unfair treatment, as well as schools’ failure to engage with diverse communities ( Baysu et al., 2021 ; Heath and Birnbaum, 2007 ). Such inequalities suggest schools and educational policies, to a large extent, fail to provide inclusive practices and marginalise and racialise ethnic minority students.

These systemic problems were likely to have worsened during the lockdown, with a patchy and stripped-down version of teaching provision better serving some than others. Those with socio-economic privileges were more likely to acquire additional support as needed, to have adequate space, Internet and technological equipment, possibly exacerbating existing learning inequalities.

Learning and School Provision

Most formal learning takes place in schools. When schools are not open, learning is disrupted. Many studies suggest any interruption in schooling results in a loss of learning ( Alexander et al., 2001 ; Burgess and Sievertsen, 2020 ). A meta-analysis of learning loss during summer vacation suggested that, on average, one month of learning is lost ( Cooper et al., 1996 ). Burgess and Sievertsen (2020) studied the impact of short-term school closure due to previous pandemics, natural disasters and school strikes and found 12 weeks of schooling interruption drops test scores significantly.

The effect of learning loss is greater for some groups than others. Alexander et al. (2001) suggested children from underprivileged backgrounds experience learning losses during school closures while their well-off comparators continue to explore and learn. Cooper et al. (1996) found the test scores of students from working-class families decreased after summer vacation, but the test scores of those from middle-class families increased.

By the same token, the inability of schools to provide adequate remote teaching during the pandemic might have increased social inequalities and widened the education gap, as more privileged families could compensate for the disruption through financial and other kinds of resources. The hardest-hit children were likely to be those from low-income families, those in single-parent families and those with ethnic minority/migration backgrounds, as their needs and household circumstances may not have been addressed or even acknowledged by the education system during the pandemic.

Learning Loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic

A learning loss was expected during the pandemic because of the school closures, possibly setting back students’ cognitive gains in the long term ( Bol, 2020 ) and disproportionately affecting underprivileged children ( Azevedo et al., 2020 ; UNESCO, 2020 ). Emerging research suggests far-reaching educational consequences, especially for children in working-class families ( Andrew et al., 2020 ; Bol, 2020 ; Engzell et al., 2020 ). For example, researchers found a significant learning loss during the eight-week school closure in the Netherlands, a country with one of the best infrastructures for remote teaching ( Engzell et al., 2020 ). Learning loss might be considerably greater in countries with a longer period of school closure and less preparedness for remote teaching provision, such as the UK ( Van de Werfhorst et al., 2020 ).

Pre-pandemic studies of formal educational attainment and inequalities in the UK reveal substantial penalties for working-class families and certain ethnic groups ( Pensiero and Schoon, 2019 ; Stevens et al., 2019 ). For example, children from low-income families may live in small houses with no suitable place to do their schoolwork without distraction. They might not have Internet or IT facilities; if they do, they will likely need to share them with parents or siblings. School interruption is likely to widen the gap if these children whose needs are already known are underserved. While some studies ( Andrew et al., 2020 ; Pensiero et al., 2020 ) have already documented a pandemic-related learning loss for students from working-class backgrounds, the researchers did not examine the impact of school closure on the learning of children with ethnic minority backgrounds and the poorest students (e.g. those receiving FSMs), and these students also seem likely to experience marginalisation and exclusion during school closures. In contrast, families from privileged backgrounds might compensate for the negative impact of school closure with their resources and knowledge, including their ability to negotiate with service providers to maintain their advantage ( Andrew et al., 2020 ; Bol, 2020 ). Students from middle-class families may even make greater strides, as their parents might be able to spend more time with their children, teach them individually and/or outsource support to online tutors to help with schoolwork ( Boonk et al., 2018 ; Calarco, 2018 ; Hastings and Matthews, 2011 ; Lareau, 2011 ).

Beyond socio-economic status, parental education is another possible factor in the effects of school closure: parents with lower levels of formal qualifications may feel less able to take up teaching responsibilities. Looking at the Netherlands, Bol (2020) found parents with lower levels of formal educational qualifications reported feeling less confident supporting their children’s learning during the 2020 lockdown or said they had limited understanding of the material schools provided during the closure ( Bol, 2020 ; Cullinane and Montacute, 2020 ).

Parents’ working patterns can have an impact on their children’s home learning as well. Those working long hours during the pandemic, particularly outside the home, might have had less time and energy to support their children’s studies and well-being. School closures might have placed additional burdens on single parents as they might have more competing responsibilities in and outside the home. Using the Understanding Society COVID-19 data, Benzeval et al. (2020) found single parents faced more economic loss than others during the lockdown. Single parents might also have been less able to dedicate time and resources to home school their children.

The UK’s ethnic minorities suffered relatively more than others during the pandemic ( Benzeval et al., 2020 ), and this may have extended to education, with school closures widening the existing gaps between minority and majority students. Recent research shows those with Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black-African and Black-Caribbean backgrounds are more likely to be key workers, thus rendering them vulnerable to the virus and putting extra pressure on family life ( Platt and Warwick, 2020 ). Ethnic minority parents might be less able to support their children’s learning during school closures for other reasons as well. While their aspirations for success may be high, some may have limited knowledge of the education system, curricula and teaching style ( Bayrakdar and Guveli, 2020b ). Fewer opportunities to communicate with schools may create an unfavourable environment for learning, especially if schools do not actively create inclusive practices and reach out to all parents ( Crozier and Davies, 2007 ). If families are not served by the education system at the best of times, they might need to rely on their social capital to support their children’s learning during more difficult times, and this may be limited ( Bayrakdar, 2015 ).

Schools’ Home-Schooling Provision

Schools have the responsibility to foster talent, skills and cognitive competences and to provide knowledge transfer in our knowledge society. They are expected to enhance the chances of status attainment for all children and are considered the engine of social mobility, safeguarding equal opportunities in the labour market and beyond. Schools’ involvement during the pandemic lockdown had the potential to provide learning continuity, increase students’ motivation to do schoolwork and mitigate learning drawbacks of the shutdown. Even if physically closed, schools could offer online classes, materials, supervision and other kinds of communication to minimise the disruptive effect of closure. When students are given the right materials, their learning may be less disrupted. Thus, the provision of learning materials could maintain schools’ equalising function and possibly even reduce learning gaps.

