Recently, several teachers at Liberty have decided to stop counting homework towards students’ grades. While homework is still assigned and recommended, it is not inputted into the grade book, even as participation. This has received mixed reviews from students as it poses both upsides and downsides to their grade.
“Sometimes I am definitely able to do my homework, and able to study, but there’s those times when I have sports after school or something else, and I don’t have to do it, and that’s nice,” sophomore Cedar Cunningham said.
Giving students the option of whether or not to do homework allows them to manage their time on a more individual basis. This means that when they have time and when it will be beneficial for them to do the homework they can.
This also helps stop the assignment of busy work because there is no point assigning it if students don’t have to do it. However, not counting it towards students’ grades can also result in them not doing as much homework as they maybe should.
“I have been doing my homework on my own, I haven’t been doing as much, I’ve not been doing all of it, but definitely some of it,” Cunningham said.
Not doing homework can have an effect on students’ grades, as the intended purpose of homework is to teach concepts or reinforce concepts students learned in class. So when students don’t do the homework and don’t review the concepts, it will become harder to perform well on tests.
“My grades have pretty much remained kind of the same, but they have taken kind of a dip,” Cunningham said.
Many teachers use homework for teaching or reviewing concepts as well as balancing out the grade book.
Some students say that the absence of homework in the gradebook is hurting their grade. As it puts more of an emphasis upon tests and quizzes, which, for the student who does all their homework every night but does not perform well on tests, can be a bad thing.
Having students homework not count towards their grade allows for students like Cunningham to work on their own time. Although as some would points out it puts more weight on tests and quizzes.