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Legal Homework Rights: What’s the Limit on Homework?

Hi, I just read your article Titled “Can You ‘Opt Out’ of Homework?” ( Click HERE  for the original article. ) I enjoyed the article but I guess I need a more concrete answer to the question of my legal homework rights: CAN I LEGALLY OPT OUT OF HOMEWORK FOR MY CHILD? – Dawn, SOAR ®  Parent

The answer is a resounding, Yes!

You have legal rights to put limits on your child’s homework time.

When homework begins to erode family relationships and/or increases the students anxiety, its time to make modifications. First, try communicating and working collaboratively with teachers and administrators.  If that doesn’t work, then you do have legal homework rights…

Legal Homework Rights

You absolutely do have legal rights to put reasonable limits on your child’s homework time. The legal tool you want to use is called a 504. For a link that provides a quick overview to the 504 law, click HERE .

504: The Legal Homework Rights Tool

Basically, the 504 law refers to legal homework rights (known as “accommodations”) that must be made for a child’s “impairment.”  As you’ll read, “impairments” are defined very loosely throughout the law, and this is done purposely to accommodate all students’ various needs. If your child has a diagnosis of ADHD, Dyslexia, etc. that will help, but it’s not necessary.

I have seen the 504 law used throughout my career as an educator for students and families exercising their legal homework rights.  I have also used it with my own children to get schools to accommodate what I felt was appropriate.

The 504 Process

The actual 504 process includes paperwork and a series of meetings. The meetings typically include a school counselor, a teacher, an administrator, and you and your child. In the meeting, all of your concerns will be documented and specific actions or remedies (like limiting homework) will be recorded. This document becomes a legally binding contract that your child’s teacher and administrator are required to uphold.

Legal Homework Rights: What’s a Reasonable Amount of Time for Homework?

So, what is a reasonable recommendation regarding time spent on homework?

We support the “10 Minute Rule.”   That’s a maximum of 10 minutes times the grade-level of the child. So, 10-minute max for 1 st grade, 20-minute max for 2 nd grade, up to 120-minute max for 12 th grade.

The “10-minute rule” is a great accommodation for a 504, because it is set to increase the limit on homework time as the child progresses through school. We’re not talking about eliminating homework just to create an easy path for our children.  Parents that have significant battles over homework, that can easily last an hour or more, understand that homework reaches a point where it is not productive.

Too much homework is destructive t o motivation, self-esteem, and to family relationships.  So, don’t be afraid to exercise your legal rights. This is the point where we want to pursue our legal homework rights.

In addition to pursuing 504 accommodations, you may want to give your students better skills to handle the demands of school.  To learn more about the SOAR ®  Parent Products, click HERE .

Brian Winter, M.Ed.

Co-Author, SOAR Social-Emotional Learning Skills

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Homework – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates

From dioramas to book reports, from algebraic word problems to research projects, whether students should be given homework, as well as the type and amount of homework, has been debated for over a century. [ 1 ]

While we are unsure who invented homework, we do know that the word “homework” dates back to ancient Rome. Pliny the Younger asked his followers to practice their speeches at home. Memorization exercises as homework continued through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment by monks and other scholars. [ 45 ]

In the 19th century, German students of the Volksschulen or “People’s Schools” were given assignments to complete outside of the school day. This concept of homework quickly spread across Europe and was brought to the United States by Horace Mann , who encountered the idea in Prussia. [ 45 ]

In the early 1900s, progressive education theorists, championed by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal , decried homework’s negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, leading California to ban homework for students under 15 from 1901 until 1917. In the 1930s, homework was portrayed as child labor, which was newly illegal, but the prevailing argument was that kids needed time to do household chores. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ]

Public opinion swayed again in favor of homework in the 1950s due to concerns about keeping up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances during the Cold War . And, in 1986, the US government included homework as an educational quality boosting tool. [ 3 ] [ 45 ]

A 2014 study found kindergarteners to fifth graders averaged 2.9 hours of homework per week, sixth to eighth graders 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to twelfth graders 3.5 hours per teacher. A 2014-2019 study found that teens spent about an hour a day on homework. [ 4 ] [ 44 ]

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the very idea of homework as students were schooling remotely and many were doing all school work from home. Washington Post journalist Valerie Strauss asked, “Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?” While students were mostly back in school buildings in fall 2021, the question remains of how effective homework is as an educational tool. [ 47 ]

Is Homework Beneficial?

Pro 1 Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” [ 6 ] Students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework on both standardized tests and grades. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take-home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. [ 10 ] Read More

Pro 2 Homework helps to reinforce classroom learning, while developing good study habits and life skills. Students typically retain only 50% of the information teachers provide in class, and they need to apply that information in order to truly learn it. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, co-founders of Teachers Who Tutor NYC, explained, “at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts… [And] these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum.” [ 11 ] [ 49 ] Elementary school students who were taught “strategies to organize and complete homework,” such as prioritizing homework activities, collecting study materials, note-taking, and following directions, showed increased grades and more positive comments on report cards. [ 17 ] Research by the City University of New York noted that “students who engage in self-regulatory processes while completing homework,” such as goal-setting, time management, and remaining focused, “are generally more motivated and are higher achievers than those who do not use these processes.” [ 18 ] Homework also helps students develop key skills that they’ll use throughout their lives: accountability, autonomy, discipline, time management, self-direction, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving. Freireich and Platzer noted that “homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.” [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 49 ] Read More

Pro 3 Homework allows parents to be involved with children’s learning. Thanks to take-home assignments, parents are able to track what their children are learning at school as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. [ 12 ] Data from a nationwide sample of elementary school students show that parental involvement in homework can improve class performance, especially among economically disadvantaged African-American and Hispanic students. [ 20 ] Research from Johns Hopkins University found that an interactive homework process known as TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) improves student achievement: “Students in the TIPS group earned significantly higher report card grades after 18 weeks (1 TIPS assignment per week) than did non-TIPS students.” [ 21 ] Homework can also help clue parents in to the existence of any learning disabilities their children may have, allowing them to get help and adjust learning strategies as needed. Duke University Professor Harris Cooper noted, “Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them.” [ 12 ] Read More

Con 1 Too much homework can be harmful. A poll of California high school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were “often or always stressed by schoolwork.” High-achieving high school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems. [ 24 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, “Kids should have a chance to just be kids… it’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.” [ 27 ] Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, “More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies.” [ 48 ] Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle school students and 67% of high school students admit to copying someone else’s homework, and 43% of college students engaged in “unauthorized collaboration” on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child’s assignment for them. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Read More

Con 2 Homework exacerbates the digital divide or homework gap. Kiara Taylor, financial expert, defined the digital divide as “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don’t. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology—along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet—the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology.” For students, this is often called the homework gap. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] 30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible. [ 51 ] A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it “potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position.” [ 39 ] Read More

Con 3 Homework does not help younger students, and may not help high school students. We’ve known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that “homework had no association with achievement gains” when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [ 7 ] Fourth grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [ 41 ] Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: “They’re learning way more important skills when they’re not doing their homework.” [ 42 ] In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, “I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside.” He explains, “just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn’t mean the homework made that happen.” [ 52 ] Read More

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom material? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

1. Examine an argument in favor of quality homework assignments from Janine Bempechat.

2. Explore Oxford Learning’s infographic on the effects of homework on students.

3. Consider Joseph Lathan’s argument that homework promotes inequality .

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives .

More School Debate Topics

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms? – Proponents say dissecting real animals is a better learning experience. Opponents say the practice is bad for the environment.

Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? – Proponents say uniforms may increase student safety. Opponents say uniforms restrict expression.

Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools? – Proponents say corporal punishment is an appropriate discipline. Opponents say it inflicts long-lasting physical and mental harm on students.

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Is Homework Illegal? (Arguments In Support and Against)

Homework is not illegal in the United States.

But from a legal standpoint, it is a really fun argument to make!

In this article, we’ll cover some points that you could use for or against the question of the legality of homework, whether you are the student, parent, or teacher in this debate.

Is Homework Illegal? (FOR and AGAINST)

The contents of this web page are for informational purposes only, and nothing you read is intended to be legal advice. Please review our  disclaimer about law/legal-related information on this website  before taking action based upon anything you read or see.

Legal vs Illegal vs Unconstitutional

People have argued that homework is illegal because it counts as a form of “slavery.”

It is illegal to restrict/control with force the movement/life of other individuals if you do not have authority to do so (as parents do with their minor children).

It is illegal to commit the other acts slavery is well known for (assault, harassment, and more).

Not everything that would be unconstitutional (or goes against the stated words in the constitution) would be considered illegal, and vice versa.

For example:

Perhaps then you could argue that forcing kids to do homework is an illegal act, assuming that the threats of consequences are coming from an individual or entity that does not have legal authority to provide the threatened punishments, or those punishments are themselves illegal.

Sounds a lot like the crime of coercion , doesn’t it?

If you want to argue that homework is illegal, look for a statute like coercion to support your argument.

And if you want to use the 13th amendment in support of your case against homework, argue that homework is “unconstitutional” rather than “illegal.”

Consent As The School’s Defense

One of the arguments that homework is illegal or constitutes slavery is that the children do not want to do the homework.

They are being made to do it.

People under the age of 18 in the United States cannot make most decisions for themselves.

The parents have agreed on the children’s behalf to the homework.

Thus, technically, because the parents have voluntarily sent their children to the school, the parents have voluntarily consented to the homework, and the consequences of not doing the homework.

The child might not consent to the homework, but in the end, the parents have given their agreement.

The parents take the children to the school.

And since a crime like coercion requires that the act (the homework) be an act against the will or interest of the victim, a case cannot succeed because the will of the parents is substituted for the will of the child.

Arguing That Parents Did Not Consent

What if the parent was coerced to send their child to school, or to the homework?

In most states, there are laws covering the attendance of children at school.

Absent an exclusion or a valid reason to opt out (like homeschool), a parent could face criminal prosecution if he/she does not send a child to school.

Parents are under the threat of fines and jail time.

After all, a parent who goes to jail might lose his job, his driver’s license, or maybe even custody of his children.

A person cannot consent at the business end of a weapon.

State Laws Do Not Compel Homework, Just Attendance

Another fun wrinkle in this argument, especially as we get down into whether parents have consented or can consent to homework, is whether the applicable laws have any impact on homework.

But are there any laws that require children to complete the homework.

I mean, doing homework is important to getting a good grade.

But aside from showing up at school (and not hurting or disrupting others), can schools actually make children do homework?

But they can’t physically punish a child (like hitting him, in most cases), or prevent him from eating or drinking while at school.

And once the child is at home with his homework, he is subject to the will of his parents or legal guardians.

Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

H ow long is your child’s workweek? Thirty hours? Forty? Would it surprise you to learn that some elementary school kids have workweeks comparable to adults’ schedules? For most children, mandatory homework assignments push their workweek far beyond the school day and deep into what any other laborers would consider overtime. Even without sports or music or other school-sponsored extracurriculars, the daily homework slog keeps many students on the clock as long as lawyers, teachers, medical residents, truck drivers and other overworked adults. Is it any wonder that,deprived of the labor protections that we provide adults, our kids are suffering an epidemic of disengagement, anxiety and depression ?

With my youngest child just months away from finishing high school, I’m remembering all the needless misery and missed opportunities all three of my kids suffered because of their endless assignments. When my daughters were in middle school, I would urge them into bed before midnight and then find them clandestinely studying under the covers with a flashlight. We cut back on their activities but still found ourselves stuck in a system on overdrive, returning home from hectic days at 6 p.m. only to face hours more of homework. Now, even as a senior with a moderate course load, my son, Zak, has spent many weekends studying, finding little time for the exercise and fresh air essential to his well-being. Week after week, and without any extracurriculars, Zak logs a lot more than the 40 hours adults traditionally work each week — and with no recognition from his “bosses” that it’s too much. I can’t count the number of shared evenings, weekend outings and dinners that our family has missed and will never get back.

How much after-school time should our schools really own?

In the midst of the madness last fall, Zak said to me, “I feel like I’m working towards my death. The constant demands on my time since 5th grade are just going to continue through graduation, into college, and then into my job. It’s like I’m on an endless treadmill with no time for living.”

My spirit crumbled along with his.

Like Zak, many people are now questioning the point of putting so much demand on children and teens that they become thinly stretched and overworked. Studies have long shown that there is no academic benefit to high school homework that consumes more than a modest number of hours each week. In a study of high schoolers conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), researchers concluded that “after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a negligible impact on performance.”

In elementary school, where we often assign overtime even to the youngest children, studies have shown there’s no academic benefit to any amount of homework at all.

Our unquestioned acceptance of homework also flies in the face of all we know about human health, brain function and learning. Brain scientists know that rest and exercise are essential to good health and real learning . Even top adult professionals in specialized fields take care to limit their work to concentrated periods of focus. A landmark study of how humans develop expertise found that elite musicians, scientists and athletes do their most productive work only about four hours per day .

Yet we continue to overwork our children, depriving them of the chance to cultivate health and learn deeply, burdening them with an imbalance of sedentary, academic tasks. American high school students , in fact, do more homework each week than their peers in the average country in the OECD, a 2014 report found.

It’s time for an uprising.

Already, small rebellions are starting. High schools in Ridgewood, N.J. , and Fairfax County, Va., among others, have banned homework over school breaks. The entire second grade at Taylor Elementary School in Arlington, Va., abolished homework this academic year. Burton Valley Elementary School in Lafayette, Calif., has eliminated homework in grades K through 4. Henry West Laboratory School , a public K-8 school in Coral Gables, Fla., eliminated mandatory, graded homework for optional assignments. One Lexington, Mass., elementary school is piloting a homework-free year, replacing it with reading for pleasure.

More from TIME

Across the Atlantic, students in Spain launched a national strike against excessive assignments in November. And a second-grade teacher in Texas, made headlines this fall when she quit sending home extra work , instead urging families to “spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside and get your child to bed early.”

It is time that we call loudly for a clear and simple change: a workweek limit for children, counting time on the clock before and after the final bell. Why should schools extend their authority far beyond the boundaries of campus, dictating activities in our homes in the hours that belong to families? An all-out ban on after-school assignments would be optimal. Short of that, we can at least sensibly agree on a cap limiting kids to a 40-hour workweek — and fewer hours for younger children.

Resistance even to this reasonable limit will be rife. Mike Miller, an English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., found this out firsthand when he spearheaded a homework committee to rethink the usual approach. He had read the education research and found a forgotten policy on the county books limiting homework to two hours a night, total, including all classes. “I thought it would be a slam dunk” to put the two-hour cap firmly in place, Miller said.

But immediately, people started balking. “There was a lot of fear in the community,” Miller said. “It’s like jumping off a high dive with your kids’ future. If we reduce homework to two hours or less, is my kid really going to be okay?” In the end, the committee only agreed to a homework ban over school breaks.

Miller’s response is a great model for us all. He decided to limit assignments in his own class to 20 minutes a night (the most allowed for a student with six classes to hit the two-hour max). His students didn’t suddenly fail. Their test scores remained stable. And they started using their more breathable schedule to do more creative, thoughtful work.

That’s the way we will get to a sane work schedule for kids: by simultaneously pursuing changes big and small. Even as we collaboratively press for policy changes at the district or individual school level, all teachers can act now, as individuals, to ease the strain on overworked kids.

As parents and students, we can also organize to make homework the exception rather than the rule. We can insist that every family, teacher and student be allowed to opt out of assignments without penalty to make room for important activities, and we can seek changes that shift practice exercises and assignments into the actual school day.

We’ll know our work is done only when Zak and every other child can clock out, eat dinner, sleep well and stay healthy — the very things needed to engage and learn deeply. That’s the basic standard the law applies to working adults. Let’s do the same for our kids.