However, schools might differ in their provision of distance teaching and home learning guidance, depending on staffing, IT facilities and distance teaching knowhow. We did not expect remote teaching would fully mitigate the negative effects of school shutdown and associated learning loss, and we further argued schools’ home-schooling provisions might even explain part of the inequalities in learning, which are more generally attributed to family background.

Even in normal times, schools’ resources, funding and teacher quality differ, and these characteristics affect student outcomes ( Levačić and Vignoles, 2002 ; Rivkin et al., 2005 ; Steele et al., 2007 ). Education policies have long been criticised for ignoring the needs of students from minority backgrounds and more often serving the middle-class White majority ( Gillborn, 2005 ). In addition, the education system in the UK has been transformed by neo-liberal ideals, with schools forced to compete in an ‘education market’ wherein accountability and responsibility have shifted from the education system to individual schools ( Ball et al., 1996 ; Hursh, 2005 ). For example, school performance tables are published annually, and parents often base their schooling decisions on them ( Perryman et al., 2011 ). The creation of a ‘quasi-market’ in education affects student intake, as parents with more resources send their children to better schools ( Hobbs, 2016 ; West and Pennell, 2010 ), while others may have unqualified, inexperienced and out-of-subject teachers, possibly in schools with poor staff retention ( Allen and Sims, 2018 ). Research shows that in England, teachers at schools with a high proportion of underprivileged students attend ICT-related professionalisation activities less often than their counterparts in schools with well-off students ( Van de Werfhorst et al., 2020 ).

Study Hypotheses

Considering these factors, we expected some home learning differences between select populations of students (working-class families, single-parent families, ethnic minorities) could be explained by variations in schools’ remote teaching support during the 2020 lockdown. We also expected home learning disparities would be mitigated if all students received the same distance teaching provision. We formulated the following three research questions and hypotheses:

  • How much time did students spend on schoolwork during the COVID-19 school closure in the UK?
  • To what extent did the amount of time students spent on schoolwork during the school closure differ by parental socio-economic characteristics, ethnicity and single parenthood?
  • To what extent did schools’ provision of remote teaching (online and/or offline home learning material; checking homework) explain inequalities in the amount of time spent on homework across students with different family backgrounds?

We expected students, on average, would spend less time on schoolwork during the school closure than during regular learning periods (Hypothesis 1). We also expected students from working-class, ethnic minority and single-parent households and those whose parents had lower formal educational qualifications would spend less time on schoolwork than their comparators in other student groups (Hypothesis 2). Finally, we expected differences in schools’ provision of distance teaching would explain some of the observed differences in the amount of time spent on homework across social class, ethnic background and family composition (Hypothesis 3).

We used the first wave of the Understanding Society COVID-19 Study ( University of Essex, 2020 ). Understanding Society is the UK’s main longitudinal household survey, with information on all adults living in 40,000 households. The Understanding Society COVID-19 Study is a panel study documenting the experiences of the UK population during the pandemic. The first wave was fielded in April 2020 during the first lockdown when schools were closed for most students. The sample for the COVID-19 Study included all active members of the main Understanding Society Study, as well as immigrant and ethnic minority boost samples. In this sense, it differs from many COVID-19 surveys, as it used a probability sample generated by a major household panel study. The representativeness of the data has been evaluated frequently; the high-quality data allow population inferences ( Benzeval et al., 2020 ; Fisher et al., 2019 ).

Participants were invited to answer questions taking approximately 20 minutes on the web and were offered a small financial incentive. A pre-notification letter was sent to their postal address on 17 April 2020, followed by three reminders to their email address and/or phone number during the fieldwork period. Overall, 46.7% of those participating in the ninth wave of Understanding Society (the last wave before the pandemic) participated in the COVID-19 Study. Survey response rates fell substantially during the pandemic, and the response rate of the panel survey was lower than previous waves, but it was still better than many other COVID-19 surveys ( Dahlhamer et al., 2021 ).

If respondents had a child or children living in the household for whom they were the parent or guardian, they were asked the questions in the home-schooling module in the first wave of the Understanding Society COVID-19 web survey; these data cover children attending primary, secondary and higher secondary school. We used the children’s dataset; units of analysis were the children. We matched parental characteristics from the main Understanding Society COVID-19 wave 1 and the baseline Understanding Society wave 9 datasets.

After removing cases with missing information, 3867 children were left. Wave 9 of the Understanding Society dataset does not include all adults who participated in the COVID-19 survey, so inclusion of parental information from the main Understanding Society data reduced the number of cases to 3150. As a robustness check, we ran the same models but excluded the information from the main Understanding Society dataset; this did not change our conclusions ( online Appendix A ).

Selectivity

We focused on students who were not in school at the time of the survey and who received schoolwork from their schools; this might mean a selective group of students in terms of socio-economic and ethnic background. We noted the distribution of these variables because families eligible for FSMs and those of certain ethnic minority heritage are likely to be overrepresented in key workers’ jobs ( Platt and Warwick, 2020 ); thus, their children might have continued to attend school more often during the school closure.

In Tables 1 and ​ and2, 2 , we show children who did not attend school and did not receive schooling material or online teaching from school for home learning, and children who were not at school and received schooling material or online teaching from school by eligibility for FSMs ( Table 1 ) and parental ethnic background ( Table 2 ).

Free School Meal (FSM) by still attending school; not attending school and not receiving schoolwork; not at school and receiving schoolwork.

Parental ethnic background by still attending school; not attending school and not receiving schoolwork; not at school and receiving schoolwork.

Table 1 shows that 86% of those who received FSMs and 88% of those who did not receive FSMs were in our analysis, suggesting our sample was not selective in terms of whether students received FSMs or not. That said, among those not included in our analysis, those receiving FSMs were more likely to be at school. Therefore, the learning loss differences across socio-economic background for students excluded from analysis were not likely to be larger than for those included in analysis.

Furthermore, 3.4% of all children were still at school ( Tables 1 and ​ and2). 2 ). The share with an Indian background was the lowest (2.2%); shares with a Pakistani and Bangladeshi background (7%) and a Black-Caribbean and Black-African background (6.8%) were the highest. About 9% did not attend school and did not receive any schoolwork from their schools, with the highest share representing children with Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds (12%) and the lowest representing children with Black-Caribbean and Black-African backgrounds (4%). Pakistani and Bangladeshi students represented the lowest share (81%) who stayed at home during the school closure and received schoolwork (87.4% of the total). There were minor differences between White, Black-Caribbean and Black-African, Indian and Other ethnic groups, while those with Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were more likely to be in school and receiving no schoolwork if not in school.

