Homework as Gap-Widener

          In this article in Educational Researcher, Jessica McCrory Calarco (Indiana University/Bloomington) and Ilana Horn and Grace Chen (Vanderbilt University) say that in many schools, homework is a “status-reinforcing practice,” one of several that “stratify students’ opportunities for learning and bolster the ‘meritocratic’ narrative that higher-status groups succeed in school because of individual competence, effort, and responsibility.” And indeed, lower-SES students report spending less time on homework, more often hand it in late or incomplete, and receive more-frequent and harsher penalties, contributing to a widening achievement gap vis-à-vis more-advantaged students. 

          In their longitudinal ethnographic study, Calarco, Horn, and Chen were surprised to find that in elementary and middle schools, where teachers are more aware of students’ home situations, teachers don’t attribute homework difficulties to outside-of-school factors and structural inequalities. Rather, teachers tend to blame students who struggle with homework (and, in elementary schools, their parents). The researchers found that many teachers see homework through a lens of individual agency and a “myth of meritocracy – the idea that people who are responsible, motivated, and hard-working will be successful, regardless of the challenges they face.” 

          This belief system gives teachers justification for three practices that clearly widen pre-existing SES gaps: 

• Assigning homework that students are not able to complete independently; 
• Punishing students who don’t complete homework (many classes begin with students being      asked to get out their homework so it can be checked by the teacher); 
• Rewarding students who regularly meet homework expectations with praise, bonus points, and    “homework passes” that allow them to miss assignments without penalty. 

Step one to addressing this situation, say Calarco, Horn, and Chen, is for teachers to question the myth of meritocracy and recognize the structural inequalities affecting many students’ ability to successfully complete homework. Steps two, three, and four are assigning manageable homework; not treating homework as a proxy for individual responsibility, competence, and effort; and lowering the stakes for homework completion. 

          Some educators have gone further, making homework optional or ungraded. But “because homework is such a deeply entrenched part of the grammar of schooling,” say the authors, “and because homework can also serve other purposes – signaling school rigor or helping parents feel connected to the school – some families and educators may resist its elimination.” Schools that stop giving homework need to find other ways to fulfill these legitimate needs. 

          Even the radical step of eliminating homework doesn’t address the unequal advantages of students whose families have more time and resources to support their children’s learning. “The need for structural solutions to structural inequalities, however, should not discourage educators from taking steps in the short term to reduce the harm caused by status-reinforcing practices,” conclude the authors. “Schools and teachers alone may be unable to fix social inequalities, but they can avoid making them worse.” 

 “‘You Need to Be More Responsible’: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities” by Jessica McCrory Calarco, Ilana Horn, and Grace Chen in Educational Researcher, November 2022 (Vol. 51, #8, pp. 515523); Calarco can be reached at jcalarco@indiana.edu, Horn at ilana.horn@vanderbilt.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #965 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.