EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — EPISD officials are continuing to look at whether or not a potential “No Homework” policy would work at all of its Elementary schools in the district.
Some research and data was presented by the district’s staff to the school board of trustees Tuesday morning, including recommendations for Elementary schools to consider.
The research includes a suggestion of the “10-minute rule”, which means students daily homework assignments combined should take up to 10 minutes to complete, and multiplied by the students grade level.
For example: 3rd graders X 10 = 30 minutes of homework.
However, some school board members like Daniel Call from District 7 says the “No Homework” policy would be more of a benefit for Elementary school students, and they should have more time dedicated to reading after school instead
“We want to make sure that the kids are very well-rounded and we want to make sure that we’re not draining the kids off on the education system especially in there earlier years,” Call shared.
As of right now, there are only 2 of 43 campuses reported in EPISD that have a no homework practice.
“Those schools tend to do well. Parents tend to be pretty happy with it. Kids tend to be pretty happy with it, so it seems like it’s working out well. We’re looking at the possibility of expanding that program district wide,” Call said.
Some parents agreed with the idea, and shared their children go through some troubles staying focused after school.
“My children have ADHD and by this time a little later they actually start losing the effect of their medication so it’s a lot more difficult to have them concentrate,” Parent Lorraine Gonzalez told KTSM.
Other parents said there needs to be a balance, or at least more academic programs and extracurricular activities students can participate at the school.
”It’s one of those hard balancing act that families and schools need to come together and really listen to each other to be able to find a good balance,” Parent Michael Guerra shared.
With little to no homework, some Elementary students shared how they’d spend their time after school.
“I would play with my friend,” 2nd grader Elsie Call said.
“I would probably play in the front yard and the backyard because in the backyard I like to play with my dog and in the front yard I play basketball sometimes,” 4th grader Lincoln Call added.
The school board of trustees are expected to circle back on the discussion and potentially take a vote in December or January.