Vicki Abeles is the author of the bestseller Beyond Measure: Rescuing an Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation, and director and producer of the documentaries “ Race to Nowhere ” and “ Beyond Measure. ”

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The end of homework? Why some schools are banning homework

Fed up with the tension over homework, some schools are opting out altogether.

No-homework policies are popping up all over, including schools in the U.S., where the shift to the Common Core curriculum is prompting educators to rethink how students spend their time.

“Homework really is a black hole,” said Etta Kralovec, an associate professor of teacher education at the University of Arizona South and co-author of “The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning.”

“I think teachers are going to be increasingly interested in having total control over student learning during the class day and not relying on homework as any kind of activity that’s going to support student learning.”

College de Saint-Ambroise, an elementary school in Quebec, is the latest school to ban homework, announcing this week that it would try the new policy for a year. The decision came after officials found that it was “becoming more and more difficult” for children to devote time to all the assignments they were bringing home, Marie-Ève Desrosiers, a spokeswoman with the Jonquière School Board, told the CBC .

Kralovec called the ban on homework a movement, though she estimated just a small handful of schools in the U.S. have such policies.

Gaithersburg Elementary School in Rockville, Maryland, is one of them, eliminating the traditional concept of homework in 2012. The policy is still in place and working fine, Principal Stephanie Brant told TODAY Parents. The school simply asks that students read 30 minutes each night.

“We felt like with the shift to the Common Core curriculum, and our knowledge of how our students need to think differently… we wanted their time to be spent in meaningful ways,” Brant said.

“We’re constantly asking parents for feedback… and everyone’s really happy with it so far. But it’s really a culture shift.”

It was a decision that was best for her community, Brant said, adding that she often gets phone calls from other principals inquiring how it’s working out.

The VanDamme Academy, a private K-8 school in Aliso Viejo, California, has a similar policy , calling homework “largely pointless.”

The Buffalo Academy of Scholars, a private school in Buffalo, New York, touts that it has called “a truce in the homework battle” and promises that families can “enjoy stress-free, homework-free evenings and more quality time together at home.”

Some schools have taken yet another approach. At Ridgewood High School in Norridge, Illinois, teachers do assign homework but it doesn’t count towards a student’s final grade.

Many schools in the U.S. have toyed with the idea of opting out of homework, but end up changing nothing because it is such a contentious issue among parents, Kralovec noted.

“There’s a huge philosophical divide between parents who want their kids to be very scheduled, very driven, and very ambitiously focused at school -- those parents want their kids to do homework,” she said.

“And then there are the parents who want a more child-centered life with their kids, who want their kids to be able to explore different aspects of themselves, who think their kids should have free time.”

So what’s the right amount of time to spend on homework?

National PTA spokeswoman Heidi May pointed to the organization’s “ 10 minute rule ,” which recommends kids spend about 10 minutes on homework per night for every year they’re in school. That would mean 10 minutes for a first-grader and an hour for a child in the sixth grade.

But many parents say their kids must spend much longer on their assignments. Last year, a New York dad tried to do his eight-grader’s homework for a week and it took him at least three hours on most nights.

More than 80 percent of respondents in a TODAY.com poll complained kids have too much homework. For homework critics like Kralovec, who said research shows homework has little value at the elementary and middle school level, the issue is simple.

“Kids are at school 7 or 8 hours a day, that’s a full working day and why should they have to take work home?” she asked.

Follow A. Pawlowski on Google+ and Twitter .

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Homework in America: From Child Labor to Modern Learning

Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative

Teachers on Fire Magazine

Homework has a particularly nasty history in the United States. For anyone reading this article, it is safe to say that you endured some form of heinous educational torture that came in the form of homework. Homework has always been a point of controversy for me, and in American society.

Beginning in high school, I found homework to be part of a larger mechanism of social control intended to prevent young people from engaging in deviant behavior in the hours following the end of school. Given that so much of the grading in my classes depended on the submission of homework, I understandably underperformed according to the standards of my local school district earning a 1.75 GPA upon graduation. For me, I have always advocated for the complete dismissal of required homework.

When my student began Kindergarten this year, I came into the first teacher meeting hot asking questions about the productivity demands on the children in the school.

When they shared that all homework was optional, I was sort of taken aback. I really didn’t know what to say.

In many ways, the approach of giving homework to students to facilitate learning experiences as purely growth opportunities that can happen without penalty has resonated with this adamant antagonist of the most institutionalized…

Written by Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative

Serving the needs of racialized and minoritized students in Chicago since 2020. www.chieac.org

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Should homework be banned?

Social media has sparked into life about whether children should be given homework - should students be freed from this daily chore? Dr Gerald Letendre, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, investigates.

We’ve all done it: pretended to leave an essay at home, or stayed up until 2am to finish a piece of coursework we’ve been ignoring for weeks. Homework, for some people, is seen as a chore that’s ‘wrecking kids’ or ‘killing parents’, while others think it is an essential part of a well-rounded education. The problem is far from new: public debates about homework have been raging since at least the early-1900s, and recently spilled over into a Twitter feud between Gary Lineker and Piers Morgan.

Ironically, the conversation surrounding homework often ignores the scientific ‘homework’ that researchers have carried out. Many detailed studies have been conducted, and can guide parents, teachers and administrators to make sensible decisions about how much work should be completed by students outside of the classroom.

So why does homework stir up such strong emotions? One reason is that, by its very nature, it is an intrusion of schoolwork into family life. I carried out a study in 2005, and found that the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school, from nursery right up to the end of compulsory education, has greatly increased over the last century . This means that more of a child’s time is taken up with education, so family time is reduced. This increases pressure on the boundary between the family and the school.

Plus, the amount of homework that students receive appears to be increasing, especially in the early years when parents are keen for their children to play with friends and spend time with the family.

Finally, success in school has become increasingly important to success in life. Parents can use homework to promote, or exercise control over, their child’s academic trajectory, and hopefully ensure their future educational success. But this often leaves parents conflicted – they want their children to be successful in school, but they don’t want them to be stressed or upset because of an unmanageable workload.

However, the issue isn’t simply down to the opinions of parents, children and their teachers – governments also like to get involved. In the autumn of 2012, French president François Hollande hit world headlines after making a comment about banning homework, ostensibly because it promoted inequality. The Chinese government has also toyed with a ban, because of concerns about excessive academic pressure being put on children.

The problem is, some politicians and national administrators regard regulatory policy in education as a solution for a wide array of social, economic and political issues, perhaps without considering the consequences for students and parents.

Does homework work?

Homework seems to generally have a positive effect for high school students, according to an extensive range of empirical literature. For example, Duke University’s Prof Harris Cooper carried out a meta-analysis using data from US schools, covering a period from 1987 to 2003. He found that homework offered a general beneficial impact on test scores and improvements in attitude, with a greater effect seen in older students. But dig deeper into the issue and a complex set of factors quickly emerges, related to how much homework students do, and exactly how they feel about it.

In 2009, Prof Ulrich Trautwein and his team at the University of Tübingen found that in order to establish whether homework is having any effect, researchers must take into account the differences both between and within classes . For example, a teacher may assign a good deal of homework to a lower-level class, producing an association between more homework and lower levels of achievement. Yet, within the same class, individual students may vary significantly in how much homework improves their baseline performance. Plus, there is the fact that some students are simply more efficient at completing their homework than others, and it becomes quite difficult to pinpoint just what type of homework, and how much of it, will affect overall academic performance.

Over the last century, the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school has greatly increased

Gender is also a major factor. For example, a study of US high school students carried out by Prof Gary Natriello in the 1980s revealed that girls devote more time to homework than boys, while a follow-up study found that US girls tend to spend more time on mathematics homework than boys. Another study, this time of African-American students in the US, found that eighth grade (ages 13-14) girls were more likely to successfully manage both their tasks and emotions around schoolwork, and were more likely to finish homework.

So why do girls seem to respond more positively to homework? One possible answer proposed by Eunsook Hong of the University of Nevada in 2011 is that teachers tend to rate girls’ habits and attitudes towards work more favourably than boys’. This perception could potentially set up a positive feedback loop between teacher expectations and the children’s capacity for academic work based on gender, resulting in girls outperforming boys. All of this makes it particularly difficult to determine the extent to which homework is helping, though it is clear that simply increasing the time spent on assignments does not directly correspond to a universal increase in learning.

Can homework cause damage?

The lack of empirical data supporting homework in the early years of education, along with an emerging trend to assign more work to this age range, appears to be fuelling parental concerns about potential negative effects. But, aside from anecdotes of increased tension in the household, is there any evidence of this? Can doing too much homework actually damage children?

Evidence suggests extreme amounts of homework can indeed have serious effects on students’ health and well-being. A Chinese study carried out in 2010 found a link between excessive homework and sleep disruption: children who had less homework had better routines and more stable sleep schedules. A Canadian study carried out in 2015 by Isabelle Michaud found that high levels of homework were associated with a greater risk of obesity among boys, if they were already feeling stressed about school in general.

For useful revision guides and video clips to assist with learning, visit BBC Bitesize . This is a free online study resource for UK students from early years up to GCSEs and Scottish Highers.

It is also worth noting that too much homework can create negative effects that may undermine any positives. These negative consequences may not only affect the child, but also could also pile on the stress for the whole family, according to a recent study by Robert Pressman of the New England Centre for Pediatric Psychology. Parents were particularly affected when their perception of their own capacity to assist their children decreased.

What then, is the tipping point, and when does homework simply become too much for parents and children? Guidelines typically suggest that children in the first grade (six years old) should have no more that 10 minutes per night, and that this amount should increase by 10 minutes per school year. However, cultural norms may greatly affect what constitutes too much.

A study of children aged between 8 and 10 in Quebec defined high levels of homework as more than 30 minutes a night, but a study in China of children aged 5 to 11 deemed that two or more hours per night was excessive. It is therefore difficult to create a clear standard for what constitutes as too much homework, because cultural differences, school-related stress, and negative emotions within the family all appear to interact with how homework affects children.

Should we stop setting homework?

In my opinion, even though there are potential risks of negative effects, homework should not be banned. Small amounts, assigned with specific learning goals in mind and with proper parental support, can help to improve students’ performance. While some studies have generally found little evidence that homework has a positive effect on young children overall, a 2008 study by Norwegian researcher Marte Rønning found that even some very young children do receive some benefit. So simply banning homework would mean that any particularly gifted or motivated pupils would not be able to benefit from increased study. However, at the earliest ages, very little homework should be assigned. The decisions about how much and what type are best left to teachers and parents.

As a parent, it is important to clarify what goals your child’s teacher has for homework assignments. Teachers can assign work for different reasons – as an academic drill to foster better study habits, and unfortunately, as a punishment. The goals for each assignment should be made clear, and should encourage positive engagement with academic routines.

Parents should inform the teachers of how long the homework is taking, as teachers often incorrectly estimate the amount of time needed to complete an assignment, and how it is affecting household routines. For young children, positive teacher support and feedback is critical in establishing a student’s positive perception of homework and other academic routines. Teachers and parents need to be vigilant and ensure that homework routines do not start to generate patterns of negative interaction that erode students’ motivation.

Likewise, any positive effects of homework are dependent on several complex interactive factors, including the child’s personal motivation, the type of assignment, parental support and teacher goals. Creating an overarching policy to address every single situation is not realistic, and so homework policies tend to be fixated on the time the homework takes to complete. But rather than focusing on this, everyone would be better off if schools worked on fostering stronger communication between parents, teachers and students, allowing them to respond more sensitively to the child’s emotional and academic needs.

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Should Homework Really Be Banned? It’s Complicated

By Leon Wilczek Categories: People & Society June 3, 2023, 8:42 AM

Should homework be banned? Every student has asked themselves this question. Is homework actually just annoying or does it also provide some benefits?

Should homework be banned? Once you’ve been out of school for some time, this question doesn’t even seem relevant until you have children of your own. That said, some believe that homework serves a number of important purposes, such as:

• Practice: Doing your homework allows you to put what you learned in class into practice and improve. To make sure you comprehend the information, it works like extra practice.
• Independent learning: Doing your homework helps you to be in charge of your own education. You gain the crucial ability of time management and independent learning.
• Preparation for class: Occasionally, homework helps you get ready for the upcoming lesson. Before a topic is covered in class, you might read up on it or conduct some research to find out more information. You’ll be able to participate in conversations in class better as a result.
• Feedback and evaluation: Teachers use homework to determine your level of comprehension of the subject. They can offer you comments on your work and support you if you are having problems.
• Involvement of parents: Parents have the opportunity to have a glimpse into their learning and academic performance. Homework can give them the chance to participate in their child’s education and can assist them if they need it.

There are many differing opinions about homework. While some think having too much homework can be detrimental, others think that it’s crucial for learning. Let’s have a closer look at the positive and negative aspects of homework while we consider if homework should be banned. 

Benefits of Homework

Next to the number of purposes listed above there are some more benefits of homework that speak for keeping homework as a part of the learning process:

• Learning skills: Homework can help in the development of vital abilities. It enhances your ability of analysis, critical thought, and problem-solving. You gain knowledge on how to apply what you’ve studied to actual circumstances.
• Time management and responsibility: Doing your homework teaches you how to be responsible and manage your time. You develop the time management skills necessary for academic and personal success by completing assignments on time.
• Independent learning: Homework inspires independent learning. You can look into many subjects, conduct research, and learn more. This encourages your curiosity, motivation, and independence as a learner.
• Exam preparation: Homework helps you get ready for exams. It provides you with practice and helps you understand concepts better. It may enhance your performance on tests as a result.
• Extension of learning: Homework lets you explore topics more deeply. You can do extra research and learn more about the things that interest you. This helps you understand the subject better.
• Improved memory: Homework helps with the retention of classroom material. Doing extra practice at home makes the information stick in your brain longer.
• Connecting school and home:  Homework enables you to discover how the lessons you learn in class connect to your daily life. It enables you to put what you’ve learned into practice and discuss it with your family.

In general, there are many benefits of homework that speak against the question “Should homework be banned?”. But let us have a look at the opposing sides of homework before drawing any conclusions.

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Negative Effects of Homework

While there are certainly many advantages, it’s important to consider some of the potential negative effects of homework as well. Here are some aspects to consider when wondering if homework should be banned:

• Mental health: An excessive amount of schoolwork might leave students feeling worn out and frustrated. It might be exhausting and leave you with little time for leisure or other enjoyable pursuits.
• Lack of balance: Homework takes up a lot of time, meaning students have less time for hobbies, sports, and time with family and friends. It might be challenging to achieve a balanced lifestyle.
• Unequal access:  Not every student can access the same materials at home. Some people might not have access to computers, the internet or a peaceful space to study. This may make it more difficult to finish assignments.
• Achievement gaps: Different schools and teachers may have different expectations for homework, which can affect how well students learn. Students who have less support or fewer resources may struggle to keep up, widening the gap between privileged and marginalized students.
• Physical health: Too much time spent on schoolwork might result in long periods of sitting. This can affect mental and physical health and lead to problems like elevated stress levels or sleep deprivation.
• Loss of interest and creativity: If students have too much schoolwork, they may not have time for hobbies or creative interests. It might diminish their love of learning new things and make it seem like work.

As one can see, homework has a substantial impact on learners, especially when they are children. Let’s draw a conclusion based on the positive and negative aspects we just explored.

