harris cooper homework quotes

Is Homework Good for Kids? Here’s What the Research Says

A s kids return to school, debate is heating up once again over how they should spend their time after they leave the classroom for the day.

The no-homework policy of a second-grade teacher in Texas went viral last week , earning praise from parents across the country who lament the heavy workload often assigned to young students. Brandy Young told parents she would not formally assign any homework this year, asking students instead to eat dinner with their families, play outside and go to bed early.

But the question of how much work children should be doing outside of school remains controversial, and plenty of parents take issue with no-homework policies, worried their kids are losing a potential academic advantage. Here’s what you need to know:

For decades, the homework standard has been a “10-minute rule,” which recommends a daily maximum of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. Second graders, for example, should do about 20 minutes of homework each night. High school seniors should complete about two hours of homework each night. The National PTA and the National Education Association both support that guideline.

But some schools have begun to give their youngest students a break. A Massachusetts elementary school has announced a no-homework pilot program for the coming school year, lengthening the school day by two hours to provide more in-class instruction. “We really want kids to go home at 4 o’clock, tired. We want their brain to be tired,” Kelly Elementary School Principal Jackie Glasheen said in an interview with a local TV station . “We want them to enjoy their families. We want them to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it.”

A New York City public elementary school implemented a similar policy last year, eliminating traditional homework assignments in favor of family time. The change was quickly met with outrage from some parents, though it earned support from other education leaders.

New solutions and approaches to homework differ by community, and these local debates are complicated by the fact that even education experts disagree about what’s best for kids.

The research

The most comprehensive research on homework to date comes from a 2006 meta-analysis by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper, who found evidence of a positive correlation between homework and student achievement, meaning students who did homework performed better in school. The correlation was stronger for older students—in seventh through 12th grade—than for those in younger grades, for whom there was a weak relationship between homework and performance.

Cooper’s analysis focused on how homework impacts academic achievement—test scores, for example. His report noted that homework is also thought to improve study habits, attitudes toward school, self-discipline, inquisitiveness and independent problem solving skills. On the other hand, some studies he examined showed that homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children. At the end of his analysis, Cooper recommended further study of such potential effects of homework.

Despite the weak correlation between homework and performance for young children, Cooper argues that a small amount of homework is useful for all students. Second-graders should not be doing two hours of homework each night, he said, but they also shouldn’t be doing no homework.

Not all education experts agree entirely with Cooper’s assessment.

Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, supports the “10-minute rule” as a maximum, but she thinks there is not sufficient proof that homework is helpful for students in elementary school.

“Correlation is not causation,” she said. “Does homework cause achievement, or do high achievers do more homework?”

Vatterott, the author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs , thinks there should be more emphasis on improving the quality of homework tasks, and she supports efforts to eliminate homework for younger kids.

“I have no concerns about students not starting homework until fourth grade or fifth grade,” she said, noting that while the debate over homework will undoubtedly continue, she has noticed a trend toward limiting, if not eliminating, homework in elementary school.

The issue has been debated for decades. A TIME cover in 1999 read: “Too much homework! How it’s hurting our kids, and what parents should do about it.” The accompanying story noted that the launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to a push for better math and science education in the U.S. The ensuing pressure to be competitive on a global scale, plus the increasingly demanding college admissions process, fueled the practice of assigning homework.

“The complaints are cyclical, and we’re in the part of the cycle now where the concern is for too much,” Cooper said. “You can go back to the 1970s, when you’ll find there were concerns that there was too little, when we were concerned about our global competitiveness.”

Cooper acknowledged that some students really are bringing home too much homework, and their parents are right to be concerned.

“A good way to think about homework is the way you think about medications or dietary supplements,” he said. “If you take too little, they’ll have no effect. If you take too much, they can kill you. If you take the right amount, you’ll get better.”

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News Tip: ‘Homework is Like Good Medicine’ and Other Research-Based Back-to-School Advice

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The following Duke University experts share back-to-school advice for parents on homework, bullying and early identification of learning difficulties. 

             Harris Cooper on Homework

“Research shows that all children, even young children, learn better when they bring home school assignments. The key to success is that the assignments be appropriate to the student’s developmental level and home circumstances. For young children, homework should be short, simple, and lead to success. Older students can have more challenging assignments that involve both practice and the integration of skills.”

“Parents should not expect large achievement gains from homework in the early grades. But, homework teaches other important skills such as good study habits, time management and a recognition that academic learning can occur anywhere, not just at school. Homework can foster independent learning and responsible character traits.”

“Homework can also give parents an opportunity to see what’s going on at school and learn about their child’s academic strengths and weaknesses.”

“Opponents argue homework can lead to boredom with schoolwork and can deny students access to leisure activities that are fun and also teach important life skills.”

“When homework is properly prescribed, though, it is like good medicine: Too little and it has no effect, too much and it can make matters worse, just the right amount and our kids get better.”  

• Bio: Harris Cooper has conducted a meta-analysis of studies on summer learning loss and is a noted expert on homework . He has published research syntheses in social, developmental and educational psychology, personality, education policy, marketing, and developmental medicine and child neurology. http://psychandneuro.duke.edu/people/harris-m-cooper  
• Archive video interview (different subject): (4:25 mark) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/always-ready-go-back-students-may-benefit-year-round-schooling/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQQPzo5NAk  
• For additional comment, contact Harris Cooper at: [email protected]

          ---

      William Copeland on Bullying

• Quotes: “In any given year about 1 in 5 children report being a victim of bullying—and these children are at an elevated risk for experiencing academic difficulties and emotional problems now and later in life,” says William Copeland, a professor at Duke University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and an expert on bullying. “Parents can, however, make a difference by taking a few concrete steps: 

           -- ​​“First, ask your child about their day. What made you feel good or proud? Did anything make you feel sad? This includes asking y hem about how they are getting along with their friends.”

