In Coronado, Calif., the school board rejected a proposal by the superintendent to eliminate homework on weekends and holidays after some parents said that was when they had time to help their children and others worried it would result in more homework on weeknights.
Brandy Young, a second-grade teacher in northeastern Texas, calls herself "the No Homework Teacher" and has a website that proclaims, "Let's make education GREAT again". In August, a letter she sent to parents announcing her decision to eliminate homework was shared more than 70,000 times on Facebook and received national media attention.
"Trend-wise, what's happening across the country, is that we've started to see an increase in elementary schools eliminating homework, or saying that homework is just to read or be read to," she says, though she notes that achievement-obsessed schools are obstinate holdouts.
Moreover, we've heard from experts who think that eliminating most homework would have multiple benefits.
But even if homework was eliminated, that wouldn't be enough.
Articles that were eliminated dealt with methods for improving homework compliance rather than the impact of homework compliance on treatment outcome.
For many of us opposed to homework, the promise of M.B.E.-based instructional practices is that they could eliminate the need for homework.
From the very beginning, Rosetta Stone gets learners speaking in real-life scenarios and offers online practice sessions with coaches who are native speakers - eliminating the need for homework, grammar drills or translation.
For example, don't promise to reduce homework or eliminate school on Friday.
Then we whisk them to school where recess has been eliminated and arts programs have been cut, where they get assigned hours of homework and are forced, starting in kindergarten, to sit still and take standardized tests.