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Should Homework Be Banned? A Conclusion

All in all, perhaps homework shouldn’t be banned completely, but it needs to be considered in a fair and balanced way. Here are some important points to remember that take the individual needs and resources of students into account:

• Everyone is different: Every person is unique, and each student learns differently. Homework should be personalized to meet each student’s needs and abilities.
• Homework should have a purpose: The goal of homework should be to reinforce the lessons learned in class. It should be meaningful. Students should have the chance to put their knowledge to use and gain a deeper understanding of the situation.
• The workload should be reasonable: Students shouldn’t be given so much homework that it becomes overwhelming. It’s crucial to have a balance so that they have time for other activities and don’t get too stressed.
• Fairness for everyone: Not every student’s family has the same resources. All students should be able to access and finish their assignments, and teachers should take this into account. Those that require it should receive additional assistance.
• Different learning styles: Homework should be adaptable so that students show their understanding in various ways. Additionally, it’s essential for teachers and professors to provide students with feedback and support when they require it.
• Physical and mental health is important: Students shouldn’t feel overburdened or that their time is completely consumed with homework. Make time for enjoyable activities and build in self-care days . 

Homework should be given with the intention of assisting in your growth and learning. It needs to be reasonable, fair, and adjusted to individual requirements. While doing homework, keep in mind to take breaks and take care of yourself as well.

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Center for American Progress

Homework and Higher Standards

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How Homework Stacks Up to the Common Core

CAP analysis found that homework is generally aligned to Common Core State Standards, but additional policy changes would make it more valuable.

Education, Education, K-12, Modernizing and Elevating the Teaching Profession

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In this article

Introduction and summary

For as long as homework has been a part of school life in the United States, so too has the debate over its value. In 1900, a prominent magazine published an article on the evils of homework titled, “A National Crime at the Feet of Parents.” 1 The author, Edward Bok, believed that homework or too much school learning outside the classroom deprived children of critical time to play or participate in other activities at home. The very next year, California, influenced by those concerns, enacted a statewide prohibition on homework for students under the age of 15. 2 In 1917, the state lifted the ban, which has often been the case as districts have continually swung back and forth on the issue. 3

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More than 100 years later, homework remains a contentious issue, and the debate over its value rages on, with scholars coming down on both sides of the argument. Homework skeptic Alfie Kohn has questioned the benefit of homework, arguing that its positive effects are mythical, and in fact, it can disrupt the family dynamic. 4 He questions why teachers continue to assign homework given its mixed research base. Taking the opposite view, researchers Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering have voiced their support for purposeful homework that reinforces learning outside of school hours but still leaves time for other activities. 5

In 1989, prominent homework scholar Harris Cooper published a meta-analysis of more than 100 studies on homework in a survey that found a correlation between homework and performance on standardized tests, but only for certain grade levels. According to Cooper’s research, for students in late-elementary grades through high-school, there was a link between homework and improved standardized test performance. However, there was no evidence of the same correlation for younger students. 6 Even without a connection to academic achievement, Cooper still recommended assigning homework to younger students because it helps “develop good study habits, foster positive attitudes toward school, and communicate to students the idea that learning takes work at home as well as school.” 7

Far from academia, parents—not surprisingly—are some of homework’s most ardent supporters and, also, its most vocal critics. For better or worse, many parents help or are involved in their child’s homework in some way. As a result, homework can shape family dynamics and weeknight schedules. If a child receives too much homework, or only busywork, it can cause stress within families and resentment among parents. 8 Some parents report spending hours each night helping their children. For instance, a 2013 article in The Atlantic detailed a writer’s attempt to complete his 13-year-old daughter’s homework for a week. The headline simply read: “My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me.” 9 The father reported falling asleep trying to thoughtfully complete homework, which took around three hours per night. 10 On the other hand, some parents appreciate the glimpse into their child’s daily instruction and value homework’s ability to build positive learning habits.

It is no surprise that the debate over homework often spills onto the pages of newspapers and magazines, with calls to abolish homework regularly appearing in the headlines. In 2017, the superintendent of Marion County Public Schools in Florida joined districts in Massachusetts and Vermont in announcing a homework ban. To justify his decision, he used research from the University of Tennessee that showed that homework does not improve student achievement. 11 Most recently, in December 2018, The Wall Street Journal published a piece that argued that districts were “Down With Homework”—banning it, placing time caps or limiting it to certain days, or no longer grading it—in order to give students more time to sleep, read, and spend time with family. 12

Given the controversy long surrounding the issue of homework, in late spring 2018, the Center for American Progress conducted an online survey investigating the quality of students’ homework. The survey sought to better understand the nature of homework as well as whether the homework assigned was aligned to rigorous academic standards. Based on the best knowledge of the authors, the CAP survey and this report represent the first-ever national study of homework rigor and alignment to the Common Core State Standards—rigorous academic standards developed in a state-led process in 2010, which are currently in place in 41 states and Washington, D.C. The CAP study adds to existing research on homework by focusing on the quality of assignments rather than the overall value of homework of any type. There are previous studies that considered parental involvement and the potential stress on parents related to homework, but the authors believe that this report represents the first national study of parent attitudes toward homework. 13

For the CAP study, the authors used the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) online survey tool to collect from parents their child’s actual homework assignments. Specifically, as part of the survey, the authors asked parents to submit a sample of their child’s most recent math or language arts homework assignment and have the child complete questions to gauge if the assignment was challenging, as well as how long it took to complete the assignment. In all, 372 parents responded to the survey, with CAP analyzing 187 homework assignments.

Admittedly, the methodological approach has limitations. For one, it’s a convenience sample, which means people were not selected randomly; and broadly speaking, the population on the MTurk site is younger and whiter than the U.S. population as a whole. However, research has shown that MTurk yields high-quality, nationally representative results, with data that are at least as reliable as those obtained via traditional methods. 14

In addition, the homework sample is not from a single classroom or school over the course of a year; rather, it is a snapshot of homework across many classrooms during the span of a few weeks in May 2018. The assumption is that looking at assignments from many classrooms over a short period of time helps to construct a composite picture of mathematics and language arts homework.

Moreover, the design of the CAP study has clear advantages. Many of the previous existing studies evaluated homework in a single district, whereas the CAP study draws from a national sample, and despite its limitations, the authors believe that the findings are robust and contribute significantly to the existing research on homework.

Three key findings from the CAP survey:

• Homework is largely aligned to the Common Core standards. The authors found that the homework submitted is mostly aligned to Common Core standards content. The alignment index that the authors used evaluated both topic and skill. As previously noted, the analysis is a snapshot of homework and, therefore, does not allow the authors to determine if homework over the course of a year covered all the topics represented in the standards.
• Homework is often focused on low-level skills in the Common Core standards, particularly in the earlier grades. While the authors’ analysis shows that there was significant alignment between Common Core and the topics represented in the homework studied, most of the assignments were fairly rote and often did not require students to demonstrate the full depth of knowledge required of the content standards. There was clear emphasis on procedural knowledge, and an even stronger emphasis on memorization and recall in language arts. Common Core content standards, on the other hand, require students to demonstrate deeper knowledge skills, such as the ability to analyze, conceptualize, or generate. 15
• Homework frequently fails to challenge students. Nearly half of the parents who responded to the CAP survey reported that homework is too easy for their child. In particular, parents of primary-grade children were most likely to agree or strongly agree that the homework assignment they submitted was too easy for their child.

Based on these key findings, CAP recommends that states, districts, and schools improve the quality of homework and increase opportunities for students to practice rigorous grade-level content at home. Specifically, the authors—drawing from this survey and other existing research on homework—recommend the following actions to improve the role of homework in education:

• Schools and districts should develop homework policies that emphasize strategic, rigorous homework. In many cases, the homework debate is limited and short-sighted. Currently, many arguments focus on whether or not students should have homework at all, and there are entire school districts that have simply banned homework. Instead of debating the merits of banning homework, reformers and practitioners should focus on improving the rigor and effectiveness of all instructional materials, including

Districts, schools, and teachers should ensure that the total amount of homework students receive does not exceed the 10-minute rule—that is to say, no more than 10 minutes of homework multiplied by the student’s grade level. 16 According to research, any more than that can be counterproductive. 17 Also, too much homework may be an unnecessary burden on families and parents. Homework should be engaging and aligned to Common Core standards, which allow students to develop deeper-level learning skills—such as analysis or conceptualization—that help them increase retention of content.

• Districts and schools should periodically audit homework to make sure it is challenging and aligned to standards. Rather than implementing homework bans, district policymakers and school principals should regularly review examples of homework assignments to ensure that it is aligned to grade-level standards and requires students to demonstrate conceptual learning. In instances where the district or school finds that homework assignments are not aligned or take too much or too little time to complete, they should help teachers improve homework assignments by recommending instructional materials that may make it easier for them to identify appropriate, grade-level homework assignments.
• Schools and districts should provide access to technology and other supports that can make it easier for students to complete rigorous schoolwork at home. Technology can also provide additional support or scaffolding at home, allowing more students to complete homework without help from adults or older siblings. For instance, programs such as the Khan Academy can give students rigorous homework that’s aligned to Common Core standards. 18 Unfortunately, many households across the nation still do not have adequate access to devices or internet at home. Schools and districts should consider options to ensure that all students can benefit from technology and broadband. Greater access to technology can help more students benefit from continual innovation and new tools. While most of these technologies are not yet research-based, and the use of devices may not be appropriate for younger children, incorporating new tools into homework may be a low-cost method to improve the quality of student learning.
• Curriculum reform and instructional redesign should focus on homework. There are many states and districts that are reforming curriculum or adopting different approaches to instruction, including personalized learning. Curriculum reform and personalized learning are tied to greater academic outcomes and an increase in motivation. Homework should also be a focus of these and other efforts; states and districts should consider how textbooks or other instructional materials can provide resources or examples to help teachers assign meaningful homework that will complement regular instruction.

The findings and recommendations of this study are discussed in detail below.

Homework must be rigorous and aligned to content standards

All homework is not created equal. The CAP study sought to evaluate homework quality—specifically, if homework is aligned to rigorous content standards. The authors believe that access to grade-level content at home will increase the positive impact of adopting more rigorous content standards, and they sought to examine if homework is aligned to the topics and skill level in the content standards.

The 10-minute rule

According to Harris Cooper, homework is a valuable tool, but there is such a thing as too much. In 2006, Cooper and his colleagues argued that spending a lot of time on homework can be counterproductive. He believes that research supports the 10-minute rule—that students should be able to complete their homework in no more than 10 minutes multiplied by their grade. For example, this would amount to 20 minutes for a second-grade student, 50 minutes for a fifth-grade student, and so on. 19

The Common Core, developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, established a set of benchmarks for “what students should know and be able to do” in math and language arts by the end of the academic year in kindergarten through high school. 20 The math standards focus on fewer concepts but in more depth and ask students to develop different approaches to solve similar problems. In language arts, the standards moved students away from narrative-based assignments, instead concentrating on using evidence to build arguments and reading more nonfiction.

The Common Core is not silent in the cognitive demand needed to demonstrate mastery for each standard. 21 For example, a second grade math standard is “[s]olve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately.” For this standard, a second-grader has not mastered the standard if they are only able to identifying the name and value of every.

Remember, apply, integrate: Levels of cognitive demand or depth of knowledge

There are numerous frameworks to describe levels of cognitive skills. One of the most prominent of these models, Bloom’s taxonomy, identifies six categories of cognition. The original levels and terms were knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation; however, these terms have changed slightly over time. 22 Learning does not necessarily follow a linear process, and certainly, all levels of cognitive demand are important. Yet these categories require individuals to demonstrate a different level of working knowledge of a topic. With the advent of standards-based reform, the role of cognitive skill—particularly in the area of assessment—has become a much more explicit component of curriculum materials.

Over the past two decades, cognitive science has shown that individuals of any age retain information longer when they demonstrate deeper learning and make their own meaning with the content—using skills such as the abilities to conjecture, generalize, prove, and more—as opposed to only committing ideas to memory or performing rote procedures, using skills such as the ability to memorize or recall.

In essence, Common Core created rigorous expectations to guide the instruction of students in all states that chose to adopt its standards. These standards aimed to increase college preparedness and make students more competitive in the workforce. Policymakers, advocates, and practitioners hoped that Common Core would create greater consistency in academic rigor across states. In addition, with the classroom and homework aligned to these standards, many anticipated that students would graduate from high school prepared for college or career. As of 2017, 41 states and the District of Columbia have adopted and are working to implement the standards, although many of these states have modified them slightly. 23

In this study, the authors evaluated homework to determine if it was aligned to Common Core standards in two ways: First, does it reflect grade-level content standards; second, does it require students to use skills similar to those required to demonstrate proficiency in a content area. This multitiered approach is critical to evaluating alignment between standards and instruction—in this case homework. Instruction must teach content and help students develop necessary levels of cognitive skill. Curricula for each grade should include instructional materials that are sequenced and rigorous, thus enabling students to develop an understanding of all content standards.

In spring 2018, the Center for American Progress used Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to administer a survey. MTurk is a crowdsourcing marketplace managed by Amazon; it allows organizations to virtually administer surveys for a diverse sample. 24 The CAP survey asked parents to submit a sample of their child’s most recent math or language arts homework assignment and complete a few questions to gauge if the assignment was challenging, as well as how long it took for the student to complete the assignment. A total of 372 parents responded to the survey, and CAP analyzed 187 homework assignments.

Of the 372 parents who participated in the survey, 202, or about 54 percent of respondents, submitted samples of their child’s homework assignment. The researchers dropped a total of 15 homework submissions from analysis either because the subject matter was not math or language arts—but rather, science, music, or social studies—or because the authors could not examine the specific content, for example, in cases where parents only provided a copy of the cover of a textbook. Of the remaining homework samples submitted, 72 percent (134 samples) focused on mathematics content, while the remaining 28 percent (53 samples) represented language arts content.

Of the 372 responding parents, 234—or 63 percent—were female, and 126—or 37 percent—were male. Forty-eight percent of parents responding to the survey were under the age of 34, while almost 90 percent of respondents were under the age of 45. There was an unequal distribution of parents representing elementary and secondary grade levels. Seventy-one percent of the total sample were parents with students in primary (K-2) and elementary (3-5) grades. (See Methodology section below)

Based on the analysis, the authors’ drew the following conclusions:

Homework is largely aligned to Common Core standards, especially the topics in the standards

The authors found that the submitted homework, for the most part, was aligned to Common Core standards content or within the so-called “good” range based on content expert evaluations. As described in the Methodology, the authors used an alignment index that does not require a homework assignment to exactly mirror the content standards—both topic and skill level—for evaluators to note that it is within a good range. For context, the study’s alignment index has a range of 0.00 to 1.00, where 0.00 indicates no content in common whatsoever between the two descriptions—perfect misalignment—and 1.00 indicates complete agreement between the two descriptions—perfect alignment. Generally speaking, what one might call “good” alignment for instruction tends to range on the alignment index between 0.4 and 0.6, with a measure of 0.5 serving as a median indicator of good alignment.

The analysis is a snapshot of homework and, therefore, does not allow the authors to determine if homework over the course of a year covered all required standards. In other words, it is difficult to say how many of the standards for a given grade are covered across a full school year, simply because of the limited sample of assignments.

The alignment index evaluates both topic and skill, but there was particular alignment in topic areas. For instance, there was a strong emphasis in the topic areas of number sense and operations for primary math homework. When combined with the third-most emphasized topic, measurement, these three areas accounted for more than 90 percent of primary mathematics homework content. The actual math content standards for the primary grades also placed heavy emphasis on the topic areas of number sense, operations, and measurement—though they accounted for only about 80 percent of primary math content.

In general, across all age groups, math homework was more closely aligned to content standards—both topic and skill level—than language arts. The alignment results for middle school math were particularly strong, at 0.56, based on 27 homework samples. The stronger alignment among math homework samples may be in part due to the fact that there were more math assignments in the sample than language arts assignments. Larger samples offer more opportunities to show alignment. As a result, smaller samples may underestimate alignment.

The table below presents the alignment indices, which were calculated using the homework samples collected for each grade band.

