![“It depends on what the purpose of the homework is. And it shouldn't just be to make somebody do something, but to show [something]. Have they shown mastery of that point?” Bing said. “Is it something that, in terms of the learning process, connects to whatever learning outcomes. [It’s] kind of shifting the point of the homework from what students sometimes think of it as, instead of what it actually is.” Created by Sylvia Bartlett using Canva.](https://ahstalonnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/hw.png)
According to the University of San Diego, high school students take home an average of 6.8 hours of homework per year. But there have been recent debates over the usefulness of homework, and at what point it becomes too much for students to realistically finish in the time they’re given. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), homework beyond four hours per week stops improving students’ performance and learning, and homework itself may actually contribute to the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
Homework is commonplace at Ankeny High School (AHS), with students scattered across the school during their open periods, working away at their classwork. Oftentimes, students fill their schedules with advanced courses, in order to get ahead of the curve for college, but are also involved in extracurriculars, which can be tough to balance between practices, clubs, and homework.
“So, first semester was definitely rough, because I had volleyball going on, so that was tricky with the workload. But I only work on the weekends, so it’s kind of balanced,” junior Olivia North said. “With tennis season coming up, I think that it’s going to be a rough workload. But since I also now have a job, so it might be a bit chaotic.”
However, teachers also seem to recognize that students are caught in a balancing act during the school year, and seem to understand that students sometimes lack the time to do homework due to their activities.
“I never would say [homework] is due tomorrow. I always give plenty of time, recognizing that because I used to hate that, especially my math teachers would say this [homework] is due tomorrow, and I would have a concert or something [that night].” science teacher Lori Bing said.
Along with that, some students feel that homework can be assigned without enough time to actually do it, resulting in negative impacts in other areas of their lives. According to a study done by the National Sleep Foundation, adolescent students who spend a long time on homework tend to get less sleep and have higher rates of depression symptoms.
“I’ll usually start doing my homework at 9 pm and I’ll get down to 11, and then I’ll start to do other stuff, and I’ll go to sleep by 12 [or] 12:30,” said senior Danny Nguyen. “I think most people could say that it’s always in our head, that we have to get it done. We have to get this done, so then we’re up doing it all night. If I didn’t have to do that, then I’d just go to sleep early.”
But, from a teacher’s perspective, there seems to be reasoning behind the homework assignments that can actually benefit students, especially as they continue their education beyond high school
“I always emphasize to my students early on, they absolutely need to be working outside of class. Now, there’s not a lot, I wouldn’t call it daily homework as far as turn ins, other than like we have with a unit, there’ll be labs and focus questions, but the big piece is making a structure [to] stay up to date with learning the material,” Bing said. “On Canvas, I like to provide all kinds of options to address people’s different learning styles, from reading guides, to more video based, to the slides, with the idea that it would be the primary goal, by the time students leave my AP BIO class, that they have a good understanding of what works for them [to] study…I want nothing more than when they go off to college they can feel secure in their learning.”
However, although students seem to think some homework isn’t relevant to their learning, they also feel that there is a point to some of the homework, and that it can help extend their learning.
“Some of it, I think [does improve test scores] to a point, but I also think some of it [is not], because some of it is just busy work,” North said. “Some of what you are doing, you’re [asking yourself] why am I doing this? But I feel like another part [of it] you’re like, wait, this connects [to what you’re] practicing.”
Teachers also seem to understand that students feel that homework can sometimes border on busy work, and that students feel that they should know why they’re being given certain assignments.
“I think as a teacher, it’s really important to help students understand the purpose. I would never just have you do something to turn it in for points,” Bing said. “If I ask you to write something, I read it, and I like to give feedback on that, because otherwise you’re missing the whole learning component of it.”