Our dependent variable was time children spent doing schoolwork provided by their school. The question was formulated as: ‘Thinking about the situation now, on an average day when they are doing schoolwork at home, how much time does [child name] spend on this?’ Answer categories were: (1) less than an hour; (2) 1 to 2 hours; (3) 2 to 3 hours; (4) 3 to 4 hours; (5) 4 to 5 hours; (6) 5 or more hours. We treated these categories as the value of their upper limit; this should be kept in mind when interpreting results. Table 3 shows the frequency distribution of all variables. Our dependent variable had an approximately normal distribution, with 24% of children spending 1–2 hours a day on home learning and another 24% spending 2–3 hours. Children in primary, secondary and higher secondary school spent, on average, 3.2 hours a day on schoolwork received from school, considerably lower than previous research has suggested (see Andrew et al., 2020 ).

Descriptive statistics.

Our independent variables for child characteristics were sex of the child and stage of education (primary, secondary, higher secondary). Sex is unknown for 187 children because they cannot be identified in the annual baseline Understanding Society dataset. We added these to our analysis as a separate category.

For parental characteristics, we included children’s eligibility for FSMs and parental/guardian education as socio-economic indicators. We also included whether parent/guardian was a single parent and parental ethnic background, using the parent (or guardian) who reported on the child(ren). As it is a common measure in education research in the UK, we used the information on whether child(ren) received FSMs at any time in January and/or February 2020 and parental education as indicators of socio-economic status. We operationalised the education of parent or guardian as degree, A/AS level (or other level 3 qualifications) or GCSE or lower. We amalgamated parental ethnic backgrounds into five categories: White, Pakistani or Bangladeshi, Black, Indian and Other, with the latter including all mixed backgrounds, Chinese, any other Asian and any other background. We also included a variable on whether parents worked; this had three categories: has no work, works from home (sometimes, often, always), never works from home. We added other variables such as ‘part-time work’ and ‘key-worker status’ but eliminated them, as the coefficients were not significant and did not contribute to the model fit.

We included three variables on schools’ provision of distance learning opportunities. The first was offline provision of lessons, asking how many offline lessons (e.g. worksheets, assignments, videos) the school provided for the child: none, less than one a day, about one a day, about two a day, about three a day, about four or more a day. A considerable proportion of children (7.4%) did not receive offline schoolwork from their school, and about 23% received four or more offline lessons each day. The second variable was provision of online lessons, asking how many online lessons or meetings the school provided, with the same answer categories as above. The majority (55.3%) did not receive any online distance teaching from the school; the range for the rest varied from less than once a day (12.4%) to four or more times a day (7.8%).

Parents/guardians were asked whether the teacher checked the schoolwork if it was sent in or uploaded. Answer categories were: no work provided, none of it, less than half, half or more, all of it. About 17% of the children did not have their work checked; about 55% had half or more of their work checked.

Finally, we controlled for whether somebody in the household showed COVID-19 symptoms and for household size. 1

Methods of Analysis

We used Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression and built three nested models to show how the coefficients changed across models. Also known as hierarchical modelling, this method is used to explain relationships by using other explanatory variables. In this analysis, Model 1 was the base model, which included only control variables (children’s sex, children’s school stage, COVID-19 symptoms in the household, household size, whether parent works from home). Model 2 added the parental characteristics, thus showing the inequalities based on parental background (single parenthood, education of parent/guardian, child’s eligibility for FSM, parental ethnicity). Finally, Model 3 added the school provision variables to show how these were related to time children spent on home learning and to what extent they may explain some of the disparities revealed in Model 2.

We also ran our models using Ordered Logistic Regression ( online Appendix B ), but this did not change our conclusions. All regression models included cluster-corrected standard errors at the parent level, as there could be more than one child present for one parent/family.

Descriptive Results

Our descriptive results showed some disparities in the time spent on schoolwork. Primary and secondary school children who received FSMs studied less but those at the higher secondary level studied more than their peers not receiving FSMs ( Figure 1 ). Single-parent children spent fewer hours on schoolwork at home at all school stages ( Figure 2 ). Secondary and higher secondary school children whose parents had a degree spent more time learning at home than those whose parents did not have a degree ( Figure 3 ); primary school children with formally educated parents spent slightly more time on learning.

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Hours of home learning by parental characteristics.

Considerable differences emerged for ethnic minority groups. Primary and secondary school children with Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds spent substantially less time on home learning; those with a White majority background were the second lowest group ( Figure 4 ). Primary school children with Black-Caribbean or Black-African backgrounds spent the most hours (3.5) on studying during the school closure. At the next stage, secondary school children with Indian and Other backgrounds spent the most time learning, 4.3 hours and 4.2 hours respectively. Overall, these results support Hypothesis 1 that the school closure would decrease learning, as 60% of students spent three hours or less on schoolwork.

Regression Results

Multiple regression revealed significant differences between children’s individual, parental and school provision factors in the amount of time spent on schoolwork each day. Girls spent significantly more time on schoolwork than boys (Model 1, Table 4 ). Secondary school students spent significantly more time than higher secondary school students (Key stage 5 students); primary school children spent significantly less time. Children of parents who had no work or who never worked from home spent significantly less time on home learning than their peers whose parents mostly worked from home.

Regression results on time spent on schoolwork.

Significance level: * < .05; ** < .01; *** < .001.

Model 1 explained about 8% of the variation in home learning; this increased to about 10% in Model 2 when the factors on parental background were added. Model 2 supported Hypothesis 2, except for some ethnic minority groups. That is, children whose parents had GCSE or lower-level qualifications spent significantly less time learning at home than those whose parents had a degree; pupils whose parents had A- or AS-level education spent even less time on home learning. Controlling for all other factors in Model 2 revealed children who received FSMs spent significantly less time studying at home than those who did not. Children from single-parent households spent significantly less time on home learning than their peers in couple households.

Model 2 compared time spent on home learning for children from different ethnic minority groups and those with a White background. Children with Indian and Black-Caribbean or Black-African ancestry spent significantly more time on schoolwork at home than their White peers, while students with a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background spent substantially less time, giving partial support for Hypothesis 2.