Homework is often focused on low-level skills in the standards, particularly in younger grades

While the authors’ analysis shows that there was significant alignment in the topic of standards and homework assignments, most of the homework did not require students to demonstrate the full depth of knowledge required of content standards. The analysis uncovered an emphasis on procedural knowledge, with an even stronger emphasis on memorization and recall in language arts. Content standards, on the other hand, require students to demonstrate deeper-knowledge skills, such as the ability to analyze, conceptualize, or generate.

Of five performance expectation categories across math and language arts that the authors used to measure alignment between standards and homework, there was a disproportionate emphasis on skills that require a lower level of knowledge or understanding. In grades K-2, for instance, the content standards emphasize the performance expectations of “procedures,” or computation, and “demonstrate,” or understanding, but the homework samples submitted primarily emphasized the procedures level of performance expectation. Similarly, homework for grades three through five focused almost entirely on the performance expectation of procedures, rather than standards that emphasized both procedures and demonstrate. 25

As seen with the middle school grades, high school math standards—despite a continued emphasis on procedures—show increased emphasis on the more challenging performance expectations of “demonstrate understanding” and “conjecture, generalize, prove.” Interestingly, this shift toward more challenging performance expectations is most visible for the topic areas of geometric concepts and functions, in both the standards and the homework samples submitted by parents of high school students.

Parents report that homework frequently does not challenge students

Nearly half of parents that participated in the survey reported that homework does not challenge their child. In particular, parents of primary-grade children were most likely to agree or strongly agree that the homework assignment they submitted was too easy for their child—58 percent for language arts and 55 percent for math.

Parents’ opinions about homework difficulty varied between mathematics and language arts assignments. Forty-eight percent of parents who submitted a mathematics assignment and 44 percent of parents who submitted a language arts assignment reported that it was too easy for their child. There was some variance across grade spans as well. As noted above, parents of primary-grade children were most likely to find the homework assignments too easy for their child. Meanwhile, parents that submitted high school math homework were also more likely to agree or strongly agree that the assignments were too easy, with 50 percent agreeing or strongly agreeing and only 33 percent disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with the statement. While there were clear trends in parent opinions, it is important to acknowledge that the sample size for each subset was small.

The comments of surveyed parents echoed this finding. One parent noted that “most homework that they are assigned seems like nothing more than busy work.” Another parent said: “The homework is not strong enough to build conceptual knowledge. It assumes that the child already has that knowledge.” Meanwhile, another parent commented: “Homework is way oversimplified and they don’t seem to spend much time on it. It’s a bit sad that English and math don’t seem to require what they used to. I remember much longer and harder worksheets to complete when I was a child.” 26

Weak homework samples

Within the sample of homework assignments, there were some that fell short of rigorous. For instance, one assignment listed 24 pairs of numbers—three and nine, 24 and 21, and so on—and asked the student to circle the smaller number in order to build numbers sense. While homework can be critical when establishing foundational knowledge, repetitive activities such as this often fail to engage students and, instead, overemphasize rote learning. Asking a student to list or name a number of a lesser value, for instance, would make this assignment more interactive.

A second example from kindergarten asked a student to create an uppercase and lowercase letter “f” by filling in dots with paint. The parent who submitted it highlighted the limited utility of the assignment, emphasizing that it does not hold students to high expectations. What’s more, the homework only gave the student two opportunities to practice writing the letter, both in a nonauthentic way. Indeed, the assignment focused more on filling in circles than it did constructing letters. While this task might help build a kindergartener’s hand-eye coordination, it does little to support language arts.

Exemplary homework samples

While many of the assignments submitted focused on procedures and, for math, computation, it is worth acknowledging some of the more exemplary types of homework included in the samples. These offer examples of how homework can challenge students, engage rigorous cognitive processes, and demonstrate that content standards at all levels—not just middle and high school—can support challenging homework that pushes students to think critically.

For example, one math homework assignment asked a student to identify which individuals possessed each of four groups of shapes based on the following description:

Ally, Bob, Carl, and Dana each have a set of shapes.

• Bob has no triangles.
• The number of rectangles that Dana has is the same as the number of triangles that Carl has.

This example is interesting on two counts. First, the assignment goes beyond procedure, requiring the student to analyze the various sets of shapes in order to determine which set belongs to which individual. It is also interesting insofar as it demonstrates a common real-world situation: There is usually more than one way to solve a problem, and sometimes, there is more than one correct answer.

Similarly, another example asked a student to determine actions that would help students beautify the school. The header of the assignment read, “Make a Decision: Keep Our School Beautiful!” The assignment had various boxes, each with a question above, such as, “Should we recycle?” or “Should we make art?” The assignment asked the student to “(1) think about each choice, (2) consider how each choice would affect them and others in the school community, (3) write their ideas in boxes below.” In doing so, it required primary students to analyze and generate ideas—both of which are skills that promote deeper learning.

Recommendations

Homework offers a valuable window into the curricula, assessment practices, and instructional preferences of teachers. It provides insight into classroom learning as well as the types of knowledge and skills the teacher believes will reinforce that instruction at home.

This analysis shows that the content and value of homework varies. While most homework within the sample was aligned to content standards, there is still a significant need to increase the rigor of homework and create opportunities for students to use higher-order skills.

Overall, schools and districts should pay more attention to homework as a reform lever. A growing body of research shows that homework is connected to learning outcomes, and as a result, schools and districts should ensure that policies help teachers provide meaningful assignments. 27 Based on this survey and the existing research on homework quality, the authors identified recommendations that can help increase the quality of homework:

Schools and districts should develop homework policies that emphasize strategic, rigorous homework

In many cases, the current debate over homework is short-sighted. Many arguments focus on whether or not students should have homework. There are entire school districts that have simply banned homework altogether. However, the debate should move beyond the merit of homework. Research shows that homework is linked to better performance on standardized assessments, especially in higher grades. 28 Many homework scholars also believe that a reasonable homework load can help develop important work habits. 29 Therefore, instead of eliminating homework outright, schools, districts, and advocates should focus on improving its rigor and effectiveness. As discussed throughout, homework should be an extension of instruction during the school day. Accordingly, policymakers and schools must make changes to homework that are in concert with curriculum reform.

Like all instruction, homework should be aligned to states’ rigorous content standards and should engage students in order to promote deeper learning and retention. To do this, homework should ask students to use higher-order skills, such as the ability to analyze or evaluate.

However, schools and districts, rather than simply assigning longer, more complicated assignments to make homework seem more challenging, should make strategic shifts. Homework assignments should be thought-provoking. But there is a such thing as too much homework. Districts and schools should ensure that teachers follow the research-supported 10-minute rule. 30 Also, teachers, schools, and districts should consider resources to set all students up for success when faced with more rigorous home assignments; homework should never be a burden or source of stress for families and parents.

Districts and schools should audit homework to make sure it is challenging and aligned to standards

Rather than implementing homework bans, district policymakers and schools should regularly review homework samples to ensure that they are aligned to grade-level standards, are engaging, require students to demonstrate higher-order skills, and adhere to the 10-minute rule. The audit should review multiple homework assignments from each classroom and consider how much time children are receiving from all subject areas, when appropriate. The district or school should ask for ongoing feedback from students, parents, and guardians in order to collect a comprehensive representation of the learning experience at home.

In instances where the district or school principal finds that homework assignments are not aligned to grade-level standards or take too much or too little time to complete, they should help the school or teachers improve them by recommending instructional materials that may make it easier for teachers to identify appropriate, grade-level homework assignments. In addition, if parents or students identify challenges to complete assignments at home, the district or school should identify solutions to ensure that all students have access to the resources and support they need to complete homework.

Schools and districts should provide access to technology and other supports that make it easier for students to complete homework

Technology can go a long way to improve homework and provide additional support or scaffolding at home. For instance, programs such as the Khan Academy—which provides short lessons through YouTube videos and practice exercises—can give students rigorous homework that is aligned to the Common Core standards. Unfortunately, many households across the nation still do not have adequate access to devices or internet at home. A 2017 ACT survey found that 14 percent of students only have access to one technology device at home. 31 Moreover, federal data from 2013 found that about 40 percent of households with school-age children do not have access to broadband. 32 It is likely that the percentage has decreased with time, but internet access remains a significant problem.

Schools and districts should adopt programs to ensure that all students can benefit from technology and broadband. For instance, Salton City, California, installed a Wi-Fi router in a school bus. Every night, the bus parks near a neighborhood with low internet connectivity, serving as a hot spot for students. 33

Moreover, greater access to technology can help more students benefit from new innovative resources. While most of these technologies are not yet research-based, and the use of devices may not be appropriate for younger children, incorporating new tools into homework may be a low-cost option to improve the quality of student learning. For instance, ASSISTments is a free web-based tool that provides immediate feedback as students complete homework or classwork. It has been proven to raise student outcomes. 34 Other online resources can complement classroom learning as well. There are various organizations that offer students free lessons in the form of YouTube videos, while also providing supplementary practice exercises and materials for educators. LearnZillion, for example, provides its users with high-quality lessons that are aligned to the Common Core standards. 35

Curriculum reform and instruction design should focus on homework

There are many states and districts that are engaging in curriculum reform. Many of these recent reform efforts show promise. In an analysis of the curricula and instructional materials used by the nation’s 30 largest school districts, the Center for American Progress found that approximately one-third of materials adopted or recommended by these districts were highly rated and met expectations for alignment. 36

Homework should be a focus of curriculum reform, and states and districts should consider how textbooks or other instructional materials can provide resources or examples to help teachers assign meaningful homework that will complement regular classroom instruction.

Personalized learning—which tailors instruction and learning environments to meet each student’s individual interests and needs—is also gaining traction as a way to increase declining engagement in schools and increase student motivation. 37 These ideas are also relevant to homework quality. A 2010 study found that when students were offered a choice of homework assignment, they were more motivated to do the work, reported greater competence in the assignments, and performed better on unit tests, compared with peers that did not have choice in homework. 38 The study also suggested that offering students a choice improved the rate of completion of assignments. 39 Districts and schools should help implement more student-centered approaches to all instruction—in the classroom and at home.

When it comes to change management, experts often advise to look for low-hanging fruit—the simplest and easiest fixes. 40 In education, homework reform is low-hanging fruit. Research shows that quality homework and increasing student achievement are positively correlated; and yet, the authors’ analysis shows that some schools may not be taking advantage of a valuable opportunity to support student achievement. Instead of mirroring the cognitive demand in rigorous content standards, homework assigned to students is often weak or rote. But it does not have to be this way. More rigorous, insightful homework is out there. Policymakers and schools need to move beyond the debate of whether or not to assign work outside of school hours and do their own due diligence—or, put another way, their own homework—before assigning homework to students in this nation’s schools.

Methodology

As mentioned above, the authors used the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) online survey tool to collect from parents their child’s actual homework assignments. Specifically, as part of the survey, the authors asked parents to submit a sample of their child’s most recent math or language arts homework assignment and have the child complete questions to gauge if the assignment was challenging, as well as how long it took to complete the assignment. In all, 372 parents responded to the survey, with CAP analyzing 187 homework assignments. The submissions of samples were analyzed by a group of analysts under the supervision of John L. Smithson, researcher emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Measuring alignment

The homework samples were reviewed by two teams of content analysts—one for mathematics and one for language arts—who were asked to describe the academic content represented by the submitted homework, as well as the performance expectation. Each team consisted of three analysts who possessed the relevant content expertise and experience in methodology used to gather the descriptive data.

The teams used a taxonomy-based methodology that was developed by education researchers Andrew Porter and John Smithson during Porter’s tenure as director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 41 Researchers both nationally and internationally have subsequently used this approach to content description for decades in order to examine issues of alignment as well as to support program evaluation and inform school improvement efforts.

The U.S. Department of Education also recognizes the validity of this approach. Specifically, the Education Department completes a peer review of states’ annual assessment program’s alignment to state academic content standards. 42 The Porter/Smithson approach is one of a handful of alignment methodologies that has been determined to meet these federal requirements. 43

The Porter/Smithson approach is unique because it defines instructional content as a two-dimensional construct consisting of topic and cognitive demand, or skill. This approach to describing cognitive skill is similar to Bloom’s, which the authors have described above. It has five categories: recall, process, analyze, integrate, and conceptual understanding. The Porter/Smithson approach is the most stringent of alignment indicators, as it looks at both topic and cognitive demand; it is also possibly the most challenging to interpret because the final alignment score considers two dimensions.

The alignment index has a range of 0.00 to 1.00, where 0.00 indicates no content in common whatsoever between the two descriptions—perfect misalignment—and 1.00 indicates complete agreement between the two descriptions—perfect alignment. A measure of 1.00 is exceedingly unlikely, requiring perfect agreement across every cell that makes up the content description. In practice, this is only seen when comparing a document to itself. For instance, very high alignment measures—more than 0.70—have been noted when comparing different test forms used for a particular grade-level state assessment; but those are instances where high alignment is desired. In terms of instructional alignment—in other words, how well instruction is aligned to the standards—a measure of 1.00 is not the goal. For this reason, the authors did not expect any analysis of homework alignment, no matter how well designed, to have a measure of or close to 1.00.

Generally speaking, what one might call “good” alignment for instruction tends to range between 0.4 and 0.6 on the alignment index, with a measure of 0.5 serving as a median indicator of good alignment. The description of the content standards represents the goal of instructional practice—the destination, not the journey. As such, it does not indicate the best path for achieving those goals. The 0.5 indicator measure represents a middle road where teachers are balancing the expectations of the content standards with the immediate learning needs of their students.

Limitations

The authors acknowledge that the analysis has shortcomings. The sample was relatively small and does not directly mirror the national population of parents of elementary and secondary school students. As such, the sample does not necessarily reflect the views or homework experiences of the larger U.S. population.

Limited sample size

The current study analyzes a snapshot of homework across many classrooms, rather than homework from a single classroom or school. The assumption is that looking at individual homework assignments across many classrooms will help to construct a composite picture of mathematics and language arts homework that will be somewhat reflective of the picture one would get from following many classrooms for many days. If the sample is large enough with a wide enough geographical spread, that assumption serves researchers well enough.

For the current study, however, the number of homework samples available for each grade band were, in some cases, quite small—as low as five assignments each for middle and high school language arts. The largest sample sizes were for primary and elementary math, with 47 and 41 homework assignments collected, respectively. However, even 47 is a fairly small sample size for drawing inferences about a full year of homework.

Selection bias

The respondents that participated in this study were a reasonably diverse group in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity, but there are notable differences between the makeup of the parents represented in the study and the makeup of parents of school-age children more generally. Respondents were predominantly female, with women making up almost two-thirds—63 percent—of the sample. They also tended to be parents of younger school-age children, with 71 percent of the respondents reporting on children from the bottom half of the K-12 system—grades K-5. Finally, in terms of race and ethnicity, the sample overrepresented Asian American families and underrepresented African American families. These groups comprised 14 percent and 8 percent of respondents, respectively, compared with national averages of 6 percent and 12 percent.

Because the sample does not well reflect the population of parents of elementary and secondary students, the authors considered possible selection biases that may help to explain the differences in sample and overall population and that may have affected certain members of the population more than others.

For instance, the authors administered the survey using MTurk, which may have skewed the sample. In general, the population on the site is younger and whiter than the U.S. population as a whole. However, research has shown that MTurk yields high-quality, nationally representative results, with data that are at least as reliable as those obtained via traditional methods. 44 The researchers also targeted California and Texas in order to increase the diversity of the sample.

In addition, accessibility could have led to selection bias. Despite broad internet access in 2018, there remain families in low-income locales where internet access is not readily available for parents. It is also possible that older parents are less likely to be as active on the internet as younger parents, further contributing to selection bias.

About the authors

Ulrich Boser is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is also the founder and CEO of The Learning Agency.