           -- “Second, note if there appears to be an unexpected change in their mood or social behavior. Are they feeling down, nervous, or even just reluctant to go to school all of a sudden? Sometimes this will express itself by a change in their appetite or sleep.”​

           -- “Third, check in with their teachers. Not all kids want to talk about what is going on with their peers, but teachers often can pick up on peer problems.”

          -- “Fourth, cyberbullying allows children to be bullied even when they are alone or at home. There are free apps that allow parents to check in on their children’s online activities without looking at their child’s device every day."

• ​​​​​Bio:  William Copeland  is a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University and a faculty fellow of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy. His research focuses on psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence.  
• Archive video interview (different subject): http://www.cnn.com/videos/living/2016/01/14/the-lasting-effects-of-bullying.cnn  

         Amy Schulting on Early Identification of Learning Difficulties

“We know early identification and intervention is the best approach to address learning difficulties, like dyslexia, so having those conversations with teachers early in the school year helps ensure students get the appropriate support and intervention they need.”  

• Bio: Amy Schulting is a visiting research scholar at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy and the dyslexia specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education. Her research includes teacher home-visiting to improve students’ transition to kindergarten and truancy prevention efforts in the elementary grades. https://childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu/people/profile/?t=faculty&p=amy.schulting  

A story version of this news tip is at  https://today.duke.edu/2018/08/back-school-advice-parents-duke-scholars-share-tips-tackling-homework-learning-difficulties .

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The Great Homework Debate

What is the right amount of homework for school children, and should it be given at all? Expert in social psychology, Harris Cooper, explains what schools, parents and students need to consider.

The appropriate amount of parent involvement differs depending on the age and ability level of the student. Obviously, young children will require more parent involvement than teens. An individual child’s study habits and motivation also need to be considered; if a child has a longer attention span and interest in learning, it means parents can back off and help only when asked. Here are some general tips for parent involvement: 

Be a stage manager - Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework. Make sure the needed materials (paper, pencils, dictionary) are available.

Be a motivator - Homework provides a great opportunity for you to tell your child how important school is. Be positive about homework. The attitude you express about homework will be the attitude your child acquires.

Be a role model - When your child does homework, don’t sit and watch TV. If your child is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your check book. Help your child see that the skills they are practicing are related to things you do as an adult.

Be a monitor - Watch your child for signs of failure and frustration. If your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers. If frustration sets in, suggest a short break.

Be a mentor - When the teacher asks that you play a role in homework, do it. If homework is meant to be done alone, stay away. Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, life-long learning skills. Over-involvement can be a bad thing.

Yes, quality matters most. Short, well-designed assignments will be more effective than long, poorly designed ones, which might even have negative effects on learning. Assignments that capture the student’s imagination are always best. But, beyond that, what makes for a quality assignment will vary depending on the subject matter. For example, spelling, vocabulary, and foreign language are subject areas that require practice and memorization – not the most exciting assignments but necessary nonetheless.

I’m aware of no research that examines the impact of how when children begin to learn study habits effects subsequent achievement. Certainly, good, simple study habits can be taught at an early age. Starting early also allows for the scaffolding of skills. Like constructing a building, parents and teachers can begin by providing a basic framework that later supports the learning of more complex and refined study skills. If ‘later in life’ means middle school, we must consider that establishing the basic structure of study skills will face additional challenges in their ‘tweenaged’ years. As children enter their teens, they will have well-established routines that are more difficult to modify. They will attend less to the dictates of adults and more to their peer group. 

Here are study tips for students that can establish a conducive routine for doing homework that even elementary students can benefit from:

Pick a good time to do homework - Try to have your student do their homework at the same time every day – right after school, just before dinner, or right after dinner. Try not to leave homework until just before they go to bed.

Remember to make time for long-term projects - Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting together with classmates. If your student needs special stuff for a project, make sure to get it for them well in advance.

Spend more time on hard homework than easy homework - Suggest your student think about what’s easy and hard for them and do the hard work first. Suggest a short break if they are having trouble keeping their mind on an assignment.

If homework gets too hard, ask for help - Parents and older siblings should be ready to provide help, if needed. Only help if it is really needed.

Find a place that makes studying easy - It’s good practice for your student to do their homework in the same place every day.

Yes, some schools are out of control with homework. The evidence suggests that the impact of homework on achievement is optimized at a level lower than the amount assigned in some schools and classrooms. These schools tend to serve families or communities where parents are highly educated themselves. Teachers in these schools will tell you they are responding to pressure from parents to maximize their children’s learning. The teachers also say that end-of-grade testing and the use of test scores to evaluate schools and teachers contribute to the pressure they feel for more frequent and longer homework assignments. 

That said, most schools assign an amount of homework parents are comfortable with. Surveys show that there are as many parents who feel their kids could handle more homework as there are parents who feel their kids are overburdened. It’s a local issue.

Yes, it is supportive of learning for students at all grade levels to do homework. The key is how much and what kind. Research suggests students should get about 10 minutes of homework each night for each grade (10 minutes for first grade, 20 for second, and so on). This is a rough anchor and teachers should adjust this amount upward (for example, high interest reading) or downward (for example, memorization) depending on the type of assignment and the ability level of the students. But students shouldn’t be overloaded with homework. It can ruin motivation. For young children, homework should be short, simple, and lead to success.

