Students walking into AP Statistics and Algebra 2 teacher Seema Patel’s first day of classes in August learned about a surprising policy: They could choose to opt out of homework for the entire semester.
Homework is worth 10 percent of their final grade if they do all of the assignments. However, it is excused if they opt out. In other words, they learned that not doing the work wouldn’t count against their grade the way it would in most high school classes.
Patel is one of many teachers who have changed their homework policies in recent years in response to how busy students’ lives are, as well as resources such as AI that can lead to cheating and make homework harder for teachers to assess.
She believes that fewer students will give in to the temptation of cheating by using AI since they can just opt out of homework credit if they prefer to.
Choosing not to do homework can come with downsides, however. To many students, homework is a vital part of the learning process and a relatively easy way to gain points toward their final grade.
Senior Viki Toram, a student in Patel’s stats class, said, “I still prefer to do my homework, but it’s a lot better knowing that I won’t lose any points if I don’t. Most of the time, I do my work on the last day since it’s optional, and I focus on other classes’ homework first.”
Media arts teacher Carla Villela also has a flexible homework policy. In her classes, all homework assignments can be turned in for credit before the semester ends, even if they are late. Since there are no tests or quizzes in her class, homework is still important to do, as it’s worth 100 percent of the grade. She believes homework should be a way to help students learn, but it should not cause undue stress.
Sophomore Brian Rafipour, a student in Villela’s digital animation class, said, “Even though I can procrastinate on my homework until the end of the semester, I enjoy doing the work that Ms. V assigns. I also feel like leaving my homework until the end of the semester will cause a lot of stress during finals week.”
Some educators also question the overall value of homework. Studies have found that excessive homework can cause students to become burned out, which hurts students’ academic success rather than helping them.
For her part, chemistry teacher Kathy Nakamatsu implemented a policy where the entire unit’s homework is due the day of the major test, rather than being spaced out across a unit.
Homework is worth 10 percent in her class, so even though students have extra time, they still need to get it done. The goal of her policy is to give more flexibility to students.
Nakamatsu and many other teachers have also adopted a practice of posting solution keys for student use. They believe that by providing the students with a step-by-step key, they will learn the material better and not feel the need to copy other students.
“What I used to find was when I had homework due the next day, I’d have people in here madly copying someone else’s paper so that they would get points,” Nakamatsu said. “Nowadays, copying or cheating is even easier with the capabilities of AI, which lets you finish homework in just a few minutes.”
When homework is graded on accuracy, she said, students who worked hard and spent time on their homework may get worse scores than those who cheated. The policy is her way of leveling the playing field — all students have access to the answers, and homework is graded on completion only. The differentiating factor is that students who just copy off the answer keys will likely score lower on exams.
By implementing this system, Nakamatsu hopes to be able to teach her students good habits such as time management and self-discipline.
“If the whole unit, the student is just copying the homework, they will never learn from their mistakes, because they’ll never have done any problems,” Nakamatsu said. “Chemistry is all about practicing skills, and you have to do the homework to learn them.”
