Goal: Improve homework policies and practices at Tivy High School, lowering the overall student failure rate.
Action Steps
1. Analyze past failure rates and current campus homework policy
2. Create and conduct student survey to gather student input on homework policies and procedures
3. Create teacher homework blog for parental and student access. Parents and students will be able to see, in real-time, the current homework assignment(s).
4. Create staff development that enables teachers to better create appropriate homework assignments that will lead to student achievement.
5.Research and determine best recommendations for campus homework policy.
Persons Responsible
1.Austin Clarkson
2.Austin Clarkson
3.I will train the English Dept. to test out this process.
4.I will collaborate and research with our Dean of Curriculum to create staff development.
5.Austin Clarkson / Campus Improvement Team
Timeline: Start/End
1.completed
2.Start creating survey August 2010; conduct survey September 2010.
3.Fall 2010 – end of school year
4.Research and creation of staff development during the Fall semester of 2010. Presentation to faculty at the beginning of 2011.
5.Conduct research during Fall semester. Make recommendations in the Spring to CIT to possibly be implemented the following school year.
Needed Resources
1.Failure rates
Campus homework policy
2.Campus homework policy
3.Edublogs.org and teacher computers
4.stophomework.com
The Battle Over Homework by Harris Cooper
mrwaxlersclass.com
5.“The Truth About Homework” by Alfie Kohn
“Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement?” by Harris Cooper
educationalissues.suite101.com
The Battle Over Homework by Harris Cooper
Evaluation
1.I’ve evaluated the connection between homework and failure rates through teacher and student interviews.
2.Qualitative evaluation based on student feedback.
3.Informal assessment and dialogue will occur during dept. meetings in order to address concerns and make improvements. Formal teacher evaluation will be done at the end of the school year.
4.Immediately following staff development presentation, each teacher will fill out a formal evaluation.
5.Look at failure rates in 2011-2012 school year and compare to failure rates of previous homework policy. Also, teacher and student interviews will provide valuable insight.
Very concise and organized. I think this is a really important topic to tackle. Frankly, as a parent, I believe my daughter has too much homework and much of it would be too complicated for many of the parents of her classmates. As a teacher, I think sending short practice pages with examples once or twice a week should be plenty, but only if really needed.
ReplyDeleteThis will be interesting to continue to watch your blog, Austin. The homework issue a hard one to solve. Is there really a "right" answer? The blog looks good--maybe post some summaries of the books as you read.
ReplyDelete