Schools’ Involvement in Home Learning

Provisions for distance teaching – the amount of offline learning material, online distance teaching, the checking of schoolwork – all significantly increased the time spent on schoolwork (Model 3, Table 4 ). In other words, the more often schools provided offline schoolwork, the more time children spent on learning at home. If schools taught online from a distance, student learning time significantly increased. It also increased when teachers checked schoolwork frequently.

Including schools’ involvement in home learning partly and for some parental background factors fully explained the differences in the impact of parental background on the amount of time students spent on schoolwork at home. When we compared the differences in regression coefficients of parental factors in Model 2 and Model 3, we found the negative impact of single parenthood on students’ home learning remained significant but taking schools’ distance learning provision into account considerably reduced its negative impact. Furthermore, indicators of schools’ distance teaching partly explained the effect found for lower parental education. The negative association for children’s FSM eligibility dropped by half when we controlled for distance teaching provision.

Except for children with Black-Caribbean or Black-African backgrounds, schools’ provision explained differences between White majority children and ethnic minority children. Children with an Indian background had better distance teaching provisions and spent more time on home learning (Model 3). Their schools provided offline and online teaching possibilities, and teachers checked schoolwork regularly. Therefore, when schools’ involvement was considered, their positive learning gap disappeared. The learning difference for children with Pakistani or Bangladeshi parents was also explained by schools’ learning provision (Model 3). That is, the learning gap of these children was likely produced by the schools they attended; more specifically, their schools less frequently offered distance learning materials and supervision. 2 Model 3 greatly increased the explanatory power of the variance in students’ home learning time, rising from 10 to 29%, demonstrating that schools’ involvement and teaching provision better explained children’s home learning differences than parental background.

Figure 5 depicts the study time of the children in primary, secondary and higher secondary education who received FSMs in early 2020 and those who did not. Part A shows the study hours, on average, for the different groups without controlling for school provision (Model 2, Table 4 ). Part B shows the distances between groups after taking school provision into account (Model 3). As the figure indicates, the home learning gap between students who did and did not receive FSMs decreased considerably when schools’ distance teaching provision was considered, yet some learning gap remained.

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Marginal mean hours spent on home learning each day for children (not) receiving free school meals.

Note : figures in A and B are from Models 2 and 3 respectively in Table 4 .

Figure 6 shows differences in the study time of children in Models 2 and 3, this time with different ethnic backgrounds. Schools’ involvement in home learning substantially reduced differences based on ethnicity, supporting Hypothesis 3 that schools’ remote teaching provision would explain some educational inequalities.

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Marginal mean hours spent on home learning each day for children from ethnic minority groups.

Note : figures in A and B are from Models 2 and 3 respectively, in Table 4 .

Using the first wave of the Understanding Society COVID-19 data, we found children receiving schoolwork from their school spent, on average, 3.2 hours a day on home learning, supporting Hypothesis 1. Our findings also confirmed Hypothesis 2: children receiving FSMs, children whose parents had a lower level of formal education, especially those with A or AS level of education, and children in single-parent families spent less time on home learning than their comparators. Students with a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background spent the fewest hours on schoolwork. However, children with an Indian heritage spent significantly more time on schoolwork, in line with previous research on ethnic differences in educational attainment in the UK ( Rothon, 2007 ).

Our analysis focused on those students who received at least some schoolwork. As there were proportionally more children with Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds who were not in school and did not receive any schoolwork, the extent of the learning gap for this group might be even larger than our estimations. Children with Black-Caribbean or Black-African heritage spent the most hours on schoolwork, on average, across all ethnic groups and education stages, potentially reflecting the high aspirations of ethnic minority families ( Fernández-Reino, 2016 ).

We found the learning gap attributed to family background was considerably reduced once the schools’ remote teaching was considered (confirming Hypothesis 3). During the pandemic, distance teaching provision was patchy and selective. Only some schools offered learning materials with tasks for students to do at home, and only some monitored completion of schoolwork and learning. We found schools’ online and offline distance teaching and homework checking not only significantly increased children’s spending time on home learning, but also explained the gap between those with Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds and their White peers. Schools’ remote teaching provision also reduced the home learning gap between children with Black-Caribbean or Black-African and those with White heritage. We found Pakistani and Bangladeshi children studied less because their schools were less involved in ongoing learning during the school interruption. That is, if given the same learning opportunities, these students may not have differed from their comparators.

The schools that created disadvantage during the pandemic may have had fewer resources or been in areas more affected by the pandemic. Local and national authorities should invest in these schools to close the substantial learning gap that developed during the school interruptions and also prepare them to provide remote teaching during school interruptions in the future. The government should work to eliminate the digital divide between privileged and underprovided groups and prevent learning losses in future school closures.

Several research pathways remain to be pursued. First, spending more time on schoolwork may facilitate learning, but it does not necessarily equate to learning, and this limits our understanding of the actual learning differences. Children who are not provided with resources important to do well in school will likely learn less, even if they spend more time on schoolwork. Future research should investigate how time spent on schoolwork translates into learning for different groups and how resources – a computer, a study space, online and offline learning materials and so on – interact with the time spent on schoolwork to produce actual leaning.

Second, we do not know what the long-term consequences of home learning during the COVID-19 pandemic will be. Future research should examine learning gaps in test results in the coming years, as well as other life outcomes such as well-being and labour market transitions. Schools remained open for children of key workers, but we have limited understanding of whether learning during this period was different from the pre-pandemic period; research should focus on the learning and school experiences of the students who were in school during the school closure.

Third, studying the impact of the school closure on other kinds of learning, including non-formal and informal education spaces, may shed light on inequalities in education from a broader perspective. Fourth, where possible, researchers should re-examine our research questions with data collected from schools on their learning provision during the school closures merged with the student test scores rather than parental reports to overcome this limitation of our study. Such a design would also minimise potential bias that might have been introduced by response rates and potentially non-random participation stemming from survey design, such as financial incentives to encourage participation.

Our research makes two important contributions to the literature and has strong implications for policy development. First, education was most disrupted for children with lower socio-economic backgrounds and children with Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage. Second, the inequalities documented across students from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds can be reduced by equipping students, schools and teachers with digital skills and resources. Our results highlight that the provision of learning differed across schools during the lockdown, and some students were penalised by receiving less teaching provision. Universally good quality remote teaching should be available to all students to tackle (at least some part of) the inequalities occurring during school closures.

