By Jonathan Friedman
Staff Writer
October 8, 2009 -- Local middle school students are going to have more free time after school thanks to a revised homework policy the Board of Education approved at its meeting last week. Elementary school students will have more of their day dedicated to homework.
The first update to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District policy in 20 years does not address high school students, with the board deciding that issue needs to be vetted by parents, teachers and administrators at the individual high schools.
Board members said it was too hard to quantify how much time high school children should spend on homework because many students take the work-intensive AP classes.
“To have a policy that can’t be held to is just not a good policy,” Board President Ralph Mechur said regarding high schools.
According to the new plan, kindergartners must spend 10 minutes per day on homework. The amount of time goes up by 10 minutes for each grade through the eighth-grade, with those students receiving 90 minutes of homework.
Some parents who spoke at the Board meeting expressed concern that this means a time increase for elementary school students.
The Board decision to update a 20-year-old policy came after a year of meetings by an ad hoc committee. The teachers union did not participate in the formal discussions, although its leadership has communicated with the SMMUSD administration about their opinions on the topic, including a concern that regulating the amount of homework could infringe on instructors’ academic freedom.
The Board vote was 4 to 0 with Oscar de la Torre abstaining. He said after the meeting that he wanted the teachers to have more input.
“They’ll be the ones to implement the policy,” de la Torre said. “I need to know they completely buy into it.”
Some of the parents who spoke at the meeting said they were frustrated there was not enough parent input for the revision. They spoke about the problem with what they considered to be excessive homework.
“Our children still need sleep,” Claudia Landis said. “Children still need activities. Our children still need time to develop themselves and their interests. Yes, a kid could finish the homework. But what are they sacrificing to do that?”
Using the revised policy as a guide, the governance councils at the individual school sites will develop homework plans. De la Torre said he would like those plans to address how to help those students who face challenges to complete their homework.
“All the other details of what’s appropriate and what’s not aren’t as important as what are we doing for those students that don’t have a college-educated parent at home,” de la Torre said.
“Or don’t have a parent at home who even speaks the language or for those kids and who have to take care of their brothers and sisters while their parents are working the double shift to make things meet.”