Meg Benner is a senior consultant at the Center.

John Smithson is the researcher emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Sarah Shapiro, a former research assistant at the Center for American Progress, for her support developing the survey. They also appreciate the valuable feedback of Catherine Brown, senior fellow for Education Policy at the Center for American Progress; Tom Loveless, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; Lisette Partelow, director of K-12 Special Initiatives at the Center; and Scott Sargrad, vice president of K-12 Education Policy at the Center.

Conflicts of interest

The author, Ulrich Boser, has a financial relationship with the creators of the online homework tool ASSISTments.

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The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here . American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Ulrich Boser

Former Senior Fellow

Senior Consultant

John Smithson

The case against homework

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: June 12, 2023

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When it comes to homework wars, many parents feel like they’re waging a losing battle against apathy or excuse making. But what if you happen to side with your kids about the pointlessness of their assignments?

Sara Bennett, the founder of Stop Homework and coauthor of The Case Against Homework (Crown, 2006), raised hell and ultimately changed the homework policy at her daughter’s school. GreatSchools talked to the lawyer turned reformer about preposterous projects and how children can learn to think for themselves.

GreatSchools: Why did you start an anti-homework campaign?

Sara Bennett: It started when my son brought homework home in the first grade. His first assignment was a reading log. He didn’t know how to read or write, so my husband and I filled in his log for him. At the first parent-teacher conference, the teacher said our son had to do the homework. I didn’t agree since he didn’t yet read.

I was an advocate in my work life, so it comes naturally to me to speak up. Whenever they’d talk about homework at my children’s school, I’d raise my hand and say, “Could you tell me why you’re doing this?”

Then in 2000 there was a big splash about a school in Piscataway, N.J., that stopped homework. And there was a book that came out around the same time, The End of Homework . This all gave me the factual basis that [homework] doesn’t make sense. It takes too much time, and it’s just busywork.

After that other parents came to me and said, “Can you help?” Also, my daughter, who is three years younger than my son, had more homework since she was caught up in No Child Left Behind. The standard became doing two hours a night. At that point, my husband and I were pretty radical about it and felt she didn’t need to do all this homework.

GreatSchools: Did that affect your daughter’s grades?

SB: Yes, she got pretty bad grades. But it was way, way, way too much homework. We had her do the background reading and not the assignments. But we did have her do the big projects so she wouldn’t be singled out.

GreatSchools: What about parents helping with homework?

SB: The first time I knew parents did projects for their kids was when my son was in third grade. They were supposed to make a little doll out of a clothespin that was representative of immigration. My son made the doll by himself.

I was riding my bike through the neighborhood and a parent said, “Hey, how’s your doll coming along?” When I asked, “What doll?” she answered, “Julian’s doll.” I told her that Julian [was] done with his doll. Then she told me that all the parents [were] making their children’s dolls.

It was unbelievable. When the dolls were displayed, my son’s was hidden in the back because it was the only one that looked like it didn’t belong in a museum. I went to the teacher and said, “Julian’s the only one who made his doll. I did third grade 30 years ago — I don’t need to now.” The teacher didn’t get it, but Julian did.

Both my children are artists. I think it’s because we never had our hands in their work [that] they continued to develop and are proud of their work.

GreatSchools: Dr. Harris Cooper’s synthesis of studies on homework indicates that homework does improve academic achievement.

SB: Did he say what it improves? My understanding of homework and achievement is that you will get a better course grade. Of course, you’ll get a better grade if doing homework counts for 10 or 20% of [it]. More than likely, you’ll also do better on the teacher-created tests by studying for them the night before. But that has nothing to do with actual learning. Most kids learn things for tests and then promptly forget them. That’s not real achievement. Real achievement is learning long-term life skills, the ability to be a creative thinker and work with others. Those should be the goals of education.

GreatSchools: One of your claims is that homework turns kids off learning.

SB: There are so many kids I know who don’t seem to be as intellectually curious as their parents were. My daughter went to a school at the beginning of sixth grade where, because there was a lot of homework, she never had time to read. I had her change schools. Her friends who stayed in that school are doing terribly at this point. They don’t like to read at all. They haven’t had time to develop their own interests. This is partially anecdotal, but it’s partially what educators are tearing their hair out over. Students today don’t know how to think; they don’t think outside the box.

GreatSchools: What should you do if your child has too much homework, or that it doesn’t help?

SB: My whole thing is that parents advocate for their kids. And there are different ways to advocate. If you’re going to complain, write an email but don’t send it for 24 hours. Be polite, and I always say less is more. Simply state what the problem is.

Often, teachers don’t think about homework. I had a conference with my child’s health teacher. The kids had to write a book report, and it had to be 12-point font and three pages, no more and no less. My daughter wrote her report, and it was two pages and excellent, but it wasn’t three pages, so she started to pad it. I said, “You are teaching the kids how to pad but not how to write.” [The teacher] didn’t get it.

GreatSchools: Is homework ever effective?

SB: If you are really engaged with something you’ve done at school and want to do more of it at home, that’s effective homework. If you’ve read one book by an author and you want to read four more books by another, that’s effective. To go home and answer questions about science or history, no. Are certain things necessary, maybe a little review if you’re taking a language class? You probably can do that during the school day.

Nobody is saying you should go home, sit down on your couch, and do nothing. But I feel like adults have more downtime than kids. If you go to the orthodontist, every kid is doing their homework, and adults are reading their book or magazine.

GreatSchools: Some say that the anti-homework contingent is led by middle- to upper-middle-class parents who have the luxury of saying no to homework. Whereas, low-income parents who want their children to get ahead expect them to work hard.

SB: If the schoolwork is busy work, it’s busy work whether you’re an upper-middle-class or a poor child. If in a poor school they are sending home books because [families] don’t have books in their homes, that’s great. To send home a worksheet that’s mind numbing — how does that help?

GreatSchools: But what if you want your child to go to the best college?

SB: What does that mean, the “best college?” What makes people successful is to do something they really love. It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity. People are so worried about their kids not achieving, but if people stopped to think, they’d realize: The economy is unsettled; the job market is unsettled. I’m not sure what professions are going to be considered stable. The skills you need are to be a good problem solver, a creative thinker. Is homework teaching our kids these skills?

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It’s not uncommon to hear students, parents, and even some teachers always complaining about homework. Why, then, is homework an inescapable part of the student experience? Worksheets, busy work, and reading assignments continue to be a mainstay of students’ evenings.

Whether from habit or comparison with out-of-class work time in other nations, our students are getting homework and, according to some of them, a LOT of it. Educators and policy makers must ask themselves—does assigning homework pay off?

Is there evidence that homework benefits students younger than high school?

The Scholastic article Is Homework Bad? references Alfie Kohn’s book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing , in which he says, “There is no evidence to demonstrate that homework benefits students below high school age.”

The article goes on to note that those who oppose homework focus on the drawbacks of significant time spent on homework, identifying one major negative as homework’s intrusion into family time. They also point out that opponents believe schools have decided homework is necessary and thus assign it simply to assign some kind of homework, not because doing the work meets specifically-identified student needs.

“Busy work” does not help students learn

Students and parents appear to carry similar critiques of homework, specifically regarding assignments identified as busy work—long sheets of repetitive math problems, word searches, or reading logs seemingly designed to make children dislike books.

When asked how homework can negatively affect children, Nancy Kalish, author of The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It , says that many homework assignments are “simply busy work” that makes learning “a chore rather than a positive, constructive experience.”

Commenters on the piece, both parents and students, tended to agree. One student shared that on occasion they spent more time on homework than at school, while another commenter pointed out that, “We don’t give slow-working children a longer school day, but we consistently give them a longer homework day.”

Without feedback, homework is ineffective

The efficacy of the homework identified by Kalish has been studied by policy researchers as well. Gerald LeTendre, of Penn State’s Education Policy Studies department points out that the shotgun approach to homework, when students all receive the same photocopied assignment which is then checked as complete rather than discussed individually with the student, is “not very effective.”  He goes on to say that, “If there’s no feedback and no monitoring, the homework is probably not effective.”

Researchers from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia had similar findings in their study, “ When Is Homework Worth The Time ?” According to UVAToday, these researchers reported no “substantive difference” in the grades of students related to homework completion.

As researcher Adam Maltese noted, “Our results hint that maybe homework is not being used as well as it could be.” The report further suggested that while not all homework is bad, the type and quality of assignments and their differentiation to specific learners appears to be an important point of future research.

If homework is assigned, it should heighten understanding of the subject

The Curry School of Education report did find a positive association between standardized test performance and time spent on homework, but standardized test performance shouldn’t be the end goal of assignments—a heightened understanding and capability with the content material should.

As such, it is important that if/when teachers assign homework assignments, it is done thoughtfully and carefully—and respectful of the maximum times suggested by the National Education Association, about 10 minutes per night starting in the first grade, with an additional 10 minutes per year after.

Continue reading — The Homework Debate: How Homework Benefits Students

Monica Fuglei is a graduate of the University of Nebraska in Omaha and a current adjunct faculty member of Arapahoe Community College in Colorado, where she teaches composition and creative writing.

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• Homework Helps High School Students Most — But it Must Be Purposeful

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The Surprising History of Homework Reform

Really, kids, there was a time when lots of grownups thought homework was bad for you.

Homework causes a lot of fights. Between parents and kids, sure. But also, as education scholar Brian Gill and historian Steven Schlossman write, among U.S. educators. For more than a century, they’ve been debating how, and whether, kids should do schoolwork at home .

At the dawn of the twentieth century, homework meant memorizing lists of facts which could then be recited to the teacher the next day. The rising progressive education movement despised that approach. These educators advocated classrooms free from recitation. Instead, they wanted students to learn by doing. To most, homework had no place in this sort of system.

Through the middle of the century, Gill and Schlossman write, this seemed like common sense to most progressives. And they got their way in many schools—at least at the elementary level. Many districts abolished homework for K–6 classes, and almost all of them eliminated it for students below fourth grade.

By the 1950s, many educators roundly condemned drills, like practicing spelling words and arithmetic problems. In 1963, Helen Heffernan, chief of California’s Bureau of Elementary Education, definitively stated that “No teacher aware of recent theories could advocate such meaningless homework assignments as pages of repetitive computation in arithmetic. Such an assignment not only kills time but kills the child’s creative urge to intellectual activity.”

But, the authors note, not all reformers wanted to eliminate homework entirely. Some educators reconfigured the concept, suggesting supplemental reading or having students do projects based in their own interests. One teacher proposed “homework” consisting of after-school “field trips to the woods, factories, museums, libraries, art galleries.” In 1937, Carleton Washburne, an influential educator who was the superintendent of the Winnetka, Illinois, schools, proposed a homework regimen of “cooking and sewing…meal planning…budgeting, home repairs, interior decorating, and family relationships.”

Another reformer explained that “at first homework had as its purpose one thing—to prepare the next day’s lessons. Its purpose now is to prepare the children for fuller living through a new type of creative and recreational homework.”

That idea didn’t necessarily appeal to all educators. But moderation in the use of traditional homework became the norm.

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“Virtually all commentators on homework in the postwar years would have agreed with the sentiment expressed in the NEA Journal in 1952 that ‘it would be absurd to demand homework in the first grade or to denounce it as useless in the eighth grade and in high school,’” Gill and Schlossman write.

That remained more or less true until 1983, when publication of the landmark government report A Nation at Risk helped jump-start a conservative “back to basics” agenda, including an emphasis on drill-style homework. In the decades since, continuing “reforms” like high-stakes testing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Common Core standards have kept pressure on schools. Which is why twenty-first-century first graders get spelling words and pages of arithmetic.

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Watch CBS News

The Case Against Homework

By Steve Hartman

February 20, 2009 / 6:31 PM EST / CBS

Even though he's just a fifth grader, 11-year-old Ben Berrafato is challenging - seriously challenging - one of this country's most enduring and widely held beliefs: The belief that kids need homework.

"Where has it been proven, in these many centuries of this work, that it has been good for anyone?" Ben said.

Ben's crusade against homework began with a simple assignment, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports. For English class at New Lane Elementary in Selden, N.Y., Ben had to write about something he was passionate about - and since Ben hates homework he wrote about that. And he did so quite creatively.

Part of his essay reads: "Homework is assigned to students like me without our permission. Thus, homework is slavery. Slavery was abolished with the passing of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. So every school in America has been illegally run for the past 143 years."

On a whim, Ben sent a copy of his essay to the New York Daily News.

"And I got like this humongous section of the op-ed page," he said.

It then circulated on the Internet, Ben started doing talk shows, and a monster was born.

"School should stay at school," he said. "When it is brought home in a backpack, it causes problems."

For teachers and school administrators, Ben's whole argument borders on blasphemy. Certainly most would dismiss it as wishful propaganda - if not for the simple fact that the kid may be right.

"He's really onto something here," said Nancy Kalish, who co-authored a book called "The Case Against Homework."

"As he pointed out, there is almost zero connection, correlation between homework and any type of achievement in elementary school," Kalish said.

In researching his essay, Kalish says Ben really did his homework, so to speak, citing the very latest studies.

"Kids who do 60 to 90 minutes of homework in middle school and over two hours in high school actually do worse than average in standardized tests," his essay read.

How far is Ben going to take it?

"As far as I can," he said. "As far as possible."

Read more about Ben's quest on Couric & Co.

Ben plans to send the signatures to Congress.

He says just about everybody's been supportive. Except … his principal.

"You know, a famous historian once said, 'I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death you're right to say it,'" the principal said. "You know who that was? I believe it was Patrick Henry. I could be wrong. I learned that a long time ago in homework and I've forgotten it."

Ben says she just proved his point right there.

"If you're going to do homework then forget what it is, then why even do it?" Ben asked.

Of course, now he's probably got homework and detention.

"It's an interesting thought," the principal said.

Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment "On the Road."

More from CBS News

Is Homework Illegal AnyWhere?

• Post author By admin
• September 19, 2022

In this blog, you will learn about is homework illegal? so let’s get started.

Homework has become an important part since Horace Mann invented school. But many students have a query “is homework illegal?” – many students don’t want to do homework, and according to the research, this happens worldwide. 

Homework is time-consuming and stressful for students. That’s why students hate to do homework and want to know is it legal or illegal. We know that you are one of them that want to know is homework illegal or legal. For some reasons, you can say it is illegal or for some, it is legal. 

We will start with the illegal site. Many American elementary schools have banned homework because they find that homework can affect students’ health by causing stomach and headaches problems.

Many students suffer from sleep deprivation because they stay up late at night to complete their homework. It can be harmful to children’s learning skills because sleep has been shown to assist memory consolidation.

Table of Contents

Is Homework Illegal?

While the answer to the question “is homework illegal?” is “no, not yet,” our attitudes toward homework are changing, and the pandemic has caused us to reconsider children’s work-life balance. Some school districts and individual schools have begun to prohibit homework and limit the amount of homework that can be assigned to students. Some schools have said that homework is given out only 2-3 times per week, and others have outright banned homework for students under the age of 15. 

Why Homework Is Not Illegal

There are numerous disagreements over the effectiveness of homework. However, after years of debate and research, there is no solid proof that it helps students in achieving higher marks. While some kids dislike homework and perform better in school without it, others rely on it to gain a deeper understanding of certain subjects.

For example, many students gain a better understanding of mathematical ideas through repeated practice. As a result, making homework unlawful may disadvantage more students, skewing the outcomes in favour of children who are born with these skills.

The government recognises this and has not passed any legislation prohibiting schools from assigning homework. Law enforcement will not arrest a teacher for assigning homework to students. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

A short history of homework for you

There is no definitive answer to the question of when homework was invented and who invented homework .  Pliny the Younger from the Roman Empire, Roberto Nevilis from Italy in 1905, or Horace Mann can all be credited.  In one form or another, homework has almost certainly been around for a long time.  