Supplemental Material

Acknowledgments.

We would like to thank Dr Thijs Bol for collaborating on the survey questions on home schooling and the Understanding Society team for making this research possible by fielding our suggested home-schooling questions in the Understanding Society COVID-19 wave 1.

Sait Bayrakdar is a research associate in the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London and one of the co-investigators of the ESRC-funded ‘Opportunity, equality and agency in England’s new VET landscape: A longitudinal study of post-16 transitions’ project. His research interests include social inequalities, education, migration and youth transitions.

Ayse Guveli is Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Essex. Her research areas are social inequalities. She is affiliated to the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at the University College London. She is a researcher in the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) and receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and from the British Council.

1. We included other variables to control relations in model building ( online Appendix A ). We tested the significance of relationships of other pre-existing variables, such as ‘relation to child’ (mother, father, guardian) and ‘school type’ (state/private). The coefficient for the ‘relation to child’ variable was insignificant or did not improve our model.

2. We ran several other models for robustness checks ( online Appendix A ). We tested models using school key stage information instead of school phase, parental occupational status and school type (private/state). Key stage information did not change our results. In the parental occupational status model, the association of low parental education and home learning became insignificant, as both are indicators of socio-economic status and highly correlated. Similarly, in the model with the school type information, the association between FSM and home learning became insignificant, as school type is likely to be a proxy for socio-economic class.

Funding: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: this research was supported by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) (Grant No: ES/L009153/1).

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Supplemental material: Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Contributor Information

Sait Bayrakdar, King’s College London, UK.

Ayse Guveli, University of Essex, UK.

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Supporting Teachers in Implementing Professional Learning

A look at some ways schools and districts can provide ongoing support as teachers use new strategies in the classroom.

Photo of a teacher meeting

When we talk about rethinking professional learning, it’s not enough to create a dynamic workshop. We need to start reflecting more systematically on our processes for teacher training, professional learning, or recertification. It takes time to implement new ideas, and unfortunately, time is a commodity we don’t seem to have enough of in education. If we want innovation, educators must have time, space, and support to instigate ideas.

Many teachers need to gain some sort of recertification hours to maintain their licensure. Leaders should assess what that journey looks like for their teachers. Are they able to get time to try new ideas, or are they just collecting certificates from the workshops they attend (e.g., the seat time model)? 

It might be worthwhile to take a look at how we design our professional learning systems so that we weave these hours into the school year. There’s often ample opportunity to be more strategic with professional learning and design systems that make it easier for teachers to focus on implementation and innovation. The implementation of ideas shouldn’t feel like extra work. 

Putting new ideas into action

Workshops are beneficial in that they disseminate new ideas. It often takes a lot of effort, however, to bring those new ideas back to the classroom, and this is where district design can make all the difference. It’s district design that will facilitate innovation (or not). Leaders can create pipelines that facilitate innovation by designing programming or finding opportunities in which teachers can dedicate time toward the design and implementation of ideas so that changes actually make it back to the classroom. 

For example, at Lakota Local School District in Butler County, Ohio, the district-level professional development (PD) team works with a team of innovation specialists from each school building to create pathways that work best for the teachers in their respective buildings. Krista Heidenreich, director of digital learning for her district, strives to create a system so that “professional learning feels ongoing and not just something teachers feel they have to do on designated days.” 

The district team works with innovation specialists to provide vision and strategy centered on what professional learning looks like for their district, as well as carve out opportunities for teachers to gain hours improving their practice and working on ideas that will be impactful for students. They have a kickoff each year to explain these opportunities to teachers, so that teachers understand what opportunities exist. 

This past year, the district launched Challenge Accepted, a blended model with synchronous and asynchronous programming where teachers can choose to work on areas that are aligned with district goals (e.g., culture, instructional strategies, student reflection and ownership, data-driven decisions). They created a series of virtual innovation modules that enabled teachers to gain badges (which equate to recertification hours) for applying the innovation process and working toward goals.  

They also created a Personalized Learning Cohort for teachers who want in-person connection as they implement new ideas. Once a month, teachers get together driving their own professional learning as they share what’s happening, what’s working (or not), and what’s next. In addition, teachers know their innovation specialists are always available for a one-on-one PD session. From coaching to co-teaching, teachers know they have someone to reach out to if they ever need support. 

While there’s no fixed model for creating programming that facilitates innovation and implementation, there are many ways to create spaces so that teachers feel supported. From designing cohort options, accelerators, incubators, or action research labs, we can help make professional learning feel more applied and impactful. 

The Leysin American School has incorporated an in-house teacher-driven research lab so that teachers have the opportunity to develop their own projects. Each year, the PD team works with administration to establish building goals. A call for projects is sent out to staff, and selected projects get the green light to try something new.

After the kickoff, teachers can get coaching throughout the year, and the PD team works to share innovations (e.g., creating articles or talks that teachers can use to share with colleagues, submit for publication, or share with the wider educational community). Paul Magnuson, director of the research lab, highlighted what he feels makes this kind of professional learning successful. “Teachers feel supported knowing that administration has their backs. It can feel risky to try new things, and this sort of programming makes trying new things feel safe.”

Implementing These Ideas in Your School or District

Each school and district has opportunities to embed time so that implementation is recognized as a key part of professional learning. The first step seems to be prioritizing the professional learning journey for teachers. Work with teachers to uncover their needs and how to build professional learning opportunities into the work day so it doesn’t feel like something extra. From there, it’s a matter of accessing your current system and finding opportunities to build time into what exists. We already have in-house days, meetings, and virtual learning. These provide entry points so we might redesign for implementation. 

For instance, start small with staff meetings and in-service days. Use a flipped classroom model so content is given in advance (e.g., via video or email). Then shift the focus from content toward idea exchange, collaboration, and implementation so that these precious minutes where everyone can get together are used for something meaningful. 

Assess your in-house coaching. Do teachers have someone in their building to go to when they need to exchange or test ideas? Sometimes coaching is seen as a punitive measure for those who need to improve. Make sure your coaching model feels like teachers have a personal cheerleader. 

