One day in a fourth grade math class, the students complained about the previous night’s homework. “My mom had to sit with me for a while, but I got it eventually,” said one student. Another student piped up, quietly, “My mom doesn’t do that.”
The first student came from a high socioeconomic background, while the second came from a low socioeconomic background. This anecdote is just one facet of the data presented in a new working paper from education scholars.
The paper found that math homework reinforces the unequal treatment of students who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Status-reinforcing processes, or ones that fortify pre-existing divides, are a dime a dozen in education.
Standardized testing, creating honors and AP tracks, and grouping students based on perceived ability all serve to disadvantage students who lack the support structures and parental engagement associated with affluence.
“Because of these standard, taken-for-granted policies that treated homework as students’ individual responsibilities, it erased those unequal contexts of support and led teachers to interpret and respond to homework in these status-reinforcing ways.”
-Jessica Calarco, first author of paper and associate professor of psychology at Indiana University
In a cohort of 52 white students, those from a higher socioeconomic background fared better on average on their math homework in third, fourth, and fifth grades. They also maintained higher GPAs and test scores than their peers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Between 2008 and 2012, Calarco sat in on classes and conducted interviews with students, caregivers, and teachers in a single suburban school district. She amassed thousands of pages of field notes and hundreds of hours of interviews, which became her doctoral dissertation.
Study authors found multiple instances of students’ socioeconomic statuses impacting their ability to complete homework: one wealthier parent said she hired a tutor, while another parent explained she barely passed math and felt “stupid” she wasn’t able to help her fifth-grader.
“The most shocking and troubling part to me was hearing teachers write off students because they didn’t get their homework done,” Calarco said. A teacher said a student from a lower socioeconomic background who was not turning in homework was “not giving [her] anything to work with.”
On the other hand, a student from a higher socioeconomic background whose parent often emailed teachers to ask clarifying questions about the homework was praised for being a “hard worker and really diligent.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the unequal conditions under which students complete their homework. The paper describes one student who asked to do an online assignment at his local library, explaining that he and his family “don’t have internet anymore.”
Experts have traditionally argued that homework completion can be improved by encouraging parents to be more involved in their children’s education. Such an intervention isn’t possible for parents “with limited formal education, financial resources, or English proficiency.”
At the very least, educators should think critically about the purpose and value of homework, Calarco said. “I’m not sure I want to completely come out and say that we need to ban homework entirely, but I think we need to really seriously reconsider when and how we assign it.”