If you are looking for a culprit that is not allowing kids to “just live,” consider what you mean by “just live.” How much time do kids spend playing video games or on social media? Is that what they will do if time on homework is reduced?

I don’t know where this number comes from, for what grade level, or over what time duration. I do know that we should expect modest but real achievement gains from homework in the early grades and this impact will grow stronger as children progress through the grades.

Studies indicate no reason to believe that the generally positive effects of homework for students without disabilities would not also appear for students with learning disabilities. 

Clearly, however, the ingredients of successful homework assignments are different for the two types of students. 

A consistent theme in the literature is that completing homework assignments is more difficult for students with learning disabilities. This is not just because the same material might be more challenging, but also because learning disabilities are often accompanied by other deficits in attention, memory, or organizational skills that, we have seen, influence the success of home study. 

These realities suggest that homework assignments for students with learning disabilities should more often be short and should focus on reinforcement of skills and class lessons, as opposed to integration and extension. Students who fall below a minimum competency in a skill area may not benefit from homework at all.

Parent involvement is critical for students with disabilities, primarily because these students are likely to have less developed self-management and study skills. Their ability to study depends more on the provision of a proper environment, both physical and emotional. Students with learning disabilities may need periodic rewards during homework time or immediately following assignment completion as well as more assistance to complete tasks. Evidence suggests that this involvement should happen continuously, not periodically.

Yes, homework is perhaps the most difficult pedagogical strategy to study. The most conclusive research designs, those employing random assignment of students to homework and no homework conditions, can only be implemented at the unit level of subject matters. Definitive studies of long-term effects are near impossible.

Most researchers and educators agree that the positive effect of homework has been established. The kind of research needed now is evidence on how to maximize its positive effects and minimize its potential negative effects based on the characteristics of students and assignments.

Homework opponents tend to be folks who come to the research literature with the intent of finding evidence to support their position. They ignore studies that contradict their predisposition and often over-interpret the findings that support their position.

When enough studies have been done (there have been hundreds on homework), you can find a study that supports whatever position you want. This can happen based simply on chance factors, like unique characteristic of the students sampled in that particular study. The key to a sound interpretation of a research literature is looking at all the studies together. Good researchers identify the consensus findings, taking into consideration the quality of the research designs, then use the studies that aren’t aligned with the overall result to identify whether these results are simply statistical anomalies or point to important qualifications of the overall result.

Beyond achievement, homework can impact many aspects of children’s lives and development. Proponents of homework argue it can have many other beneficial effects, including the development of good study habits and a recognition that learning can occur at home as well as at school. Homework can also foster independent learning and responsible character traits – essential skills later in life when students change jobs or learn new skills for advancement at work. And homework can give parents an opportunity to see what’s going on at school and learn about their child’s academic strengths and weaknesses. Two parents once told me they refused to believe their child had a learning disability until homework revealed it to them. 

Opponents argue homework can lead to boredom with schoolwork because all activities remain interesting only for so long. Homework can deny students access to leisure activities – sports, church, volunteering, after-school jobs – that also teach important life skills. And parents can get too involved in homework – pressuring their children and confusing them by using different instructional techniques than the teacher.  

Any of these effects, positive and negative, can occur depending, again, on the characteristics of the student and home, and on the amount and type of homework assigned. The key for parents, educators, and researchers is to identify how to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative ones.