Being more strategic with our professional learning systems results in multiple benefits. When professional learning models the type of pedagogy we want for students, teachers get to experience innovative pedagogy and apply it in the classroom. It also allows teachers to personalize their professional learning so they can devote time to what they feel matters generating impact for students while also recognizing and valuing their great ideas. Finally, ensuring that time is directed toward actual implementation gives a higher likelihood that teachers truly get the chance to innovate. 

If we want agency, innovation, implementation, and ongoing improvement, we must create pathways that realize that vision. While we often strive to create innovative or transformative workshops, it’s hard to achieve much in a single day. The conversation on rethinking professional learning needs to evolve from an amazing one-day experience to how we might design a better system of professional learning within our schools and districts.

Education experts break down the best ways to teach children how to read

A man and male child sit on a couch reading a book together, you can't see their faces but the child is pointing at the pictures

Learning to read is a fundamental part of every child's development – but Australian kids are increasingly struggling with it.

A Grattan Institute report earlier this week found one-third of students are failing to learn to read proficiently due to persistence with an older, discredited way of teaching.

The report urged schools to abandon the "whole language" method of teaching kids to read, in favour of the evidence-based "structured literacy".

While there's no substitute for a qualified teacher, we've asked the experts for their best tips for parents who want to help teach their kids to read at home, using structured literacy.

What is structured literacy?

  • It's the best-practice, evidence-based approach to teaching reading
  • Structured literacy involves a combination of phonics (sounding out words) and explicit teacher-led instruction
  • That's opposed to the "whole language" style, which became popular in the 1970s and has since been discredited by major inquiries across the world
  • This method views learning to read as a natural process that students can master by simply being exposed to good literature

A few things before we start

First up, it's worth pointing out structured literacy has at its core the idea that reading isn't easy and requires two to three years of explicit teaching in the classroom.

So start by cutting yourself and your kids a bit of slack and recognise learning this foundational skill will take some time.

Whole language, meanwhile, posits that reading is easy and natural, which evidence has increasingly shown is not the case, at least not for everyone.

If your child really looks to be struggling, it's also worth exploring whether they have a learning difficulty.

But don't rush into chasing a diagnosis right away, according to Professor Rauno Parrila, Director of the Australian Catholic University's Centre for the Advancement of Literacy.

"I would first figure out what is going on in the school – is it using explicit, systematic phonics [structured literacy] instruction?"

If so, and if other interventions haven't worked, that's when it might be time to look at getting a proper diagnosis, he said.

Small pieces of card with words on them are seen on a classroom wall

Six pillars, backed by evidence

Now we've sorted that, what are the core principles of structured literacy and how can you put them into action?

Tess Marslen a senior policy analyst at the Australian Education Research Organisation said a good starting point is understanding the six big ideas behind the science of reading, which structured literacy is based on.

The big six came out of a landmark international study that examined 10,000 pieces of research going back to 1966 to find the practices best supported by evidence.

"Parents play an important role in supporting their child's reading journey. The best way they can support it is to develop their understanding of the science of reading, collaborate with their child's school and work with the school to intervene early if the child is experiencing reading difficulties," Ms Marslen said.

Let's break down the big six.

Phonemic awareness

This might sound like intimidating jargon, but don't worry – the concept is just that spoken words can be broken up into different sounds.

"Phonemic awareness is when we can identify and manipulate speech sounds. It might be like isolating the first or the last sound in the word. If I said the word 'blast', the child can understand the first part of the word is a 'b' sound and the last is a 't' sound," Ms Marslen said.

A young boy looking at words on a card

You can then get more advanced and look at rhyming or alliteration.

There's good science that children who grasp these concepts will be better spellers and readers.

Experts say to start with the basics.

"You should teach your child, for example, to recognise the letters of their own name," Professor Parilla said.

"So you're helping them to attach the sounds to the letters. And that's the essential part of it."

Phonics or 'decoding'

This is another piece of education jargon and a word at the heart of the "reading wars".

But don't worry, it's pretty simple too and builds on lesson one.

Students will learn there are predictable patterns that will help them "decode" the words on the page.

It often involves sounding out letters at the end of the word, such as "aw" in "saw".

"Phonics is understanding letter-sound relationships. So that's actually what happens when kids understand that a letter can be said in different ways. Frame has an 'f' sound but also cough has an 'f' sound but we write them differently. That's phonics," Ms Marslen said.

Experts suggest this can be done in a way that's fun for your child either with magnetic letters on the fridge or silly rhymes.

"A very good language activity is to use rhyming books for example. So have fun with the language. You use different kinds of rhymes," Professor Parrila said.

"One of my children really loved the nonsense nursery rhymes books that didn't make any sense, but there was a good rhythm to the language and the other one didn't like them at all. He wanted everything to make sense."

Other games you can play with your child at home to reinforce the concepts include an "alphabet scavenger hunt" – where you identify all the letters in the alphabet in your child's favourite book.

If they like a sandpit you could also try "trace and say" where they trace a letter in the sand and you say it.

Another way to reinforce the lessons they get at school is to listen to your child read aloud and have them practice the sounds of words they're struggling with.

Reading fluency

Finally, a step without jargon! This is at it sounds – the ability to read accurately and quickly.

Have your child practice reading aloud. The US National Reading Panel use this sentence as an example: 

"Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"

Start with one word and go gradually from there. It'll likely sound awkward and stilted ie:

  • "brown"
  • "bear brown"
  • "bear what"
  • "do"
  • "you see"

But the idea is that with practice, your child will be able to read aloud "effortlessly and with expression". 

This is an important skill because your child will be free to focus on the meaning of words rather than "decoding" them as above.

It will take a significant amount of practice, but the reward is that it begins to unlock the true magic of reading.

Vocabulary instruction

Woohoo! Another jargon-free concept.

Vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to communicate effectively.

Beginner readers must make sense of the words on the page by connecting them to their oral vocabulary.

Studies have shown children exposed to a larger number of words at home will do better as they progress through school.

A good way to do this is explaining the meaning of words when you're reading your child a story.

It's best to focus on words your child doesn't already know the meaning of, such as "remorse". Words like "mum" and "dad" they will have in their oral vocabulary.

"So when you're reading books with your children, you can talk about the words in those books and then about the vocabulary. You can talk about the synonyms for those words. What other word could you also have used?" Professor Parrila said.

Text comprehension instruction

Are you still awake, class? We're close to the end.

