Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Is homework actually helping improve academic outcomes? Or is it just causing stress and taking time away from family activities, extracurriculars, social time and rest?

Brigitte Blom sat down with Ariel Gilreath of The Hechinger Report, who dug into the research behind a growing trend: schools and districts across the country are quietly scrapping math homework.

Here's what the research actually says:

Studies are split—some show more homework = better performance, others show little to no effect, especially for younger kids
The "10 minutes per grade level" rule is widely recommended, but nearly impossible to enforce fairly
The share of 4th graders getting NO math homework jumped from ~5% in the 1990s to over 25% by 2024
AI is now a factor too—nearly 1 in 10 teens say they use it to do most of their schoolwork

As one researcher put it: the real question isn't whether there should be MORE homework, it's whether there should be BETTER homework.

Listen the full interview with Ariel on Eastern Standard to find out what parents and educators think, and what schools are doing about it here: https://esweku.org/track/4849045/june-11-2026_brigitte-blom-ariel-galreath

Thank you to Center for RelationaLearning for being a National Family Friendly Schools Trusted Partner! The Center for RelationaLearning's programs include keynote presentations, workshops, and professional development initiatives to equip educators with transformative relationship-first strategies for success. We are excited to partner with them to help schools across the country achieve their goals.

Find out more about National Family Friendly Schools here: https://prichardcommittee.org/nffs/
Find out more about Center for RelationaLearning here: https://relationalearning.com/