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Harris Cooper

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Harris Cooper received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1975. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty at the University of Missouri. In 2003, he moved to Duke University where he is a professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience and served as Director of the Program in Education from 2003 to 2008. Dr. Cooper has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, the University of Oregon, and the Russell Sage Foundation. Dr. Cooper's research interests follow two paths. The first concerns research synthesis and research methodology. His book, Synthesizing Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews (1998), is in revision for its 4th edition. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Research Synthesis (1994), a volume that is currently being prepared for a 2nd edition. Dr. Cooper and his students have published over two dozen research syntheses, many of which appeared in varied prestigious journals including Psychological Bulletin, Review of Educational Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. In 2007, Dr. Cooper was the recipient of the Frederick Mosteller Award for Contributions to Research Synthesis Methodology given by the Campbell Collaboration and in 2008 he received the Ingram Olkin Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Research Synthesis from the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. In 2007, Dr. Cooper was appointed to membership on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Social Science Evidence in Use. This committee gives sustained attention to issues and actions aimed at promoting high quality social science research with an eye toward improving evidence used in public policy decision-making. He is also a member of the NAS Committee on Advancing Social Science Theory: The Importance of Common Metrics. In 2007-08, he chaired the Journal Article Reporting Standards Working Group that developed guidelines for what information about research should be included in manuscripts submitted to journals published by the American Psychological Association (American Psychologist, in press). Dr. Cooper authored the chapter on “Research Questions and Research Design” in the Handbook of Research in Educational Psychology. He is co-author of the Study Design and Implementation Assessment Device (DIAD), an instrument for assessing the correspondence between the features and conduct of social science research and its ability to draw inferences about causal relationships (Psychological Methods, 2008). He recently agreed to be the editor of the American Psychological Association’s three-volume Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology. Dr. Cooper is also interested in the application of social and developmental psychology to educational policy issues. In particular, he studies how the activities that children and adolescents engage in when they are not in school influence their academic achievement. His research synthesis titled Homework (1989) was published as a monograph and provided the evidence base for a guide to policy and practice (The Battle over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents, 3rd edition, 2007). He and his students recently updated the synthesis of homework research (Review of Educational Research, 2006) and the resulting article received the 2007 Outstanding Review of Research Award from the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Cooper ´s research on homework has had an impact on policies and practices nationwide. In addition to working directly with schools and school districts, his work has been highlighted frequently in national media. Dr. Cooper has been a guest on NBC Dateline, CBS This Morning, ABC Nightly News and Good Morning America, CNN Headline News, Nickelodeon Nick News, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. On radio, he has appeared on The Larry King Show, NPR’s Talk of the Nation and the Mitch Ablom Show. Coverage of his work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Readers´ Digest, and USA Today Weekend, as well as every major metropolitan newspaper. More specialized publications also have provided coverage of his work, including Parents, Parenting, and Child magazines, NEA Today, and The American Teacher. Dr. Cooper and his students also study the impact of school calendars and calendar variations on students and their families. Their research syntheses on summer learning loss (1996) and modified school calendars (2003) were published in Review of Educational Research. In 2000, their monograph entitled Making the Most of Summer School was published by the Society for Research on Child Development. This monograph reported a synthesis of over 90 evaluations of the effectiveness of summer school. Dr. Cooper and his students are currently working on syntheses of research regarding the effects of all-day kindergarten, extending the school year, and lengthening the school day on students’ academic achievement and related outcomes. In 2003, Dr. Cooper became Editor for the Psychological Bulletin and will serve through mid-2009. The Institute for Scientific Information (2006) ranked the Psychological Bulletin 1st among all multidisciplinary psychology journals with regard to both the number of times it is cited and the impact of articles on the field. It ranked 5th among all social science journals (n=1768) in total citations and 3rd in impact factor. He has been Associate Editor of Social Psychology of Education, and an Advisory Editor for the Journal of Educational Psychology, the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the Elementary School Journal, Journal of Experimental Education, and the American Educational Research Journal. Dr. Cooper is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association Divisions 3 and 15, the American Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association. His research grants include three awards from the National Science Foundation, five from the Department of Education, two from the Russell Sage Foundation, two from the Smith Richardson Foundation, and one each from the Spencer Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In 1984, Dr. Cooper received the first Raymond B. Cattell Early Career Award for Programmatic Research from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Dr. Cooper served a three-year term as the Chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri. This academic unit had over 30 regular faculty members and 20 non-regular faculty members and trained over 70 graduate students and 800 undergraduate majors each year. As Director of Duke University’s Program in Education, he oversaw teacher licensure programs at both the elementary and secondary level. From 1992 to 1998, he served as an elected member of the Columbia, MO, Board of Education, a school district with a $100 million budget serving 16,000 students. In 1997, he won the AERA Award for Interpretive Scholarship for his article “Speaking Power to Truth: Reflections of an Educational Researcher after Four Years of School Board Service.” Dr. Cooper served for six years (1999-2005) as the chair of the methods groups for the Campbell Collaboration and as their representative on the Campbell Collaboration International Steering Committee. His national service includes sitting on two committees on afterschool programs for the C.S. Mott Foundation and on the Steering Committee of the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Programs. He was the Chair of the APA Council of Editors in 2006 and is a member of its committee revising the APA Publication Manual. He is on the Steering Committee of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness and on the Governing Board of the Regional Educational Laboratory serving the Appalachian region.

Primary Interests:

• Applied Social Psychology
• Causal Attribution
• Motivation, Goal Setting
• Research Methods, Assessment
• Social Cognition

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How Much Homework Is Too Much?

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Do Homework Assignments Benefit Young Students?

• Cooper, H. (2007). The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Cooper, H. (2010). Reporting research in psychology: How to meet journal article reporting standards. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Cooper, H. (2009). Research synthesis and meta-analysis: A step by step approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Cooper, H. (Ed.). (2012). APA handbook of research methods in psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Cooper, H., Hedges, L. V., & Valentine, J. C. (Eds.). (2009). The handbook of research synthesis and meta-analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Journal Articles:

• Anderson, K., Cooper, H. M., & Okamura, L. (1997). Individual differences and attitudes toward rape: A metaanalytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 295-315.
• Conn, V. S., Valentine, J. C., & Cooper, H. (2002). Interventions to increase physical activity among aging adults: A meta-analysis. Annals of Behavior Medicine, 24, 190-200.
• Cooper, H., DeNeve, K., & Charlton, K. (1997). Finding the missing science: The fate of studies submitted for review by a human subjects committee. Psychological Methods, 2, 447-452.
• Cooper, H. M., & Patall, E. A. (2009). The relative benefits of meta-analysis using individual participant data and aggregate data. Psychological Methods, 14, 165-176.
• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76, 1-62.
• Cooper, H., Valentine, J. C., Charleton, K., & Barnett, A. (2003). The effects of modified school calendars on student achievement and school community attitudes: A research synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 73, 1-52.
• DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 143 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 197-229.
• DePaulo, B. M., Charleton, K., Cooper, H., Lindsay, J. J., & Muhlenbruck, L. (1997). The accuracy-confidence correlation in the detection of deception. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1, 346-357.
• DePaulo, B. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 74-118.
• DuBois, D. L., Holloway, B. E., Valentine, J. C., & Cooper, H. (2002). Effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth: A meta-analytic review. American Journal of Community Psychology, 30, 157-197.
• Journal Article Reporting Standards Working Group. (2008). Reporting standards for research in psychology: Why do we need them? What might they be? American Psychologist, 63(9), 839-851.
• Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008). The effects of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes: A meta-analysis of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 270-300.
• Valentine, J. C., DuBois, D. L., & Cooper, H. (2004). The relations between self-beliefs and academic achievement: A systematic review. Educational Psychologist, 39, 111-133.

