Before we discuss systems that help students who won’t do work make better decisions, we think it’s important to make certain we examine some of the research regarding the effective use of homework in contributing to student learning. John Hattie’s synthesis of meta-analyses focused upon student learning found that homework can be negatively correlated with improved student achievement unless teachers give immediate feedback to students on the quality of their work, as students may repetitiously practice something wrong. His studies also found that the more complex the task or learning, the less helpful homework became to student learning.

Now, if homework has been assigned because it is essential to student learning, and feedback is given to students on a timely basis, we do agree that students should not be allowed to simply “opt out.” If our mission is to ensure that all students learn, and if this homework is essential to that mission, then we would suggest some of the following strategies.

In our book, Pyramid Response to Intervention: RTI, Professional Learning Communities, and How to Respond When Kids Don’t Learn, Buffum, Mattos and Weber (2009) we emphasize the importance of targeting interventions based upon a diagnosis. One of the primary targeting strategies is to differentiate between students who can’t do the work (failed learners) and those who won’t do the work (intentional nonlearners). These two different groups of students need radically different and separate interventions – perhaps this is why many schools “struggle” with the students who don’t do their homework. Placing these students into a traditional tutoring session doesn’t get at the fact that they won’t do the work, and it often serves to frustrate the poor teacher who is at the same time trying to help students who want to learn but lack the pre-requisite skills to do so.
One highly successful example of this kind of targeting has been working for years – “guided study” at Adlai Stevenson High School. You can read about this program in detail in Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don’t Learn, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Karhanec (2004). In brief, no more than eight to ten students are removed from the traditional study hall and placed in a room with a non-certificated employee who hovers over them until they complete their work. Over time, most students come to the conclusion that it would simply be easier to complete the homework on time than to have this person stand over them each and every day for an entire period. The staff at Stevenson have adopted the following motto for students who can, but won’t do their work : “Harass them ‘till they pass.”

Another example of this kind of targeted intervention is explained in Chapter Seven of our book. At Pioneer Middle School in Tustin, CA, intentional nonlearners experience mandatory study hall, mandatory homework help, frequent progress reports, study-skills classes, goal-setting and career planning support, as well as targeted rewards. All of these programs work together to send the message to “won’ts” that they will not be allowed the option of not learning in the first place. It is also important to recognize that these approaches are not solely punitive. They attempt to reward students who do their work by allowing them to earn privileges that are meaningful and age-appropriate.As we state in our book, “The bottom line in creating effective responses to such students is this: The school’s desire for these learners to do the work must be significantly greater than the children’s desire not to do it. If a school has the same ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to lack of student effort as it does for drugs or violence, then it will become a ‘laziness-free’ zone.”
In addition to the two books mentioned above that are full of examples of successful approaches in dealing with students who won’t do their homework, we would also refer you to the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports website, http://www.pbis.org There are examples there of how Tier I Behavior Supports can prevent many of the student behaviors that can frustrate educators before they take hold. Remember, “the best intervention is prevention.”

The pyramid of interventions developed at Adlai Stevenson High School begins with a number of approaches (counselor watch, summer study skills course, good friend program, freshman orientation day, freshman advisory program and freshman mentor program, all designed to prevent the student problems (including not completing homework) that plague many educators today. A great video representation of the approach taken at Stevenson High School is available through Solution Tree: Through New Eyes: Examining the Culture of Your School.

Austin Buffum and Mike Mattos

You asked…

What about elementary students? We can not expect a first grader to self-select the homework that meets their needs or for parents to grade their reading comprehension. I am thinking that for primary/intermediate students, the point of homework is habit. Any thoughts?

In the primary and elementary grades, homework should be designed to allow students to practice and apply newly taught skills/concepts that are essential to their success as learners. We think it’s vitally important that teachers provide feedback and support to the students based on the quality of completed homework so that students understand that completing homework will help them learn at higher levels. Certainly, some of the essential skills we want all students to learn are things like time management, work ethic, good study habits, etc., but the primary purpose of assigning homework at any grade level should be to support the academic learning process.

We are having discussions about this at my school, with the idea being that homework should be consistent…meaning that all the kids in a particular grade level should get the same basic work, and be expected to complete it at roughly the same rate as the others in their grade level. Otherwise we get some kids with tons of homework and some with none.

The team could also explore differentiating homework assignments based on evidence of student learning across a grade level. For example, in third grade you will likely have a group of students across the grade level who have not yet memorized their multiplication facts – their homework should be designed to give them practice at that essential math skill. For the students who have memorized their facts, their homework might be a multi-step work problem that requires them to apply their knowledge.

The ultimate problem is that the only consequence our teachers give for not doing homework is losing recess. There’s got to be a better way. Our kids need their recess!

We encourage your faculty to explore the cause of each student not completing their homework (is it because they can’t do it or they won’t do it) and then agree upon and consistently apply appropriate consequences for not completing homework.

For the “Won’t Dos” consider the following:
the student attends a working lunch (and/or breakfast) session rather than a social lunch with peers until the homework is completed;
the student does not have the opportunity to self-select a learning station that day – they must complete their homework during that time;
the student is not allowed to complete a classroom or school-wide job that day until the homework is completed.

For the “Can’t Dos”:
assign the student an older “buddy” student to meet with them at the start/end of each day to help with homework
establish a homework-help room/session and use community volunteers , mentors, and/or school staff to work with students who need assistance
work with these students during guided and independent practice activities in the classroom and during intervention/enrichment time across the grade level
work with parents of these students to give them the tools, materials, etc. they can use at home to help their child become more successful

Best Wishes,
Becky DuFour

To be honest, I’ve never seen a school do RTI (Response to Intervention) well for students who refuse to finish homework. I’d say most schools struggle with this, and even ignore it to some degree because of the “larger” problems that plague their halls. I’m going to be looking into this a little more, so if you have seen a school that handles the issue of homework purposefully and efficiently, please, let me know. I’d love to observe or talk to administrators at the school about how the system works.