One of the last two men is supposed to have introduced today’s concept of homework (after all, a woman would have known that there is PLENTY to do at home!). It was created as a punishment or as a way to show students that they can control their time.

As soon as homework was introduced, it was controversial.  In some states, homework bans were already in place at the turn of the 20th century.  The amount of homework given to kids increased as fears of the cold war grew and Americans were concerned about falling behind.  Later, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the anti-homework sentiment grew again, and students were given less homework. The country was experiencing an economic downturn when I entered the “workforce,” which means school.  Who else could be blamed but teachers?  There is a suggestion that the amount of homework given to kids should be increased by the Department of Education.

It has been reported that some high school students report having up to three hours of homework per night since then. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

Importance Of Homework

Improve memory

Whatever students learn in the classroom they can revise while doing homework. It can help them to improve their memory.

Students can learn to make good use of time

When students spend a lot of time completing their homework it helps them to keep away from useless activities such as spending more hours on phones, television or video games. 

Students can become independent

Many students do their homework on their own. They don’t get help from their teacher or friends. It makes them self-reliant and increases their confidence. 

Students learn responsibility

Many students understand that finishing homework is their responsibility. That’s why they do their homework every day.  It makes them responsible as a person.

Students learn to use many resources

When students do their homework they learn to use many resources such as libraries, the internet, etc. it helps them to find more information to complete their homework on time. 

Allow parents to involve in the studies of their child

When students do their homework it allows their parents to know what their child learns in school. And they can get involved with the child in their studies. 

Improves academic performance

Learning in the classroom isn’t enough to get good grades in school. Self-study is very important for achieving high grades.

Increases concentration

When students do their homework they find a peaceful place to study where they can concentrate more to complete their homework.

Why Should Students Have Homework?

One of the most important reasons a student has homework is that it allows professors to see where students are struggling with the course and assistance. 

At the same time, some students can work from the comfort of their own homes. It also allows teachers to get to know their students because some students are fast learners while others are slow learners.

Teachers can see where their students are lacking. The advantages of homework include teaching kids how to work as part of a group or collaborate effectively with others.

It can help the student in learning how to be self-sufficient. The schoolwork of their children is visible to their parents.

Kids should be assigned homework because there isn’t enough time at school, and some projects must be completed. Homework can increase a student’s self-esteem, but they can immediately identify their issues and get help before it’s too late if they struggle with it. 

One of the reasons professors assign homework is to encourage students to stay on track because failing behind might lead to failure. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

Is It Legal For Me To Do My Homework?

Legally, you are not required to do your homework. There is no law enforcement body that will arrest you for not doing your homework. A student who fails to complete his/her homework has the right to have it dealt with by the school.

The school may ask you to leave if you repeatedly ignore homework in schools where homework is part of the learning approach.  In some cases, parents who let their children ignore homework may attempt to get an exemption at the School Board, but in most cases, such requests still result in the child being asked to leave school.

If you refuse to do your homework, you aren’t breaking any federal or state laws, but you have no control over the actions your school will take. They have the legal authority to make whatever decision they deem appropriate. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

What States Have Illegal Homework Laws?

In all US states, homework is legal because there are no state laws prohibiting it. However, schools in different states are allowed to set their own rules about homework.

Some states ban or limit homework in some schools (or districts) including:

• Connecticut

20 Reasons Why Homework Should Be Banned

Here are 20 reasons why homework should be banned : 

• Homework Restricts A Student’s Freedom
• No Time For Exercises 
• No Time To Play Outdoor Games 
• Often Breaks Students’ Confidence
• Homework Doing Not An Achievement
• Most Homework Creates Bad Habits
• Less Time To Spend With Family Members
• Conflict With Parents
• Homework Can Encourage Cheating
• Downtime At Home
• Negative Impact On Tests
• Writing Has Different Effects
• Extra Challenges
• Homework Causes Depression
• Homework Provides No Real Benefit
• Too Much Homework Means Not Enough Time For Yourself
• School Is a Full-Time Job
• No real impact on performance
• Irrelevant content

Can Homework Be Considered Slavery?

There is no legal definition that would support the claim that homework is slavery. Even though home assignments are assigned without permission, comparing them to slavery is a ridiculous argument that cannot stand up to legal scrutiny.

If homework is considered slavery, you will need to prove that the teacher or instructor receives economic benefit from your work. However, teachers do not receive any economic benefit from assigning homework. Our sole goal is to help students apply what they’ve learned and become more comfortable with what they know.

Regardless of whether you believe the homework you’re assigned contributes to your career in any way, you can make your case to the appropriate authorities. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

What Is The Legal Homework Rights?

You can limit the amount of time your child spends on homework under the legal homework rights. It is possible to use the 504 law for these purposes, as it has multiple accommodations for children with impairment.

The term “impairment” is loosely defined under this law, which makes it a good legal tool when you’re seeking to accommodate a student’s various needs.

Having a child who has a diagnosis like Dyslexia or ADHD gives you a stronger case. Parents also have the right to exercise these rights with no diagnosis. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

How the 504 Process Works

Meetings with key stakeholders and paperwork are part of the 504 processes. These stakeholders include:

• The student
• A school administrator

They will pay attention and document all of your concerns during the meeting. An administrator or the child’s teacher must adhere to the record or document. On some occasions, the case goes to court before it is enforced but typically ends in the meeting room.

What Is The Optimal Amount Of Time To Spend On Homework Each Day?

There is no universally optimal amount of time to spend on homework per day. Most educators suggest using the 10-minute rule. To determine how much time your child should spend on homework, you should multiply 10 minutes by his/her grade level. 

That calculation indicates that a second grader should only have 20 minutes of homework per day, while students in 12th grade can have up to two hours of homework per day.

By using the legal homework rights, parents can get some concessions using the 10-minute rule. If a child has no homework in their academic life, it’s easier to request that the homework time be reduced (which will increase with each passing year). This blog is all about is homework illegal.

The Argument Against Homework

The following are some of the arguments used against homework:

• This encroaches on family and relaxation time. Students require some time every day to relax, play, connect with family members, get adequate sleep, and more. These activities are essential for a healthy balance between academics and personal life. When you have a lot of homework every day, you spend most of your relaxation time studying.
• There is a lot of pressure on students. When students know they still have homework to do, they feel an unnecessary amount of mental pressure. In the long run, consistent pressure could negatively affect a student’s performance at school.
• A child’s self-confidence can be affected by this. Poor homework results and poor results can make a student withdraw from other students and dread meetings with their teachers.
• Homework isn’t graded quickly (if at all). Teachers are often very busy dealing with different aspects of the academic process, so they glance at homework only briefly. In some cases, the students receive feedback long after the class has changed topics. Poorly graded homework defeats its purpose.

The Argument for Homework

• It allows parents and children to work together. The relationship between a child and a parent can be further improved by solving homework together. The parent can see how the child copes with schoolwork and address any concerns with the authorities.
• Students learn how to solve problems through this activity. In addition to learning to solve problems independently, children who complete their homework regularly will also gain valuable life skills. Students will be able to find information through books, the internet, and other sources on their own.
• It gives students insight into a teacher’s thought process. By doing their homework, students gain a deeper understanding of how teachers think, which can help them prepare for tests and exams. 
• It can help a child develop a higher sense of self-worth . When students receive high grades on their homework and complete their assignments they might feel more confident, which may lead to them becoming better students. 

Conclusion (Is Homework Illegal)

In this blog, we have discussed about is homework illegal. i hope you have understood about is homework illegal easily.

Homework is not illegal or slave labor. However, you can’t ignore the positive outcomes and the overall impact on a child’s academic foundation, regardless of the valid concerns about the impact on students. Furthermore, homework is not compulsory for students.

It is, however, up to the school to decide how to handle the student.

The school administrators can review your concerns about the amount of work your child has to do or about the relevance of the homework. This blog is all about is homework illegal.

FAQs Related To Is Homework Illegal?

Is it illegal to give homework.

Students are not required to do homework by law. While he does not prohibit schools from setting and enforcing rules and standards, he does provide schools with the tools to help ensure students receive a quality education. In other words, the school has the power to make you do your homework or face school-internal consequences.

Is there a legal limit to homework?

Homework assignments are not regulated by federal law, either. … A first-grader, for example, should not have to do more than ten minutes of homework (10 x 1), and a high school sophomore, a tenth-grader, should not have to do more than a hundred minutes of homework (10 x 10).

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When Homework Was Banned

Published: November 3, 2023

In the early 1900s, Ladies' Home Journal took up a crusade against homework, enlisting doctors and parents who say it damages children's health. In 1901 California passed a law abolishing homework!

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What’s Behind Georgia’s ‘Russian Law’?

The South Caucasus nation of Georgia has for weeks been gripped by mass protests against a controversial “foreign influence” bill that critics say resembles legislation in Russia used to crack down on independent media and the opposition.

Introduced into parliament last month by the country’s ruling Georgian Dream coalition, the bill would force organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities “pursuing the interests of a foreign power.”

Opponents of the draft law warn that, if adopted, it could hinder Georgia’s aspirations to join the EU and push the country closer to Russia, which maintains control over the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

The Moscow Times spoke with experts to make sense of what is happening in Georgia, what might come next, and whether Russia may be involved.

Why is Georgian Dream pushing the bill forward now?

The “foreign influence” bill’s current advancement through parliament marks Georgian Dream’s second attempt at passing legislation that would scrutinize organizations receiving foreign funding.

Georgia’s parliament scrapped a similar bill last spring amid mass anti-government demonstrations in Tbilisi, as well as warnings from Western officials over what they described as democratic backsliding in the country.

“I was surprised when they canceled this [bill] last year,” said Tbilisi-based political analyst Archil Sikharulidze. “The introduction of this [bill]…was inevitable, whether by this government or by the following one. This is a general tendency, an attempt to control the external flow of money.”

Other experts told The Moscow Times that they believe Georgian Dream is pushing the bill forward to secure its grip on power ahead of the October parliamentary elections, even though the move might seem counterintuitive in a political climate where nearly 80% of Georgians support their country’s efforts to become an EU member.

“It seemed clear for quite a long while that Georgian Dream is trying to emulate the Hungarian model in terms of appealing to social conservatism,” said Alex Scrivener, who heads the Tbilisi-based Democratic Security Institute. 

Hungary, an EU and NATO member state,  passed  its  own law on foreign influence law last year.

Scrivener described Georgia’s ruling coalition’s approach to governing as an attempt “to buttress a sort of permanent one-party, semi-democratic, authoritarian state,” adding:  “Georgian Dream members are all about maintaining power.”

“Being pro-Western helped them stay in power for the past 10 years. And now, doing the opposite is helping them to stay in power. It’s just pragmatism on their part, or so they think,” the analyst told The Moscow Times.

What role does billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili play?

The ambitions and fears of 68-year-old Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s wealthiest man and Georgian Dream’s founder, guide much of his party’s political position-taking, some experts say.  

After years in the shadows, Ivanishvili returned to the public spotlight earlier this year, assuming the formal title of an “honorary chairman” of the ruling party.

Eurasia Group analyst Tinatin Japaridze said the billionaire’s comeback came amid rumors that some members of his party were becoming too independent and keeping him in the dark on major decision-making processes.  

“He wanted to make sure that this ends, that there are no efforts for anyone to ad-lib on the side, and to do what they want without him being very much in the loop and in full control,” Japaridze told The Moscow Times. 

In a rare public speech at a pro-government rally last month, which saw scores of people bused into Tbilisi from across the country, Ivanishvili accused Western governments of interfering in Georgia’s internal affairs. He claimed foreign-funded NGOs “strengthen” the influence of foreign intelligence agencies in the country's domestic politics.  

“He thinks the West is out to get him,” said analyst Scrivener. “In his mind, he identifies more with the victims of the so-called ‘color revolutions’ — the overthrown authoritarians — than he does with the protesters in Ukraine, in Moldova, in Kyrgyzstan…and in Georgia.” 

However, some believe speculations of Ivanishvili’s far-reaching political influence to be greatly exaggerated. 

“There is this tendency among Georgian, Russian, Western experts to blame everything on one person, like during the [presidency of Mikheil] Saakashvili…everyone blamed him [for all that was happening]. Now we are aware that half of [those accusations] were lies,” said analyst Sikharulidze.  

“The same is true here. I don't think Bidzina Ivanishvili is behind every [political] decision and every issue,” he added.

What does Russia have to do with it?

“Some people talk about this as a ‘Russia bill’ because it’s essentially a Russia-inspired foreign agent bill, but also because it is one that will place Georgia within Moscow's orbit and away from the Western one,” Japaridze said.

But “it’s, of course not as if Russia sent a fax to Tbilisi and said ‘This is what we would like you to translate into Georgian and then adopt’,” she added. 

Some in Georgia fear that Georgian Dream, which has increasingly sought to strike a balance between maintaining ties with the West and normalizing relations with Moscow, might turn a looming threat of Russian military intervention into a tool of political manipulation. 

“The fear in Georgia is that there will be something like a Kazakhstan or a Belarus scenario if the elections in October are not free and fair and Georgian Dream wins them unfairly,” said Scrivener, referring to the 2022 anti-government demonstrations in Kazakhstan that were quashed with the help of Moscow’s troops. 

But analyst Sikharulidze argued that Russia’s role — if any — in the current standoff between Georgian Dream and anti-government forces has been overblown. 

“Somehow we are stuck in this paradigm of the West [and] Russia, turning a blind eye to the fact that plenty of Turkish, Iranian, Azerbaijani, Chinese, and Arabic agents are working here, financing different cultural, non-cultural activities,” Sikharulidze told The Moscow Times. 

“This is also not controlled, and there are fears [about them] among people,” he said.

What’s next?

Georgia’s parliament is widely expected to pass the “foreign influence” bill in its third and final reading later this month. 

While President Salome Zurabishvili, who has long fallen out of favor with the ruling party, vowed to veto the controversial draft law, Georgian Dream has enough seats in parliament to override such a move.

Some analysts warn that the bill, which would introduce a set of new financial regulations that foreign-funded entities must follow, could affect the outcome of the fall parliamentary elections, thus hindering the political opposition and the work of independent monitors and media, many of whom rely predominantly on funds from foreign donors.

“Georgian Dream believes that if they [the monitors and media] don't have foreign funding…then they are not going to carry much clout and will not be sufficiently well-equipped to continue exposing the government's shortcomings,” said Japaridze of Eurasia Group.

“It would make it easier [for Georgian Dream] to get reelected and also increase the risk of rigged election results,” she added, warning of a deepening rift between Georgia’s government and the general public.

But not everyone believes recent protests to be a precursor for irreversible divisions within Georgia’s society.   

“Protests in front of the parliament building in Georgia may sound nice. It may make a good picture. But if you look at what is really happening: the whole process is taking place in one place [in Tbilisi]…It would be incorrect to represent this as an uprising,” Sikharulidze said. 

“I think Georgian Dream and the government in general…will have enough power, enough control over institutions to deal with protests,” he added.

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Stalinism's Return Threatens Georgia's Path to Europe

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Ukraine war latest: Poland considering downing Russian missiles over Ukraine; Kremlin responds to Biden slip-up

Poland is considering a proposal to shoot down Russian missiles heading towards Polish territory while they are still in Ukrainian airspace. Elsewhere, the Kremlin has responded to major gaffes made by Joe Biden during the NATO summit in Washington DC.

Saturday 13 July 2024 09:41, UK

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• Poland considering downing Russian missiles over Ukraine
• Pressure on Biden after NATO gaffes | Kremlin responds
• James Matthews analysis: Biden blew it with his 'meme-tastic' Putin moment
• Russia jamming radars in Europe as it steps up 'hybrid campaign' against NATO
• Putin signs off biggest tax shake-up in 25 years to help fund war machine
• Ivor Bennett analysis: Deep concern in Russian coverage of NATO summit
• Your questions answered: Has the West been honest about Ukraine's failures? | Is Kyiv next?