Other Publications:

• Wynn, S., & Cooper, H. (2007). Bob Dylan. In G. L. Anderson & K. Herr, (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice (pp. 489-492). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Courses Taught:

• Research Design
• Research Methods (graduate)
• Research Methods in Psychological Science (undergraduate)
• Research Synthesis

Harris Cooper Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Box 90086 Duke University Durham, North Carolina 27708 United States of America

• Work: (919) 660-5664
• Home: (919) 401-5550
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Harris M. Cooper CV

            Harris Cooper received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1975. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty at the University of Missouri. In 2003, he moved to Duke University where he is now Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience. Dr. Cooper has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, the University of Oregon, and the Russell Sage Founda­tion in New York City.

            Dr. Cooper's research interests follow two paths. The first concerns research synthesis and research methodology. His book, Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis: A Step-by-Step Approach (2017) is in its 5 th edition. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Research Synthe­sis and Meta-Analysis (3 rd edition anticipated, 2018). Dr. Cooper and his students have published over 30 research syntheses, many of which appeared in varied prestigious journals including Psychologi­cal Bulletin , Review of Educational Research , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Journal of Marketing Research and Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology . They have published over 40 articles on how to conduct research synthesis and meta-analysis. In 2007, Dr. Cooper was the recipient of the Frederick Mosteller Award for Contributions to Research Synthesis Methodology given by the International Campbell Collaboration. In 2008, he received the Ingram Olkin Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Research Synthesis from the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology.

Dr. Cooper was Editor-in-Chief of the American Psychological Association’s Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology (2012). The Handbook includes over 100 chapters on various aspects of research design and analysis, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research . He chaired the first APA committee that developed guidelines for information about research that should be included in manuscripts submitted to APA journals. In 2011, he published a book on the topic, titled Reporting Research in Psychology: How to Meet the New Standards for Journal Articles (2 nd edition anticipated, 2019).

            Dr. Cooper also studies the application of social and developmental psychology to education policy. In particular, he studies the relationship between time and learning. Most people think about how time relates to learning in terms of time in school (class time, instructional time, time-on-task). Dr. Cooper’s work zooms out from the school day rather than in. He focuses on issues related to (a) the school day and school calendar and (b) academic-related contexts children find themselves in when school is not in session.

            Dr. Cooper has studied homework for over 25 years. His synthesis of homework research received the 2007 Outstanding Review of Research Award from the American Educational Research Association. It also provided the evidence base for his guide to policy and practice, titled The Battle over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents (3 rd edition, 2007). His research on homework has had an impact on schools nationwide. In addition to working directly with parents, schools and school districts, his work has been highlighted frequently in national media. He has been a guest on NBC Dateline , CBS This Morning , ABC Nightly News and Good Morning America , CNN Headline News , Nickelodeon Nick News , and The Oprah Winfrey Show . On radio, he has appeared on The Larry King Show, NPR’s Talk of the Nation , Now Hear This, and the Mitch Ablom Show . Coverage of his work has also appeared in the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , Newsweek , Time , Readers´ Digest , the New Yorker and USA Today Weekend , as well as every major metropolitan newspaper. More specialized publications also have provided coverage of his work, including Parents, Parenting, and Child magazines, NEA Today , and The American Teacher .

           Dr. Cooper and his students also study the impact of school calendars and calendar variations on students and their families. Their research syntheses on summer learning loss and modified school calendars were published in Review of Educational Research . In 2000, their monograph titled Making the Most of Summer School was published by the Society for Research on Child Development. He and his students have also completed syntheses of research on the effects of full-day kindergarten and extending the school year and the school day (both published in Review of Educational Research, 2010). Most recently, Dr. Cooper and his students turned their attention to research on how well and with what affect students can grade their own and their peers’ academic assignments.

           From 1992 to 1998, Dr. Cooper served as an elected member of the Columbia, MO, Board of Education, at that time a school district with a $100 million budget serving 16,000 students. In 1997, he won the American Educational Research Association’s Award for Interpretive Scholarship for his article “Speaking Power to Truth: Reflections of an Educational Researcher after Four Years of School Board Service.” Dr. Cooper served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Use of Social Science Knowledge in Public Policy (2007-2012).

           Dr. Cooper served as editor for the Psychological Bulletin from 2003 through mid-2009. Psychological Bulletin is in the top 5 social science journals in total citations and impact factor. He was the Chair of the APA Council of Editors in 2006 and was a member of the committee that revised the APA Publication Manual (2010). In 2012, Dr. Cooper became the inaugural co-editor of the Archives of Scientific Psychology , APA’s first open methods, collaborative data sharing, open access journal. He remained as editor until 2015.

           From 2009 to 2015, Dr. Cooper served as the Chief Editorial Advisor for the APA’s journal publishing program. In this role, he served as a resource to the editors of APA’s 70+ journals as well as the mediator of disputes between editors and authors and between authors and authors. Dr. Cooper’s book, Ethical Choices in Research: Managing Data, Writing Reports, and Publishing Results in the Social Sciences (2016), draws from the experience as well as a review the related scholarship. The book goes beyond the proper treatment of human research subjects to examine frequently neglected ethical issues that arise after data has been collected.

