Teacher-Selected Strategies for Improving Homework Completion

Abstract

Three studies are reported in which we worked collaboratively with teachers across a 2-year period to systematically assess strategies to improve spelling and math homework completion and weekly quiz performance. Eleven elementary and special education teachers sorted 123 students into four groups: (a) students with learning disabilities and homework problems, (b) students with learning disabilities and no homework problems, (c) average-achieving students with homework problems, and (d) average-achieving students without homework problems. Teachers reviewed the extant research on homework, selected homework strategies, designed the methods by which they would implement and evaluate the effects of introducing the strategies to students, and evaluated the results. Three strategies resulted in significant increases in homework completion: (a) giving students real-life assignments (i.e., assignments that connected homework to events or activities in the home) plus reinforcements, (b) using homework planners, and (c) graphing homework completion. The interventions benefited students with learning disabilities and avaerage-achieving students with homework problems more than it did the average-achieving students with no homework problems. Two years following the end of the study, the team continues to use homework planners and graphing on a regular basis, and continues to work as a team on other projects.