This is what you need to know as we head into the weekend - and you can check the Sky News and app and website for any breaking news on the war before we return with live updates on Monday.

• Poland is considering a proposal from Kyiv to shoot down Russian missiles heading towards Polish territory while they are still in Ukrainian airspace. The proposal was included in a security cooperation agreement signed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw this week.
• Ukraine will receive far fewer F-16 fighter jets than it had hoped for this summer, according to a report from Bloomberg. The first of around 85 jets promised to Ukraine will arrive from the Netherlands and Denmark and are set to be in the skies this summer. But Bloomberg's report says that Ukraine might only be able to field a single squadron of F-16s, anything from 15 to 24 jets, this summer.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said the "peace missions" being undertaken by Hungarian leader Viktor Orban lack strategy. Mr Orban has angered his NATO and EU allies by holding unauthorised meetings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jingping. Yesterday, Mr Obran met US presidential candidate Donald Trump at his resort in Mar-a-Lago, shunning Joe Biden at this week's NATO summit in Washington.
• The Kremlin says the whole world paid attention to Joe Biden's verbal slips at the NATO summit, but it was more concerned with his "unacceptable" comments about Vladimir Putin. Mr Biden spoke in detail for some time about geopolitics, but all was overshadowed when he mistakenly introduced Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin", before quickly correcting himself. Separately, the US president referred to Mr Putin as "a murderous madman". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We continue to consider it absolutely unacceptable and impermissible behaviour for a head of state to make such disrespectful remarks about other heads of state."
• The Kremlin has denied reports Russia planned to assassinate the chief executive of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, which has been producing artillery shells and military vehicles for Ukraine. CNN and the New York Times reported this week that US intelligence had discovered the plot.
• Russia is likely jamming radars in European nations as part of a campaign targeting NATO allies, according to war analysts. Disruptions to aviation and maritime GPS are likely components of a "hybrid campaign" to undermine unity in the alliance and support for Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said.

 Medical workers gathered at the ruins of the Okhmatdyt children's hospital today to hear the Kyiv Classic Orchestra play.

The hospital - described as Ukraine's version of Great Ormand Street - was struck by a Russian missile on Monday.

Two people died, including a 30-year-old doctor, and around 50 people were injured in the attack, which has drawn widespread condemnation from Ukraine and its allies.

Russia denied targeting the hospital, though Sky News has confirmed the missile that hit the hospital was from Russia.

Tonight, the Kyiv Classic Orchestra performed Requiem for the Dead at the ruins of the hospital, with medical workers gathering to listen.

Poland is considering a proposal from Kyiv to shoot down Russian missiles heading towards Polish territory while they are still in Ukrainian airspace.

The proposal was included in a security cooperation agreement signed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw this week.

Ukraine's president said he was "confident" the arrangement could be implemented swiftly, though Poland will consult its NATO allies before attempting to shoot down any Russian missiles.

"At this stage, this is an idea. What our agreement said is we will explore this idea," Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the American Enterprise Institute in Washington today.

Mr Sikorski confirmed that Russian missiles fired from the St Petersburg area towards Ukrainian targets had previously entered Polish airspace for about 40 seconds before turning towards their targets.

The proposal would cover any missile traversing western Ukraine in the direction of Poland.

“Our dilemma is the following. If we shoot them down only when they enter our airspace, the debris is a threat to our citizens and to our property," added Mr Sikorski.

"And the Ukrainians are saying, 'Please, we will not mind, do it over our airspace when they're in imminent danger of crossing into Polish territory.

"To my mind, that's self-defence, but we are exploring the idea."

Ukraine will receive far fewer F-16 fighter jets than it had hoped for this summer, according to a report from Bloomberg .

The first of around 85 jets promised to Ukraine will arrive from the Netherlands and Denmark and are set to be in the skies this summer.

But according to people familiar with the matter, the acquisition of the jets have been plagued by delays, questions around spare parts, and a language barrier between Ukrainian pilots and their foreign trainers.

Bloomberg's report says that Ukraine might only be able to field a single squadron of F-16s, anything from 15 to 24 jets, this summer. 

Another source has suggested Kyiv expects to get six F-16s this summer and up to 20 by the end of the year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted his country needs more than 100 F-16s if they are to make an impact on the battlefield.

"The problem with F-16," Mr Zelenskyy said, "is the number and the dates."

"Even if we will have 50, it's nothing. They have 300. Because we are defending, we need 128," he said.

Planners are also worried that Ukraine doesn't have enough runways to support the jets. The ones it does have are also vulnerable to Russian attacks.

"People shouldn't expect miracles," said Jim Townsend, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Those airfields are going to be nice, juicy targets, and the Russians have already been hitting some of them, just as a welcome to the real world for these F-16s."

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said the "peace missions" being undertaken by Hungarian leader Viktor Orban lack strategy.

Mr Orban has angered his NATO and EU allies by holding unauthorised meetings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jingping.

Yesterday, Mr Obran met US presidential candidate Donald Trump at his resort in Mar-a-Lago, shunning Joe Biden at this week's NATO summit in Washington.

The Hungarian also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this month, who said he was unaware that Mr Orban was heading to Moscow and Beijing after his visit to Kyiv.

Mr Orban has been accused of handing legitimacy to Mr Putin at a time when the West wants to isolate him over his invasion of Ukraine.

"I don't see any strategy and no particular consequences," said Ms Meloni.

"Political leaders have the right to meet with other political leaders. I do not see anything special or surprising in this. 

"I don't think it's a secret that Orban may be closer to Trump than to Biden. I mean, they are political leaders who talk to each other."

On Mr Orban's visit to the Kremlin, Ms Meloni said the Hungarian leader did not have the mandate to hold talks with Russia.

She added that this week's deadly missile attacks on Ukraine, one of which struck a children's hospital in Kyiv, showed there was no desire for dialogue from Mr Putin.

"The problem is that when you go there, you give this signal, and the next day you blow up a hospital, I think that, unfortunately, it shows that there is no desire for dialogue on the part of Putin's Russia," she said.

"That's the problem, because if there was a desire for dialogue, we would have talked, but I think the answer was quite clear."

The US defence secretary and Russian defence minister have spoken for the second time in just over two weeks, the Pentagon has confirmed.

The call was initiated by Moscow, with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin reportedly stressing the importance of keeping open lines of communication between the Kremlin and Washington to his Russian counterpart.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh declined to provide further details on the call.

Russia's ministry of defence said that "the issue of preventing security threats and reducing the risk of possible escalation was discussed".

The last call between Mr Austin and Andrei Belousov took place on 25 June, which itself was the first call of its kind since March 2023.

Russia's defence ministry said that Mr Belousov warned Mr Austin of the dangers of continued US arms supplies to Ukraine during last month's call.

Vladimir Putin has signed a new bill into Russian law that amounts to the biggest shake-up of the country's tax system in a quarter of a century.

As the war in Ukraine drains the Kremlin's coffers, the government has been looking to find new ways to finance it.

The answer is a new progressive income tax rate, as well as a rise in corporation tax.

"It seems like the tax reform is a tool to move the economy from butter toward guns," Alexander Kolyandr, a non-resident senior fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, said last month.

"The government is no longer concerned about you eating well, but rather about you producing more guns."

The new bill, approved by both houses of parliament this week, marks a dramatic departure from Mr Putin's previous tax policies.

Shortly after assuming office in 2001, the Russian president introduced a flat rate of 13% that was applied universally. Most Russians have been paying the same rate since.

The new law keeps a 13% rate for incomes of up to 2.4 million roubles (around £20,800) a year. 

For incomes over that amount, a steadily higher tax rate would apply.

Incomes between five and 20 million roubles (around £43,500 to £174,000) will be taxed at 18%, those between 20 to 50 million roubles (around £174,000 to £434,000) at 20%, and anything over 50 million roubles at 22%.

Mr Putin has said the increases will affect no more than 3.2% of Russian taxpayers.

Corporation tax will also increase from 20% to 25%.

The changes will come into force next year and are expected to generate 2.6 trillion roubles (£22.5bn) in additional federal revenues in 2025.

As well as helping finance Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, the Kremlin hopes the tax reforms will help make the country less reliant on the revenues generated from oil exports amid continued Western sanctions.

Ukraine's security service says it is preparing evidence which it will present to the International Criminal Court documenting Russia's continued use of landmines against civilians.

The SBU said in a statement that more than 1,000 Ukrainians have been injured and 297 killed by mines of various types, mostly in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.

It accuses Russian troops of disguising mines in" various common items, including children's toys and boxes of sweets".

The statement also accuses Russian sabotage groups of setting up minefields to cover their retreats from the front line and border areas.

The SBU said it was preparing a "large-scale base of evidence" and would send it to The Hague once there was enough. 

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians during its invasion, but thousands have been killed and injured since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian forces have carried out "massive shelling" in Kherson, the head of the city's military administration has said.

Speaking on Telegram, Roman Mrochko said the assault had lasted for around half an hour and had damaged houses and administrative buildings, as well as destroying a shop and wrecking cars.

"People are very scared, but alive," he said. "Miraculously, no was injured."

He also shared a video of heavily damaged buildings.

In a later post, Mr Mrochko said restoration work was ongoing to fix a damaged water supply facility.

Berlin has said it is taking reports of a Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of a German arms manufacturer very seriously, adding it won't be intimidated by Moscow's threats.

CNN and the New York Times reported yesterday that US intelligence had discovered and warned Germany of a Russian plot to kill Armin Papperger, chief executive of Rheinmetall.

The German company makes artillery shells and tanks that Ukraine has used in its war against Russia.

The plot was one of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defence industry executives across Europe supporting Ukraine, CNN reported.

After Washington's warning, German security services were able to protect Mr Papperger, it said.

"We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by Russia," said Germany's interior minister Nancy Faeser.

She added that Germany will continue to do "everything we can to prevent Russian threats" within the country.

Rheinmetall has not directly confirmed the reports, while the Kremlin has denied them as fake and based on anonymous sources.

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A timeline of restrictive laws that authorities have used to crack down on dissent in Putin’s Russia

FILE - A police officer stands inside a police bus with detained demonstrators during an antiwar protest near Red Square in Moscow, on Sept. 24, 2022. Russian authorities have adopted a slew of laws restricting fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the rights of minorities and religious groups. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A gay rights activist stands with a rainbow flag during a protest in Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 2, 2015. Russian authorities have adopted a slew of laws restricting fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the rights of minorities and religious groups. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the upper house of the Russian parliament, lawmakers attend a session in Moscow, on July 19, 2023. Russian authorities have adopted a slew of laws restricting fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the rights of minorities and religious groups. (Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation via AP, File)

FILE - Sasha Skochilenko, a 33-year-old artist and musician, is escorted by officers to a hearing in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Oct. 19, 2023. Skochilenko was arrested on charges of spreading false information about the army after replacing supermarket price tags with ones decrying what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Russian authorities have adopted a slew of laws restricting fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the rights of minorities and religious groups. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

FILE - Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza waves from a glass cage in a courtroom in Moscow, on July 31, 2023. Kara-Murza has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of treason for publicly denouncing Russia’s operation in Ukraine. Russian authorities have adopted a slew of laws restricting fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the rights of minorities and religious groups. (AP Photo, File)

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This story is part of a larger series on the crackdown on dissent in Russia. Click here to read more of those stories , and the AP’s coverage of Russia’s presidential election.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — As part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ever-increasing clampdown on dissent, authorities in recent years have adopted a slew of laws restricting fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the rights of minorities and religious groups.

These laws have taken aim at “foreign agents” allegedly seeking to exert influence on Russia, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and organizations spreading information critical of the Kremlin or contrary to official narratives, especially regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .

In this photo provided by the upper house of the Russian parliament, lawmakers attend a session in Moscow, on July 19, 2023. (Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation via AP, File)

They have helped the Kremlin to maintain tight control over the country’s political system, and as a result, Putin is expected to extend his rule virtually unchallenged in a presidential election this month.

Human rights advocates worry that more repressions are ahead.

Here’s a look at some of the restrictive laws passed in Russia:

July 2012 — Russian authorities adopted a law that allows them to label nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations as “foreign agents,” if they receive foreign funding and engage in loosely defined “political activity.” The designation required the organizations to submit detailed reports on their finances to authorities and carried strong negative connotations, which often scared away their sponsors, partners and advertisers.

A police officer stands inside a police bus with detained demonstrators during an antiwar protest near Red Square in Moscow, on Sept. 24, 2022. (AP Photo, File)

In the years that followed, the label was also applied to media outlets and individuals, and it has been used primarily to target Kremlin critics, independent news outlets and rights groups. There are currently more than 770 NGOs, news outlets and individuals in the registry of “foreign agents,” and the list is regularly updated with new additions.

June 2013 — Russia adopted a law that stigmatizes gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality. The law — which banned “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors — resulted in restrictions on books, movies and media, and fueled attacks on LGBTQ+ activists.

A gay rights activist stands with a rainbow flag during a protest in Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 2, 2015. (AP Photo, File)

December 2013 — Putin signed a law allowing media regulator Roskomnadzor to block websites disseminating calls for protests and other allegedly extremist content with just an order from the Russian Prosecutor General’s office, rather than a court. Scores of websites were blocked in the years that followed, including many critical news outlets, opposition pages and sites run by rights groups.

May 2015 — A law was adopted prohibiting “undesirable organizations” from operating in Russia, with criminal penalties ranging from large fines to eight years in prison. The designation applies to foreign organizations that authorities viewed as threatening Russia’s “constitutional order, defense capability or security,” but in reality it has been used to shut down foreign and Russian NGOs, opposition groups and critical news outlets, including such popular ones as the Dozhd TV channel and the Meduza news site.

As of February 2024, a total of 142 groups were outlawed as “undesirable organizations.”

July 2016 — The Kremlin adopted a law that significantly expanded the powers of law enforcement agencies, allowing surveillance and collection of data about citizens under the pretext of fighting terrorism and extremism.

The law introduced a ban on the use of uncertified encryption tools, obliged telecom operators to store calls and messages for three years, and sharply tightened the conduct of religious missionary activities. It has been heavily criticized by freedom of speech advocates.

May 2019 — Russia adopted a so-called sovereign internet law , designed to tighten control of internet infrastructure in the country in order to be able to cut off the internet in the country from the rest of the world. Under the law, telecom operators are required to install equipment that allows the authorities to block content and reroute traffic. IT experts have questioned whether it would be possible to implement in full, but warned that it may cause disruption.

March 2022 — Just over a week after Russian troops rolled into Ukraine, authorities adopted legislation outlawing disparaging the Russian military or spreading “false information” about the invasion, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The law was almost immediately used against those speaking out against the war, independent media and opposition activists.

Sasha Skochilenko, a 33-year-old artist and musician, is escorted by officers to a hearing in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Oct. 19, 2023. Skochilenko was arrested on charges of spreading false information about the army after replacing supermarket price tags with ones decrying what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

Dozens of Russian independent media outlets were banned as a result, while others announced that they were halting any reporting related to Ukraine or moved their editorial offices abroad. Thousands of Russians have been arrested at antiwar protests, and dozens have faced criminal charges under the law. Kremlin critics both at home and abroad were slapped with long prison terms.

December 2022 — Russian authorities expanded their crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community and adopted a law that prohibits any activities seen as promoting LGBTQ+ rights in another blow to the embattled community.

July 2023 — Russia outlawed gender-affirming care , as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records. Senior lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy, who was among the sponsors of the bill, has said it was intended to “protect Russia with its cultural and family values and traditions and to stop the infiltration of the Western anti-family ideology.”