The idea here is simple – if students can read the words on the page but don't understand them, are they really reading? Probably not.

When you're practising with your child you want to see that they recognise when they understand what they've read and when they don't.

Create a space where your child can ask you what a particular sentence means. For example, "I don't get what the author means when she said, 'arriving in Australia was a significant milestone in my grandma's life'."

Restate it in words they will understand, such as, "she means that coming to Australia was a really big event in her mother's life".

As you progress through books it can be as simple as discussing the characters you've just read about.

"You can ask the child about the motives, 'why do you think she did that?' Things like that, so the children become conscious of the thinking processes that go into reading comprehension," Professor Parilla said.

Oral language

Ms Marslen said mastering the above five key points to reading, plus the final step, will produce confident readers.

It may be the last step but it's another that can be started early.

"Oral language is understanding and using vocabulary to produce sentences. That develops in the early years, preschool and earlier. Children who are exposed to rich language early tend to do better," she said.

What else do I need to know?

It's a good idea to tell your child's school and teacher, so what you're doing at home complements what's happening in class.

"It's important to be on the ball early … following your child's reading progress," Professor Parrila said.

It's also important they can put their new reading skills into practice outside of school and can see they're valuable in real-life situations, he said.

"Provide reading materials … and work with them in in writing cards and postcards to grandma, text messages, things like that."

If you'd like to learn more, a great place to go is the Australian Education Research Organisation.

Did you know it's a government-funded independent research organisation with a brief to conduct research and share its findings to improve children's outcomes?

You can find lots of resources there, including Tess Marslen's paper on the foundations of structured literacy Introduction to the science of reading .

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States Are Making Work-Based Learning a Top Policy Priority

teaching and learning homework policy

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In 2023, 47 states enacted 115 policies affecting career and technical education and career readiness, including legislation, executive orders, and budget provisions, concludes a new report from Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education .

It marks the second-highest number of states that enacted CTE-related policies in a single year, behind 2017 when all 50 states implemented policies affecting CTE, according to the report.

A majority (72 percent) of the policies enacted in 2023 affect K-12, the report found.

Interest in CTE has grown over the past decade. School districts and states are expanding CTE programs as more Americans say schools should put a higher priority on preparing students for careers and basic life skills . More than 40 states have signed the Common Career Technical Core , a commitment to expand CTE programs and make them more rigorous, according to Advance CTE, a national nonprofit that represents state career and technical education directors.

“What’s really interesting about the state policies that we’ve been seeing over the past few years is that, in the past, policies were much more tangentially connected to CTE,” said Dan Hinderliter, the associate director for state policy for Advance CTE. “Now, the policies that we’re seeing have a direct, immediate impact, not only on CTE systems, but on CTE learners more broadly.”

About 40 percent of the CTE policies states enacted last year focused on industry partnerships and work-based learning, the report found. For instance, Oregon amended school code provisions concerning the daily pupil attendance calculation so that work-based learning programs count toward those hours. And Washington state passed legislation that allows high school students to earn elective credits for paid work experiences approved by school officials and a work-based sponsor.

It’s the second consecutive year that industry partnerships and work-based learning were the top policy focus, according to the report.

Tenth graders, TaeLyn Johnson, left, and Dilana Gray, right, practice on a dummy during their EMS class at Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022.

“We really want to see that learners are actually being prepared for careers that will exist in the future,” Hinderliter said. “As those careers are developing, we as educators don’t always know what those are and have to lean on those industry partnerships to really make sure that we are developing the types of career pathways that really prepare learners for those future careers that might be available to them.”

Rounding out the top five policy areas that states focused on were: tracking student outcomes; funding; amending rules of agencies or offices that handle CTE; and modifying graduation requirements, according to the report.

Before the pandemic, funding was often the top policy focus, Hinderliter said. But because of the COVID relief funds that districts received, funding has not been as prominent in Advance CTE’s state policy tracking in the last few years.

Still, 22 states enacted 34 policies related to funding CTE or career readiness in 2023. For example, Ohio is investing $400 million into CTE programs, and Wyoming will be awarding grant funding of up to $50,000 per district to purchase CTE equipment.

Photo of a diverse group of elementary aged kids around a table building robots and testing them together with a male teacher during a stem robotics class.

Two policy areas that were in the top five in 2022 but were not in the top five in 2023 are access and equity (No. 3 in 2022) and industry-recognized credentials (No. 5 in 2022).

For 2024, Advance CTE and ACTE predict that states will enact policies that address the new and emerging industries, such as sustainability, advanced manufacturing, and automation/ artificial intelligence . They also predict that there will be more policies around teacher recruitment and retention and alignment with postsecondary education, as well as a continued focus on work-based learning.

“There are a lot of states that are working towards expanding career pathways in new and emerging spaces,” Hinderliter said. Georgia, for example, has started an electric vehicle manufacturing pathway, and Ohio has created semiconductor manufacturing programs.

Many emerging industries “need a significant number of new employees,” he said. These industries are “looking to CTE to drive that employer pipeline,” by letting students know that these opportunities will be available to them when they graduate.

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Heidi Griebel and Josie Wahl participate in carpentry class at Career and Technical Education Academy in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Jan. 7, 2019.

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  1. 10+ Homework Policy Templates in PDF

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  3. Teaching and Learning Policy

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  5. Try a Different Homework Policy

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COMMENTS

  1. Homework policy: examples

    Shadwell Primary School in Leeds has a homework policy that covers: When pupils take books home for reading How long they should spend reading at home English and maths homework Spelling and times tables expectations Additional half-termly homework tasks, such as a learning log and key instant recall facts

  2. Creating a Homework Policy With Meaning and Purpose

    A school's homework policy should reflect this philosophy; ultimately guiding teachers to give their students reasonable, meaningful, purposeful homework assignments. Sample School Homework Policy Homework is defined as the time students spend outside the classroom in assigned learning activities.

  3. The power of a good homework policy

    The policy should outline what is expected of teachers when setting homework and from students in completing home learning tasks. It is a constructive document through which the school can communicate to parents, teachers, governors and students the learning objectives for homework. Do schools have to have a homework policy?

  4. The four planks of an effective homework policy

    Apr 11, 2022 -- Image courtesy of Imgbin. We've spent a lot of time thinking about homework at Carousel. We've researched it extensively, both in terms of the literature and in terms of teacher...