           Dr. Cooper served as the Chair of the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University from 2009 to2014. He also served as Chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri and Director of Duke University’s Program in Education.

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Education, training & certifications.

Is homework a necessary evil?

After decades of debate, researchers are still sorting out the truth about homework’s pros and cons. One point they can agree on: Quality assignments matter.

By Kirsten Weir

March 2016, Vol 47, No. 3

Print version: page 36

• Schools and Classrooms

Homework battles have raged for decades. For as long as kids have been whining about doing their homework, parents and education reformers have complained that homework's benefits are dubious. Meanwhile many teachers argue that take-home lessons are key to helping students learn. Now, as schools are shifting to the new (and hotly debated) Common Core curriculum standards, educators, administrators and researchers are turning a fresh eye toward the question of homework's value.

But when it comes to deciphering the research literature on the subject, homework is anything but an open book.

The 10-minute rule

In many ways, homework seems like common sense. Spend more time practicing multiplication or studying Spanish vocabulary and you should get better at math or Spanish. But it may not be that simple.

Homework can indeed produce academic benefits, such as increased understanding and retention of the material, says Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper, PhD, one of the nation's leading homework researchers. But not all students benefit. In a review of studies published from 1987 to 2003, Cooper and his colleagues found that homework was linked to better test scores in high school and, to a lesser degree, in middle school. Yet they found only faint evidence that homework provided academic benefit in elementary school ( Review of Educational Research , 2006).

Then again, test scores aren't everything. Homework proponents also cite the nonacademic advantages it might confer, such as the development of personal responsibility, good study habits and time-management skills. But as to hard evidence of those benefits, "the jury is still out," says Mollie Galloway, PhD, associate professor of educational leadership at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. "I think there's a focus on assigning homework because [teachers] think it has these positive outcomes for study skills and habits. But we don't know for sure that's the case."

Even when homework is helpful, there can be too much of a good thing. "There is a limit to how much kids can benefit from home study," Cooper says. He agrees with an oft-cited rule of thumb that students should do no more than 10 minutes a night per grade level — from about 10 minutes in first grade up to a maximum of about two hours in high school. Both the National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association support that limit.

Beyond that point, kids don't absorb much useful information, Cooper says. In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

In a recent study of Spanish students, Rubén Fernández-Alonso, PhD, and colleagues found that students who were regularly assigned math and science homework scored higher on standardized tests. But when kids reported having more than 90 to 100 minutes of homework per day, scores declined ( Journal of Educational Psychology , 2015).

"At all grade levels, doing other things after school can have positive effects," Cooper says. "To the extent that homework denies access to other leisure and community activities, it's not serving the child's best interest."

Children of all ages need down time in order to thrive, says Denise Pope, PhD, a professor of education at Stanford University and a co-founder of Challenge Success, a program that partners with secondary schools to implement policies that improve students' academic engagement and well-being.

"Little kids and big kids need unstructured time for play each day," she says. Certainly, time for physical activity is important for kids' health and well-being. But even time spent on social media can help give busy kids' brains a break, she says.

All over the map

But are teachers sticking to the 10-minute rule? Studies attempting to quantify time spent on homework are all over the map, in part because of wide variations in methodology, Pope says.

A 2014 report by the Brookings Institution examined the question of homework, comparing data from a variety of sources. That report cited findings from a 2012 survey of first-year college students in which 38.4 percent reported spending six hours or more per week on homework during their last year of high school. That was down from 49.5 percent in 1986 ( The Brown Center Report on American Education , 2014).

The Brookings report also explored survey data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which asked 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students how much homework they'd done the previous night. They found that between 1984 and 2012, there was a slight increase in homework for 9-year-olds, but homework amounts for 13- and 17-year-olds stayed roughly the same, or even decreased slightly.

Yet other evidence suggests that some kids might be taking home much more work than they can handle. Robert Pressman, PhD, and colleagues recently investigated the 10-minute rule among more than 1,100 students, and found that elementary-school kids were receiving up to three times as much homework as recommended. As homework load increased, so did family stress, the researchers found ( American Journal of Family Therapy , 2015).

Many high school students also seem to be exceeding the recommended amounts of homework. Pope and Galloway recently surveyed more than 4,300 students from 10 high-achieving high schools. Students reported bringing home an average of just over three hours of homework nightly ( Journal of Experiential Education , 2013).

On the positive side, students who spent more time on homework in that study did report being more behaviorally engaged in school — for instance, giving more effort and paying more attention in class, Galloway says. But they were not more invested in the homework itself. They also reported greater academic stress and less time to balance family, friends and extracurricular activities. They experienced more physical health problems as well, such as headaches, stomach troubles and sleep deprivation. "Three hours per night is too much," Galloway says.

In the high-achieving schools Pope and Galloway studied, more than 90 percent of the students go on to college. There's often intense pressure to succeed academically, from both parents and peers. On top of that, kids in these communities are often overloaded with extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs. "They're very busy," Pope says. "Some kids have up to 40 hours a week — a full-time job's worth — of extracurricular activities." And homework is yet one more commitment on top of all the others.

"Homework has perennially acted as a source of stress for students, so that piece of it is not new," Galloway says. "But especially in upper-middle-class communities, where the focus is on getting ahead, I think the pressure on students has been ratcheted up."

Yet homework can be a problem at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum as well. Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, Internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs, says Lea Theodore, PhD, a professor of school psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. They are less likely to have computers or a quiet place to do homework in peace.

"Homework can highlight those inequities," she says.