An antiwar scribble on a bathroom wall.

A request to a D.J. for a Ukrainian song.

A photo with a blue and yellow scarf.

Or a conversation at school, recorded by a classmate.

In Russia, those have all been grounds for prosecution.

Thousands of court documents tell the story of Russia’s totalitarian crackdown on antiwar speech.

How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent

By Anton Troianovski ,  Yuliya Parshina-Kottas ,  Oleg Matsnev ,  Alina Lobzina ,  Valerie Hopkins and Aaron Krolik Dec. 29, 2023

Just days after invading Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a censorship law that made it illegal to “discredit” the army. The legislation was so sweeping that even his spokesman acknowledged it was easy to cross the line into prohibited speech. In the first 18 months of the war, the law scooped up a vast array of ordinary Russians — schoolteachers, pensioners, groundskeepers, a carwash owner — for punishment.

The law has led to more than 6,500 cases of people being arrested or fined, more than 350 a month on average, according to a New York Times analysis of Russian court records through last August. That’s a small percentage of Russia’s population of 146 million, but The Times analyzed the details of every case, revealing the extraordinary reach and invasiveness of the Kremlin’s crackdown; anyone questioning the war or revealing sympathy with Ukraine — even in a private conversation — is now liable to prosecution in Russia.

No gesture, apparently, is too small. Judges have ruled that simply wearing blue and yellow clothing — the colors of the Ukrainian flag — or painting one’s fingernails blue and yellow can be punished. And there are few safe havens as people increasingly inform on their fellow citizens. In dozens of cases, people were prosecuted after someone reported them for comments they made on the train, in a cafe or in a liquor store.

The censorship law has enabled Mr. Putin to perpetuate a nearly two-year invasion that has killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians, with minimal resistance from those at home who oppose it. While most Russians tell pollsters they support the war, close to 20 percent say they don’t.

In the past, the government would make examples of a few individuals, some prominent; now it is practicing widespread censorship. This year, with antiwar speech in public largely eliminated, the records show that authorities remained intent on stamping out criticism expressed online and in private. More than 3,000 cases involved social media or messaging platforms popular in Russia.

“A large number of totally unknown, nameless, nonpublic people, who simply wrote something or said something somewhere, are getting hit,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

To better understand the extent of this censorship, we spent months analyzing a database of every available public record of prosecutions under the new law provided by OVD-Info, a Russian human rights and legal aid group.

First-time offenders are typically handed a fine of 30,000 rubles — around $300 at the current exchange rate, about half the average monthly salary in Russia — while repeat offenders can receive prison time. Known as article 20.3.3, the law has become the most widely used tool in Russia’s wartime crackdown, and it is the focus of our analysis; another law punishes spreading “false information” about the Russian army with up to 15 years in prison.

Experts say the wartime censorship is transforming Russian society and setting the stage for even more widespread repression in the future, as the authorities automate their monitoring of the internet and encourage people to denounce each other online. Mr. Putin set the tone last year when he referred to opponents of the war as “scum and traitors” to be cleansed from society.

In response to the crackdown, many Russians have begun to self-censor. Demyan Bespokoyev, a private school tutor who was prosecuted for writing an antiwar message on his coat, described the process this way: “The prison forms inside your head.”

Silencing Protest

In the first months of the war, the documents show, Russia was focused on stamping out dissent in public spaces.

• Aleksandr T. Fined for holding a poster that said “No to War” in the town square.
• Olga V. Replaced price tags in a supermarket with antiwar messages.
• Demyan B. Wore a long coat with the message: “I don’t want war.”

• Maksim L. A student from Penza
• Yuriy V. A retired widower from Omsk
• Diana I. A paramedic from Yelets

• Denis V. Roller-skated while wearing a Ukrainian flag as a cape.
• Chinghiz M. Tied a green ribbon to the strap of his backpack.
• Polina S. Held blue and yellow balloons in public.

• “Glory to Ukraine”
• “Glory to the heroes of Ukraine!”
• “Peace for Ukraine, freedom for Russia”
• “Hands off Ukraine”
• “I'm ready to fight and die for Ukraine!”
• “Ukraine is not dead yet”
• “I am for Ukraine”
• “Ukraine must win!”
• “Ukraine is not the enemy”

• Maksim P. Shared a “Save Mariupol” petition on his social media page.
• Anna S. Wrote “I am against the war” on her Instagram account.
• Maria V. Posted videos on YouTube criticizing the Russian government.

Hundreds of Russians were prosecuted for “discrediting” the army with homemade signs or graffiti, even for spray-painting antiwar messages on the snow.

Each of these figures represents one person prosecuted under the new censorship law.

As the atrocities by Russian soldiers in Bucha, Ukraine, came to light in the spring of 2022, the Kremlin’s denials of those brutal acts enraged some in Russia. More than 70 people were prosecuted for some form of protest involving Bucha.

Some people were targeted without even mentioning the war. They were prosecuted for wearing Ukrainian colors — or just a green ribbon, which activists display as a symbol of peace.

Others got in trouble for explicitly stating their support for Ukraine.

At the same time, the government also started cracking down on protests online — including people’s “likes” on antiwar posts.

Russia’s crackdowns on free speech used to garner global headlines. Now they are noticed less and less. One reason is the sheer scale: On each of the 530 days of the war for which we have near-complete data, an average of 13 cases were heard in court involving people opposing the war — and that’s just under the discreditation law. The indignities of the crackdown, and the long arm of the Russia law, is being lost in the numbers.

In villages and far-flung regions, in schools and hospitals, in chat groups and local news outlets, and in a prison and on a military base, people were accused of speaking out against the war.

The analysis challenges the notion that opposition sentiment in Russia is concentrated among the elite in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities. The documents show that two-thirds of the cases were heard in courts located in cities and towns with a population of less than a million.

In the small town of Iglino in western Russia, a retired train driver named Zaynulla Gadzhiyev, now 76, predicted on his social media page: “Nothing will save Russia now from collapse.”

Mr. Bespokoyev, 22, the private school tutor, walked through a St. Petersburg subway station wearing the overcoat his grandfather wore in World War II, on which Mr. Bespokoyev had written: “I’m hurting and afraid. I don’t want war.”

In Novosibirsk in Siberia, Marina Tsurmast, a local journalist, scrawled “Bucha” in red on a piece of paper and pasted it over an exhibition stand celebrating the anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Police officers detained her on the spot.

Marina Tsurmast at her flat in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

In dry legalese, the court documents recount the Russian state’s case against these statements and protests.

The judge in the case of Ms. Tsurmast, the journalist, ruled that she had “distorted the true goals” of Mr. Putin’s war. A St. Petersburg judge ruled that Mr. Bespokoyev, the tutor, had undermined “the authority, image and trust in the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” And Mr. Gadzhiyev, the retired train driver, was cited for “undermining trust in the decisions of the state authorities of the Russian Federation on the conduct of the special military operation.”

All three were fined 30,000 rubles, about $500 at the time. In those first three months of the war, the data shows that at least 1,662 other Russians faced prosecution for antiwar speech.

Other critics, some of them prominent opposition figures, have received much harsher sentences under other more punitive laws, like the politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who received a 25-year term on treason charges after criticizing the war. A pacifist artist, Aleksandra Y. Skochilenko, 33, was sentenced in November to seven years in a penal colony for placing price tags with small antiwar messages in a supermarket.

But for the thousands convicted of discrediting the army, the fines are a small part of the trouble they face. Interviews with 10 of them show that convictions bring social opprobrium and complications in finding work, spurring some people to leave Russia altogether.

The law has seeped into the fabric of Russia’s society, adding to the dread of anyone opposing the war. Ms. Tsurmast, the journalist in Novosibirsk, says her anxiety level rises when she notices car headlights outside her apartment window or hears a sound at a late hour.

“I had these attacks of paranoia,” she said in a phone interview, adding that she still felt it sometimes. “The elevator at night — is it coming for me?”

Reaching Into Private Life

The number of cases grew amid the outcry over Mr. Putin’s draft in September 2022. The crackdown reached increasingly into people’s personal lives.

• Selimat A. Made an antiwar comment to a fellow doctor in the staff room of a clinic.
• Vladimir A. Showed off an antiwar tattoo at a concert.
• Rustam I. Played the Ukrainian anthem on a speaker from the window of his apartment while shouting “Glory to Ukraine.”
• Yelena L. Displayed a “negative attitude” toward the war while teaching her class.
• Ernes K. Held responsible by authorities for a Ukrainian song played in his cafe.

• Aleksandr K. Reported by fellow teachers for disparaging Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
• Olga P. Reported for making antiwar statements in the break room of a power plant where she worked.
• Dmitri D. Reported for sharing antiwar content in a parents’ group chat on WhatsApp.
• Sergei V. Reported for playing a song by a Ukrainian band in a bar on New Year’s Eve while Putin was on TV.

Invisible card?

The crackdown reached into people’s workplaces, their churches, their cars and, in at least 86 cases, their homes.

The authorities also targeted people when they had their guard down: At least 144 cases involved defendants alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol .

The law allowed people to settle scores or inform on their fellow citizens. We found more than 100 cases where someone reported to the authorities the comments or behavior of someone else — something overheard on a train, or mentioned in a workplace chat group.

On the morning of Sept. 25, 2022, police officers burst into the Moscow apartment of Daria Ivanova, 29, and, she said, carried her out by her arms and legs before she had time to put on her shoes. Surveillance cameras had identified her and a friend, the police told her, as being the ones who put up prank posters to protest Mr. Putin’s mobilization: “To order a coffin, go to the nearest draft office.”

Ms. Ivanova says she was beaten while in custody for 11 hours. Still in Moscow, she now takes a dim view of her job prospects. A friend told her that, given her conviction, “you’ll never be approved by the security service” at the state company where the friend worked.

Daria Ivanova in the elevator of her building in Moscow.

The episode highlights the Kremlin’s reach in trying to catch the war’s opponents: It has deployed the police, electronic surveillance and fellow citizens against them.

In smaller towns, the residents do the surveillance themselves. Anton Redikultsev, now 48, was an art teacher in the town of Kalga near the Chinese border — population: 2,545. This past June, a deputy district prosecutor filed charges against him, citing as evidence five social media posts, including links to antiwar songs and a picture of a child’s drawing with the words: “No need for bombs!” He was fined 30,000 rubles. On Sept. 1, the first day of school, he was fired.

Mr. Redikultsev, who is also a competitive powerlifter and goes by the nickname “Lifter,” said the conviction had turned him into an outcast. People who always greeted him on the street now turn away, he said. “People like to overstate, make up details and exaggerate.”

But Mr. Redikultsev insists he has no regrets. Keeping quiet, he said, “seems comparable to a sort of dishonor — to silent agreement.” In court, he said, he asked the prosecutor how he was supposed to exercise his right to express his opinion, which the Russian Constitution technically still guarantees.

“He didn’t respond,” Mr. Redikultsev recalled.

Policing the Internet

By this year, with public protest all but gone because of the crackdown, the internet was left as the main vehicle for dissent.

• Marina S. Made negative remarks about Russian troops in Ukraine in a private parent group chat on Viber.
• Sergei P. Wrote messages against the war in a Viber chat group called “Bikers of Khakassia.”
• Yuldash Y. Posted on VK that Russia’s invasion is an “evil war.”

The total number of prosecutions declined this year, which experts see as evidence of the Kremlin’s success in stifling antiwar speech. Of the cases that were brought, most involved online actions .

The authorities targeted speech on a wide range of platforms — from YouTube and Instagram to Chatroulette, a website for video chats with random strangers.

Communications that people expected to be private ended up serving as evidence against them; many were prosecuted for exchanges in closed chat groups.

But most of all, the authorities cracked down on posts on Russia’s most popular social network, VK, a Russian-owned website that is known to cooperate with law enforcement. We found more than 1,000 related cases.

Prosecutions declined this year in large part because Russians have become much more careful about speaking out, experts say. In the event of new disruptions like another draft, they predict, prosecutions will rise again.

In June, Russia’s Constitutional Court upheld the censorship law in the face of a challenge from OVD-Info, the legal aid group. People’s “negative assessment” of the Russian military could adversely affect its performance, the court said, presenting a national security risk. But the court left it up to individual judges to decide what exactly qualified as illegal speech — a remarkable acknowledgment of the law’s arbitrariness that the Kremlin has embraced.

Asked in a November interview to explain the difference between justified criticism of the war and “discreditation,” Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said it was hard to determine. “Where’s the line? I can’t tell you,” he said. “It’s very thin.”

In Moscow courtrooms, the cases have become routine. Last month, a prosecutor in a navy blue uniform quietly read out the sections of the administrative code that the 60-year-old defendant, Sergei Platonov, stood accused of violating. Addressing Russian soldiers on social media, he had written, “You are going to kill other children in order to feed your own.”

Mr. Platonov, dressed in white and without a lawyer, said nothing. Within 20 minutes, the judge returned with the guilty verdict and ordered him to pay 30,000 rubles. In an interview afterward, he referred to the officers who investigated him as the “Russian Gestapo” and said he would try to avoid paying: “The money will go into the budget, toward the war. And I very much don’t want this.”

Sergei Platonov at district court in Moscow listening to his guilty verdict in November.

For the moment, lawyers say, the volume of prosecutions is held in check by the large amount of paperwork that every case requires; as a result, many instances of antiwar speech still go unpunished. But experts fear that as prosecutions become ever more routine and as the authorities focus on policing online speech, they could develop automated ways to launch investigations and to file cases.

“There certainly is that fear, given the reports that instruments for automatization are being developed,” Polina Kurakina, an OVD-Info lawyer, said.

Russia’s Pacific Coast region of Primorye, for example, launched an anonymous Telegram service last month allowing people to inform on anyone who, among other things, “promotes evil.” And a leak last year from Russia's internet regulator showed it was developing automated systems to scan social media and news websites for politically sensitive content.

In many ways, though, the Kremlin’s campaign of repression has already achieved the desired result. Some of those prosecuted have fled the country, while others have squelched any impulse to protest the war.

Mr. Kolesnikov, the political scholar, who is based in Moscow, sees the law as an indicator of Russia’s descent into an even more controlling, totalitarian system, with anyone anywhere speaking against the Kremlin becoming vulnerable to prosecution.

And yet, some people still protest. In October, a judge ordered Anna Sliva, 18, to pay a 50,000 ruble fine — about $500 at the exchange rate then — for holding up a sign at a Moscow memorial to the Soviet gulag labor camps: “Stop killing and imprisoning civilians.” In an interview, Ms. Sliva said that her action would give her an answer if she were to have children who asked her: “Mom, what did you do when the war came?”

Anna Sliva in her apartment in Moscow.

About the data

The New York Times analyzed 6,771 cases tried under Mr. Putin’s new censorship law, article 20.3.3 of the administrative offenses code. The cases range from when Mr. Putin signed the law on March 4, 2022, to the end of August 2023. They are a subset of a larger dataset of more than 9,000 cases provided by OVD-Info, a Russian human rights and legal aid group. Cases without detailed accounts of what happened were excluded from the analysis, as were cases we identified as appeals. A small number of cases may have appeared more than once in the database because multiple records were created for them in the court system, oftentimes to correct an error in the previous record. Individuals in the illustrated crowds are placed based on the dates when hearings were held. Highlighted cases in the illustrations are placed within a month of the hearing for legibility. Their descriptions are based on court documents.

To tally the cases in categories of cases — such as the number of defendants alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol — we searched the database for cases with related keywords and manually checked the results. The numbers of cases tallied in each category may be an undercount.

An unsupervised machine learning algorithm classified whether each incident happened online, based on patterns of language in court documents. A representative subset of these results was then manually checked to confirm the approximate number of online and offline cases.

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