We are having discussions about this at my school, with the idea being that homework should be consistent…meaning that all the kids in a particular grade level should get the same basic work, and be expected to complete it at roughly the same rate as the others in their grade level. Otherwise we get some kids with tons of homework and some with none. The ultimate problem is that the only consequence our teachers give for not doing homework is losing recess. There’s got to be a better way. Our kids need their recess!

The problem with homework is not homework itself, but how we have come to use it; not as a teaching tool but as a behavior modification tool. Teachers have often used homework to either punish or reward students for their behavior but often not as a tool for the student to demonstrate what he or she has learned. For example, a student that hands in his homework on time receives points, and thus he is rewarded for his behavior. On the other hand, another student can either be slightly punished for her procrastination by turning in an assignment late for reduced points, or severely punished when she never completes it. The question then is how do educators use homework responsibly so that it provides meaning for students and removes the reflection of behavior from the final grade?

The major concern with homework is that it may confuse what a student’s final grade really means. In a standards-based education, the grade should reflect a student’s understandings and skills related to that specific content or grade. For example, Susan’s current grade in an English class is the equivalent of a letter grade of ‘B’, while Steven’s is a ‘C’. What that should tell anyone who looks at those letters is that Susan has demonstrated an understanding of the outcomes and is currently mastering the skills required in her English class, while Steven’s grade reflects that he currently hasn’t mastered all of the skills and that he has yet to demonstrate that he fully understands the outcomes. But, if Steven’s grade was lower because he didn’t hand in homework assignments that are weighted at 10% of his total grade, yet he has demonstrated an understanding of the outcomes and has shown mastery of the required skills, then his grade is a reflection of behavior not his understanding or ability. The same might be said of Susan who hasn’t proven an understanding of the outcomes and skills, yet because she received extra credit for handing in an extra assignment, her grade now misrepresents her actual knowledge and skill capability.

So what’s the fix? First, teachers have to look at how they are weighting their grades. What is really being added up to determine a student’s final grade? What is the grade really reflecting? Is it a student’s behavior or is it an accurate measure of a student’s understandings and/or skills? This is a dilemma to be certain. Educators want to teach responsibility and competence because we understand what it means if we aren’t on time, or don’t hand in something our boss has asked us to complete – we either demoted or fired. But in a standards-based education system, are a student’s grades really the best way, or most appropriate way, for educators to teach this? There may be other options.

A first step is for a teacher to set up his grade book to reflect what he wants his students to understand and do, so that he now has a way to communicate to students what they are responsible for knowing and doing. If he weights his grade book to reflect that 100% of the grade will be determined by a student’s ability to demonstrate understanding, he has now removed any doubt of what the grade will really reflect. A second step is to design quality assessments for students that will accurately assess a student’s understanding of specific outcomes. While a selective response test may demonstrate a student’s ability to recognize a key term or concept, it may also reflect a student’s ability to guess. Effective assessments leave no doubt that the student clearly understands the outcome that is being tested. Finally, a third step is to help students determine how they can effectively prepare to demonstrate their understanding. This step is where effective teaching practices and well-designed homework assignments come into the picture.

A pre-test will help the student to see what he or she will have to study, prepare for and work on to accomplish the task of demonstrating his or her understanding of what is required to meet the desired outcomes. Because no two students are the same, it is important for teachers to provide options for students when assigning homework to help them prepare. One homework assignment for everyone will not work. Students will need to be taught how to select the most appropriate assignment for them. For example:

In an English class, a student knows that she is has difficulty demonstrating that she understands the relationships between different authors’ styles and their intended effects on a reader (outcome). The student knows that her teacher will expect her to demonstrate this understanding with a summative exam that includes a selective response test, as well as an extended written response test (quality assessments).

In order to help her prepare, her teacher provides a menu of formative assessments, including homework assignments. Together, the student and teacher determine that the student’s best option is an assignment to read two short stories by two different authors. The student is expected to read the two stories and then complete a Venn diagram comparing the two authors’ styles by selecting the appropriate vocabulary from a word bank and provide a brief narrative explaining the different effect each author’s style had on her as a reader. The student is expected to check the assignment in with the teacher by a predetermined date, so that the teacher can check the work and provide appropriate feedback to help the student correct mistakes and prepare to demonstrate her learning. The assignment is then entered in the grade book as a complete so that the student’s behavior can be tracked, but the weight is a 0.00 and will not be a determining factor in the student’s final grade.

The student is motivated to complete the assignment because she sees a direct relationship of the assignment to what she must do in order to prepare to demonstrate her understanding, and enjoys the benefits of personal communication with her teacher on her individual abilities. Homework now has value that is immeasurable by any amount of points – each assignment now has direct meaning and relevance to the desired outcomes identified by the teacher.

Homework should not go away – as long as it has purpose and meaning for both students and teachers. There is tremendous value in homework, not as a behavior modification tool, but as a real learning tool – to help students determine what they need to practice in order to gain understanding or skills relevant to the desired outcomes. The specifics of how teachers assign and grade homework are up for discussion. As educators responsible for preparing students to be thinkers who are able to demonstrate understandings and accomplish tasks, we can all agree that the best way to do so is by motivating students to understand what they are working toward.