Do the work

Homework doesn't matter, people say. But "the group that does the most homework leads in every objective measure of learning," tweets Marc Porter Magee.

He offers a chart showing Asian-American students spend twice as much time doing homework as white students, who spend slightly more than Hispanics and way more than black students. Higher-income students study more than low-income students.

Completing homework correlates with academic achievement for middle and high school students, according to the Center for Public Education, reports Ed Week's Jennifer Vilcarino. But the center recommends less than an hour per night in middle school and 1.5 to 2.5 hours in high school.

Some educators don't think elementary students should get homework, even though some parents request it, she writes. But "younger students can still benefit from homework if it’s engaging and doesn’t take too much time," say researchers. "Teachers could follow the informal rule of 10 minutes per grade level — for example, 20 minutes in 2nd grade, 30 minutes in 3rd grade, etc."

Some teachers think it's unfair to assign homework to students who aren't likely to have parents at home who can help them with it. However, parental help with homework doesn't boost achievement for elementary students, according to a Penn State study. “If the purpose of homework is for the child to practice some skills or knowledge they learned in school, that is lost if the parent is doing the work,” said Katerina Bodovski, an education professor. Students don't develop work habits and skills, such as time management.

The study predates AI. Using AI to do homework raises homework grades and lowers test scores. Students learn less.