  5. PDF Teaching, Learning, Homework and Assessment Policy

    Teaching, Learning, Homework and Assessment Policy Introduction Policies at Wollaston School are designed to support the ethos, aims and vision of the School as outlined in the School Improvement Plan. They are written to ensure that we achieve the best possible provision for our students and improve their life chances. Rationale

  6. This One Change From Teachers Can Make Homework More Equitable

    Teachers who took a meritocratic approach to homework were more likely to adopt punitive homework policies: giving extra credit on tests for students who turned in homework, or keeping...

  7. Advice on Creating Homework Policies

    Creating a homework policy for younger students in the elementary grades should avoid traditional assignments and focus on building study skills and encouraging learning. Older students after elementary school are ready to take on written assignments rather than using technology and other tools.

  8. Homework

    What is it? Homework refers to tasks given to pupils by their teachers to be completed outside of usual lessons. Homework activities vary significantly, particularly between younger and older pupils, including but not limited to home reading activities, longer projects or essays and more directed and focused work such as revision for tests.

  9. How to Write the Perfect Homework Policy

    Homework is an integral part to the learning process and as such, each school should have a clear homework policy readily available to teachers, students and parents that sets out your expectations when it comes to home-learning.

  10. Education Secretary: I trust head teachers to decide their homework

    Good homework policies avoid excessive time requirements - focusing on quality rather than quantity and making sure that there is a clear purpose to any homework set. In 2011 we helped set up...

  11. PDF Recommended District Policies For At-Home Teaching And Learning

    policies: teacher support and collaboration. Recommended: Districts should continue or adopt teacher-led teams and schedules to promote strong instructional leadership, collaboration, and improvement during at-home teaching and learning. Opportunity Culture schools organized around teacher-led teams have a distinct advantage in times of change ...

  12. Effects of Homework Policy on EFL Literacy Development in Emergency

    Purpose: The study examined the role of homework policy (leniency vs. strictness) on L2 learners' reading and writing development, focusing on their academic self-regulation level in a distance learning course amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

  13. Effective strategies for homework success

    Effective science homework provides the extension to learning that students need to succeed, and gives us vital data to inform our planning. An EEF study on the impact of homework in secondary schools says that regular homework can have the same positive effect as five additional months in the classroom, as well as 'enabling pupils to ...

  14. The Value of Homework: Is Homework an Important Tool for Learning in

    Homework is seen as a valuable resource for teaching, allowing students to practice, and in doing so, learn the unit material. This study documented the importance of flexibility in the assignment and evaluation of quality homework assignments, but also the alarming lack of a written homework policy in 50% of the participating schools.

  15. PDF Increasing the Effectiveness of Homework for All Learners in the ...

    Key Words: homework, learning, inclusive classrooms, special education, stu-dents with disabilities, supports, teachers, inclusion, parents, studying, home Introduction Homework is often a contentious issue for students, parents, and teach-ers. When utilized properly, homework can be a valuable tool for reinforcing

  16. PDF Practice and Homework Effective Teaching Strategies

    Practice and homework are effective instructional strategies to help students retain content. All classrooms contain students with diverse learning styles. To guarantee mastery and retention of new learning for all students, teachers should use several variations of practice and homework.

  17. PDF Teaching and Learning Policy

    Teaching and Learning Policy (incl Cover Supervision) Believing in Excellence means that the school has key values that all members of our school community live by. These are: Respect; Resilience; Responsibility. These values apply to three important spheres of life: Believing in Excellence for ourselves; Believing in Excellence for others;

  18. (PDF) HOW DOES A SCHOOL HOMEWORK POLICY IMPACT UPON ...

    INTRODUCTION Homework is defined as having the potential to raise standards, extend curriculum coverage, allow more effective use of lesson time and improve pupils' study skills and attitudes ...

  19. Teaching and learning policies

    Bring your own device (BYOD) policies Find examples of 'bring your own device' (BYOD) policies for pupils and staff that you can use as inspiration when writing your own. The UK GDPR doesn't stipulate what these must include. Display policies Use these examples of display policies from primary and secondary schools to help you create your own.

  20. Why Is the Nation Invested in Tearing Down Public Education?

    An analysis carried out by the Learning Policy Institute for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years estimated that 10 percent of teaching positions were either vacant or filled by underqualified ...

  21. Applying the 'Science of Reading': 3 State Leaders on Putting Policy

    Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner speaks about a proposed state spending plan on Jan. 4, 2023, in Indianapolis. Indiana tracks students' 3rd grade reading progress and the tools and ...

  22. Case study: Transforming your homework policy lessons teachers teaching

    In recent years, many schools have overseen changes in their homework policies and our school - The King's CE Academy in Kidsgrove - is no exception. While we have found a "no-homework" policy pleases only a few, having a table of creative but generic homework tasks for teachers to choose from - differentiated using chilli peppers ...

  23. Policies and Guidelines

    Review the guidelines for recording synchronous remote class content to ensure you are consistent with University policies. Note that by default, recordings are not available for download. ... Some publishers and educational technology vendors offer deals on technology, publications, and homework platforms. ... please check with Teaching ...

  24. Inequalities in Home Learning and Schools' Remote Teaching Provision

    However, schools' provision of offline and online distance teaching and homework checking significantly increased the time spent on learning and reduced some inequalities, demonstrating the policy relevance of digital preparedness to limit learning loss in school closures.

  25. Supporting Teachers in Implementing Professional Learning

    We need to start reflecting more systematically on our processes for teacher training, professional learning, or recertification. It takes time to implement new ideas, and unfortunately, time is a commodity we don't seem to have enough of in education. If we want innovation, educators must have time, space, and support to instigate ideas.

  26. Generative AI

    Instead, we encourage you to emphasize your learning goals, consider our guidance on assignment design, and include a clearly stated GAI policy on your syllabus. If you suspect a student has used an unauthorized GAI tool in an assignment, please contact Joyce Chen at [email protected] or 609-258-3054.

  27. Education experts break down the best ways to teach children how to

    It's the best-practice, evidence-based approach to teaching reading Structured literacy involves a combination of phonics (sounding out words) and explicit teacher-led instruction

  28. States Are Making Work-Based Learning a Top Policy Priority

    In 2023, 47 states enacted 115 policies affecting career and technical education and career readiness, including legislation, executive orders, and budget provisions, concludes a new report from ...