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Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

One thing educators at area Catholic schools agree on is that homework will always be essential, provided the form it takes and the time required to complete it benefit students. (Courtesy pexels.com)

The homework debate: Is it time to re-think after-school work?


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Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Schools

Summer break for students in the Archdiocese of Baltimore may end Aug. 25 when they return to classes, but not so discussions about how much homework they should be assigned. Some educators and parents contend that traditional homework is outdated or even detrimental while others argue that it is essential.

Traditional homework loads differ by grade level. Generally, 10 minutes per grade level per night is recommended, according to the National Parent Teacher Association and the National Education Association. As such, this would roughly call for one hour for a 6th grader and two hours for a 12th grader. It can involve pre-readings, reviewing videos, working out practice problems, doing pre-testing or some form of activity.

One thing educators at area Catholic schools agree on is that homework will always be essential, provided the form it takes and the time required to complete it benefit students.

“As a college preparatory high school, it is incumbent upon students to prepare for classes, to practice what they’ve learned, so homework is still an essential part,” said Jim Nemeth, Upper School Principal at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Essex, a pre-K through grade 12 co-educational Catholic school in Baltimore County.

“Everything you do in regards to homework needs to be directly linked to the objectives of the lesson. Anything other than that is what we used to call ‘busy work’ back in the day.

“We’re not interested in busy work. … We are trying to be very smart about when we are assigning homework, how much we assign, the time it takes and the quality.”

Mount Carmel’s assistant principal of its lower and middle school concurs. “We do encourage homework. Ultimately it’s the teacher’s choice,” said Kelly Medvigy.

She noted that students today are busier than ever with sports, clubs, Scouts and other extracurricular activities. “So homework for the little guys is going to be something like studying their spelling words every night. It might not be something that they have to turn in the next day.

“In addition, they might engage in IXL.” It stands for “I excel.” Parents are encouraged to subscribe to the online learning platform for at-home studying according to their child’s grade level.

In Canton, St. Casimir Catholic School’s principal Noreen Heffner also finds homework “essential,” especially for students needing to hone their reading and math skills.

“We try to keep it 15 minutes per grade,” she said. What helps, too, is that parents see the value of homework.

“Sometimes they’re not happy because a lot of kids are involved in sports and things like that. But, as a whole, parents welcome it because … it keeps students’ skills sharp. Test scores keep improving,” as evidenced by St. Casimir’s having ranked #1 in test score growth across the archdiocese for consecutive school years.

Brianna Williams, a 2025 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson, admitted that homework at the campus for grades 6 to 12 was “challenging” and sometimes felt like too much at once. But it helped her understand her classes better and allowed for discussions to take place.

“The assignments I enjoyed the most were the ones that involved movement or working with other people,” she said.

Brianna, who chose Notre Dame from among eight four-year scholarship offers, now feels better-prepared to attend college in the fall.

Lisa Pallett is the associate dean for Notre Dame of Maryland University’s School of Education that trains teachers.

“Once you get into higher education, the balance changes of in-class time versus outside-of-class time,” she explained, “which is one of the reasons students need to be prepared in the lower grades for that.”

Any thinking of homework in preparation for higher education should take into account the practice of many colleges and universities to use the “flipped model” for their classes, she noted.

In that model, “direct instruction is shifted to outside of class time (spending a significant amount of time watching videos, reading, looking at interactive websites, etc.),” she said. “Students are gathering information before,” she emphasized, “and coming to class prepared for the deeper discussions, collaboration and problem solving … with the support of a classroom teacher or a professor. They’re not just sitting and listening.”

As such, she reflected, “that homework students get in the lower grades can be foundational to the homework they are definitely going to get in higher education.”

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