Florida School District Bans Homework

OCALA, FL — Elementary school students in Marion County might be the envy of others across the state when those first bells of the 2017-18 academic year ring in August. Superintendent Heidi Maier on Wednesday instituted a ban on homework at the 31 public elementary schools across the county.

The district sent telephone messages to parents explaining the new policy. "Traditional homework as we know it will disappear," Maier said in the recorded message to parents. "We want students reading at home every evening."

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Nightly reading is recommended at 20 minutes each evening. Maier also strongly encouraged parents to read with their kids and to help them select materials to read.

While no daily homework assignments will be handed out, special assignments, such as annual science projects, may still require elementary school kids to do some work at home, district officials have said.

Maier’s decision was based on research out of the University of Tennessee that found elementary-age children perform better if they get a nightly break, Local 10 reported. UT professor Richard Allington also found that reading has a more beneficial impact on kids than rigorous homework assignments.

Allington, who teaches theory and practice in teacher education, advocated for a similar policy in east Tennessee schools last year.

“Kids who do homework don’t produce any better than kids who don’t do homework,” Allington was quoted by WJHL as saying. Reading, Allington contends, has a much more positive impact on student achievement than worksheets commonly sent home at the elementary level.

Some districts in Tennessee took the no-homework path last year. Early accounts showed that parents, at least, appreciated the move. “The school year has just started, but we have loved it,” Tennessee parent Kristin Clark told WATE early into last school year.

Teachers in Tennessee where the policy was instituted also applauded the move.

“I see a more general enthusiasm about school,” teacher Jyl Smithson told WJHL. “They want to be here. They want to learn.”

Whether other Florida school districts will adopt similar policies at the elementary level remains to be seen. Twenty minutes of reading nightly at the elementary level is a standard practice in many counties across the Sunshine State, including Pasco.

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