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Summer Often Spells No Vacation From Homework: Some Educators Rethinking Workload

Ohanian Comment: I oppose homework, summertime and other times.

By Donna St. George

Issie Griffith conquered two novels and a 100-page math packet on a recent summer break. So this year, the 12-year-old was ready for her latest load of vacation homework: four books to read, each with written summaries, preparation for the rigors of sixth grade.

Now it is just a matter of finishing it up as the days of summer dwindle.

"I have a lot to go," said Issie, who spent many hours this summer at the pool, with friends, and at tennis and acting camps. Still, she said, "I know I'm going to get it done."

For Issie and many other students across the Washington region, summer homework is as familiar as fireworks in July and back-to-school shopping in August. Often, it goes far beyond the summer reading list that some of their parents remember from childhood. First-graders solve math problems. Middle schoolers create plot summaries. High school students pore over Shakespeare, Dickens and Twain.

Lately this modern rite of the season is under increased scrutiny as many educators rethink how much summer homework students should get, whether it should be required, and how it is related to classroom lessons.

Supporters say summer homework staves off the learning loss that comes with so much time outside the classroom.

Some educators point out the limitations: Students work on assignments largely without teacher support; summer work can pose grading problems in the fall; and the requirements may overwhelm already-stressed kids who need the break.

"Summer should be summer," said Jayne Fonash, guidance director at the Academy of Science, a magnet high school in Loudoun County, which assigns one book, a "fun science read," with no reports or tests. "We really do believe summer is the time to rest and rejuvenate and then come back to school in September excited and ready to go."

Although not universal, the notion appears to be more common than it was a few years ago. For a time, summer homework was on the rise, many educators said, a sign of serious-mindedness about academic achievement. It often counts as a grade.

"I think the pendulum has shifted," said Gail Hubbard, supervisor of gifted education and special programs in Prince William County, where summer homework policies are under review. "I think we went for several years requiring more and more and more." Now, she said, the goal is "to make sure it benefits the learner instead of burdens the learner."

At Walter Johnson High School in Montgomery County, summer math packets that were once routinely required became optional last year, said Principal Chris Garran. This year, they have disappeared.

"We really didn't see a difference between students who did the packet and those who didn't," he said. The school's English department still requires students to complete a reading assignment, but Garran said he believes in limiting the overall workload.

Students already face a lot of academic pressure during the school year, Garran said, and many are busy with part-time jobs, internships, charitable projects and family vacations. "I'm not the biggest fan of summer homework," he said. "I'm one of these educators who still likes the idea of summer."

At Walter Johnson and other schools, educators have differing views.

Supporters of summer homework said the assignments can help in several ways. For high school students taking advanced courses, summer reading can help keep minds sharp and study habits intact, while reducing the number of books students need to read during the school year. The assignments can take the pressure off students by spreading out the workload.

For students across many ages, the phenomenon of summer learning loss also is well-documented, said Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University who has studied the subject.

In math, most students lose ground over the summer, according to comparisons of standardized test scores, Cooper said. In reading, middle-class students hold their own, but students from low-income families slip, he said.

Cooper said it could take students several weeks to regain the learning lost over the summer.

Many parents say they appreciate the assignments, or even want more of them, hoping to keep their children engaged in academics rather than playing video games or watching television or just being bored.

Consuvello Bryant of Mount Rainier, a mother of four sons, said her children's school gives out suggested reading lists but no required assignments, which she thinks is not enough. Her summer rule is: Math and reading come before playtime. Her children gather for schoolwork in the mornings; the eldest went to summer school.

"I believe if you don't keep up, then when you go back to school, you'll be behind or just mediocre," she said. "I believe kids are what you make them."

Frani Jamieson of Lake Ridge, who buys educational materials for her children to use while school is out, said her son, Kevin, 9, a rising fourth-grader, did not receive required assignments, only a list of suggested reading. Extra credit is given for doing the work.

"I'm going to have him write a summary of the books," she said.

Kevin Jamieson, standing nearby, looked up from his Nintendo DS. "Huh?" he said.

At School Without Walls in the District, an application-only high school, the summer demands are high. The school has an extensive reading list, but Principal Richard Trogisch makes no apologies. "There is a strong correlation: If you read, you lead," he said. "This is a dream-maker, and you get out what you put in."

Some of the heaviest summer homework loads are shouldered by high school students in such selective programs.

Samir Hazboun, 16, who is part of an advanced communications program at Montgomery Blair High School, has five books to read and write about, along with five reports on books previously read. He has to visit and write about a place of worship. His has to read and answer questions about a history book.

This summer, Hazboun went on a three-week mountain hike with a Quaker group and was an intern at Hispanic Link news agency. His homework still awaits him, but he is hoping to preserve the illusion of a free summer as long as possible. "I go in one big rush a few days before it's due," he said.

Even schools with the most demanding programs are scaling back some.

At Yorktown High School in Arlington County, Principal Raymond Pasi said faculty, administrators and parents discussed the issue of summer homework at meetings over the course of two years and decided against requiring it, even for Advanced Placement classes.

Among private institutions, Norwood School in Bethesda requires summer reading, but the school has shifted away from summer report writing. "The message we've been trying to get out to families is about the importance of reading," said Susan Rosenbaum, principal of the middle school.

Nancy Kalish, co-author of "The Case Against Homework," said that schools have piled on work, with the notion that more is better, and that it detracts from a love of learning.

"Kids who are grinding through huge amounts of summer homework go back to school . . . already burned out," Kalish said. "What would be better would be to challenge students at all levels to read as many books as they could of their own choosing."

Such changing views have become apparent to Lori McCarthy during recent years as her five children have risen through schools near her Chevy Chase home.

A few years back, she said, her children seemed to get summer assignments in every subject -- social studies posters, math sheets, reading lists, even science experiments. "Oh my goodness, it's just been overwhelming sometimes," she said. Now, "it seems to be getting more reasonable," she said.

Still, last week she drove her 17-year-old son, who worked three part-time jobs this summer, to St. John's College High School to turn in his summer reading report on George Orwell's "1984" by the July 31 deadline.

In another sign that summer homework is far from gone, McCarthy said that even her rising first-grader, who is autistic, has a math packet and a reading list.

At Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Kensington, Principal Harriann Walker said summer homework there once included many intricate projects. Parents said it was too much, so the school cut back. Now the school has changed course again. "We swung the whole pendulum, one way and then the other, and now we're back to the middle," Walker said.

For students across the region, the question of the moment is whether summer homework is done.

Sascha Jantsch, 13, of Mechanicsville said that although he thought the book he read for ninth-grade English, "Night" by Elie Wiesel, was well-written, the assignment had its drawbacks.

"It makes you worry through the summer," he said.

He asked his sister, Audrey, 10, why she had not yet started her second assigned book.

"You have 20 days left," he reminded her.


— Donna St. George
Washington Post
2008-08-05


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