Trouble viewing? Open in web browser.

GSE News GSE Faculty Contact Us
Stanford Graduate School of Education homepage

News

November 8, 2015

What we don’t get about homework (quotes Denise Pope)

Boston Schools incorporate a shift in homework that meant to maintain rigor, but reduce load.

Boston Globe

When students at Dover-Sherborn High School break for Thanksgiving later this month, there’s at least one thing they won’t have to worry about: homework.

In a change from holidays past, the suburban Boston school district has declared Thanksgiving vacation a “homework-free weekend.” It’s the first of several planned for this academic year, and it’s an unusual change of pace for a competitive school that was recently ranked by Newsweek as the 16th best high school in the country. The move is meant to allow students to relax and spend more time with their families. It’s also part of a broader district effort to reduce stress and anxiety in an overburdened student population.

“We noticed over the past few years an increase in students feeling so stressed out and feeling overwhelmed and not able to cope,” says Ellen Chagnon, director of guidance at Dover-Sherborn. “We had to figure out something better than Band-Aiding the problem. “

The solution the school came up with is a program called Challenge Success that works with school communities to rethink attitudes about achievement and reduce student workload. Denise Pope, the founder of Challenge Success, in August released a book, “Overloaded and Underprepared,” that provides practical recommendations for schools based on years of academic research on workload and achievement. Pope’s book is a kind of manual for how to reconfigure secondary education at a time when many schools are looking for ways to dial back the intensity of high school life.

Read the entire article on the Boston Globe website.

Contact

Brooke Donald, Director of Communications, Stanford Graduate School of Education: 650-721-402, brooke.donald@stanford.edu

 

Stay educated

More GSE coverage

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube RSS

GSE News GSE Faculty Contact Us

© Stanford Graduate School of Education | 485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-3096 | (650) 723-2109