Quantity vs. quality

One point researchers agree on is that for all students, homework quality matters. But too many kids are feeling a lack of engagement with their take-home assignments, many experts say. In Pope and Galloway's research, only 20 percent to 30 percent of students said they felt their homework was useful or meaningful.

"Students are assigned a lot of busywork. They're naming it as a primary stressor, but they don't feel it's supporting their learning," Galloway says.

"Homework that's busywork is not good for anyone," Cooper agrees. Still, he says, different subjects call for different kinds of assignments. "Things like vocabulary and spelling are learned through practice. Other kinds of courses require more integration of material and drawing on different skills."

But critics say those skills can be developed with many fewer hours of homework each week. Why assign 50 math problems, Pope asks, when 10 would be just as constructive? One Advanced Placement biology teacher she worked with through Challenge Success experimented with cutting his homework assignments by a third, and then by half. "Test scores didn't go down," she says. "You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load."

Still, changing the culture of homework won't be easy. Teachers-to-be get little instruction in homework during their training, Pope says. And despite some vocal parents arguing that kids bring home too much homework, many others get nervous if they think their child doesn't have enough. "Teachers feel pressured to give homework because parents expect it to come home," says Galloway. "When it doesn't, there's this idea that the school might not be doing its job."

Galloway argues teachers and school administrators need to set clear goals when it comes to homework — and parents and students should be in on the discussion, too. "It should be a broader conversation within the community, asking what's the purpose of homework? Why are we giving it? Who is it serving? Who is it not serving?"

Until schools and communities agree to take a hard look at those questions, those backpacks full of take-home assignments will probably keep stirring up more feelings than facts.

Further reading

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1–62. doi: 10.3102/00346543076001001
• Galloway, M., Connor, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81 (4), 490–510. doi: 10.1080/00220973.2012.745469
• Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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• Preface About the Author
• 1. Finding the Common Ground
• 2. Does Homework Work?
• 3. The Homework Assignment
• 4. Home and Community Influences on Homework
• 5. Homework Policies for School Districts, Schools, and Classrooms
• 6. Quick Tips for Teachers, Parents and Students References.
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The Opinion Pages

Homework’s diminishing returns.

Harris Cooper is chairman of the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University and author of "The Battle Over Homework."

Updated December 12, 2010, 7:00 PM

The horror stories I hear from parents and students about five or more hours spent on homework a night fly in the face of evidence of what’s best for kids, even what’s best for promoting academic achievement.

After a certain amount of homework the positive effect on achievement disappears, and even might turn negative.

My colleagues and I have conducted a combined analysis of dozens of homework studies to examine whether homework is beneficial and what amount of homework is appropriate for our children.

The homework question is best answered by comparing students who are assigned homework with students assigned no homework but who are similar in other ways. The results of such studies suggest that homework can improve students’ scores on the class tests that come at the end of a topic. This happens regardless of grade level and subject matter.

Yet other studies simply correlate the amount of homework students do and their achievement. These studies don’t attempt to control for student differences. About three-quarters find the link between homework and achievement is positive. But, most interesting, these results also suggest that after a certain amount of homework the positive relationship disappears and might even get negative.

So, research is consistent with the notion that homework can be a good thing if the dose is appropriate to the student’s age or developmental level.

How much homework should students do? The National PTA and the National Education Association have a parent guide that suggests 10-20 minutes of homework in grades K-2, 30 to 60 minutes in grades 3-6. Many school district policies state that high school students should expect about 30 minutes of homework for each academic course they take, a bit more for honors or advanced placement courses. Educators refer to this as “the 10 Minute Rule”: multiply a child’s grade by 10 and that’s the rough guide for minutes of homework a night. That recommendation is consistent with the conclusions reached by our research analysis.

A little amount of homework may help elementary school students build study habits and learn skills developed through practice. Homework for junior high students appears to reach the point of diminishing returns after about 90 minutes a night. For high school students, the positive line continues to climb until between 90 minutes and two and half hours of homework a night, after which returns diminish.

Beyond achievement, proponents of homework argue that it can help students develop good study habits as their cognitive capacities mature, foster independent learning and responsible character traits. And it can give parents opportunity to see what’s going on at school.

Opponents of homework counter that it can also have negative effects, like increasing boredom with schoolwork and reducing the time students have to spend on leisure activities that teach important life skills. Parents can get too involved in homework — pressuring their child and confusing him by using different instructional techniques from those used by the teacher.

My feeling is that the effects of homework depends on how well, or poorly, it is used. In general, teachers should avoid extremes. All children can benefit from homework but it is a very rare child who will benefit from hours and hours of homework. The fact is, too much homework not only crowds out time for other activities and increases stress on kids but there is no evidence that those last three hours of a five hour homework binge accomplishes what it set out to do, improve learning.

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The Great Homework Debate: What's Getting Lost in the Hype

By: Tim Walker Published: September 23, 2015

Homework - is it an unnecessary evil or a sound and valuable pedagogical practice? The media coverage of the debate often zeroes in on these two seemingly polar opposite views, even though they may not be all that far apart. Homework can be good until - well, until it isn't. Assign too much or the wrong kind (or both) and the law of diminishing returns kicks in, says  Dr. Harris Cooper , professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, r esulting in undue stress for students, aggravation for parents and no academic pay-off. 

But as Cooper, author of "The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents,"  recently told NEA Today, homework levels and parental attitudes haven't really changed dramatically over the years. Cooper also concludes - perhaps a shock of those who are convinced that very little in our classrooms is working as it should - "the vast majority of educators have got it right."  

