MANUFACTURED AT HOME: A new research study is challenging the traditional notion that more homework equals better grades. Spearheaded by researchers from Indiana University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Macau, the study analyzed some 18,000 transcripts from high school sophomores and concluded that "there is no consistent significant relationship between time spent on homework and grades, but a consistently positive significant relationship between homework and performance on standardized exams."
The study seems to be an indictment on the quality of homework more so than the quantity -- unless of course you agree that standardized exams are the way forward. One of the study's co-authors, Adam Maltese, thinks homework could be a little more efficient. "In science, maybe the students should write concept summaries instead of just reading a chapter and answering the questions at the end,” he says. But that's not to say that reading won't do a brain very good!