There's a lot of focus on homework now, but has it been scrutinized so heavily in the past? 

Harris Cooper: Throughout the 20th century, the public battle over homework was quite cyclical. You can go back to World War I or a little after, when it was considered important for kids to exercise their brain like a muscle and that homework was a way to do that. During the 1930s, opinions changed. In the 1950s, people were worried about falling behind the communists, so more homework was needed as a way to speed up our education and technology. During the 1960s, homework fell out of favor because many though it inflicted too much stress on kids. In the 1970s and 1980s, we needed more homework to keep up with the Japanese economically. More recently, as everything about education and teachers is being scrutinized, homework has come into question again.

What's interesting is that the actual percentage of people who support or oppose homework has changed very little over the years. And the actual amount of homework kids are doing has changed very little over the last 65 years.

But haven't we seen an uptick in the amount of homework assigned to elementary students?

HC:  There is a little bit of an uptick in lower grades. But when you look at the actual numbers, we're talking about the difference between an average of 20 minutes and 30 minutes. So you’ll find some people who say the amount of homework being given to 2 nd graders, for example, has increased 50 percent. But If you look at the actual numbers, it's ten more minutes per night.

And probably a driving force behind that is obviously end-of-grade testing and accountability issues. Perhaps more legitimately is the importance of early reading. As they say, in third grade you learn to read, and in fourth grade you read to learn. So this has led to more reading assignments.

While most high school students are still doing approximately the same amount of homework on average, there's a great deal of variation. That's due to choices some kids make about how rigorous an academic program to take and the increased competition over college admissions. So there are a lot of kids out there taking four or five advanced placement and honors classes now, which might not have been the case a while back.

According to the MetLife Foundation national homework survey, 3 out of 5 parents said their kids are getting just the right amount of homework. One said too much and one said too little. That survey is a few years old now but I doubt that's changed.

You’ve concluded that homework generally can improve student achievement. At what grade levels do we usually see this effect? 

HC: There's very little correlation between homework and achievement in the early grades. As kids get older, the correlation gets stronger. But there are experimental studies even at the earliest grades that look at skills such as spelling, math facts, etc. where kids are randomly assigned to do homework and not do homework. They show that kids who did the homework performed better.

But we're really talking about correlation here, so we have to be a little careful. It's also worth noting that these correlations with older students are likely caused, not only by homework helping achievement, but also by kids who have higher achievement levels doing more homework.

But at a particular point more homework is not a good thing. You've heard of the "10-Minute Rule," where you multiply a child’s grade by 10 to determine how many minutes you assign per night. This rule fits the data. So 20-minutes for a second grader is where you'd start. In middle schools, it's between 60-90 mins for 6th through 9th graders, about two hours later in high school. When you assign more than these levels, the law of diminishing returns or even negative effects - stress especially - begin to appear.

Have school districts coalesced around the 10-minute rule?

HC:  From my experience, I have never seen a school district that recommends anything that isn’t consistent with the 10-minute rule. They won't use the term "10-minute rule" usually, but they’ll say, primary school grades will be assigned up to 30 mins., grades 4-6 up to an hour, things like that. But If you translate the policy to the 10-minute rule, it’ll be very similar. Nobody has a policy that says you can expect your second-graders to bring home two hours of homework. The only place you'll see a warning about it is in high school: you can expect half an hour a night per academic subject. Again, if the kid is taking AP, expect more.

  What don't we know about homework? Where are the gaps in the research?

HC:  We need to know more about the the differing impacts by subject matter. Regarding the 10-minute rule, one question I am frequently asked is, “Does that include reading?" Generally, the answer would be yes, but if we’re interested in kids' stress level, for example, they are more likely to burn out quicker doing math worksheets and studying vocabulary than if they were doing high-interest reading. So we really need more work on subject matter, on homework quality, on the level of inquisitiveness that it engenders and the way it motivates. Also we need to know more about the use of the Internet, especially as it relates to potential disparities between rich and poor and the ability to research at home.

Parental involvement is a huge homework-related issue . How can educators work with parents to keep their role constructive? 

HC:  Parental involvement is more important in the earlier grades and teachers should try to make sure that parents have the skills to teach the material so to avoid any instructional confusion. Educators should also remind parents to not place great pressure on their child and to model behaviors, especially with young children. For example, when the child is doing math homework, a parent could balance the checkbook to demonstrate how the skill can be used in adult life, or they can they read their own book while their child is reading.

Homework also keeps parents aware of what their child is learning. I've had some very emotional parents come to me about having been told by teachers that their child is struggling, that there might be a learning disability. The parents don't necessarily see it until they see their child work on homework.

If homework is going to have its intended affects, teachers should ask parents to take part less often as kids get older. If support from parents is withdrawn slowly, it can promote autonomous learning - teaching kids that they can learn on their own and they can learn anywhere.

Do you think overall the current debate or controversy over homework has been helpful and what, if anything, should educators take from it?

HC: Well, I recognize that the debate will always be there, but I generally choose to ignore it, or at least the people who, as the old saying goes, use science the same way a drunkard uses a lamp post - more for support than for illumination.

Homework is probably the most complicated pedagogical strategy teachers use because it's open to variations due to child individual differences and the home context. But the vast majority of educators have got it right. They're not going to satisfy everyone, because kids take homework home to different environments and to parents with different expectations. But, like I said before, three in five parents are satisfied and there's one in each direction - too much homework or too little. That probably means teachers are doing their job properly.

Photo: Associated Press

Reference s

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• 3 Collaborating Effectively in Crisis

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