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August 19, 2008, 12:43 PM ET
More Math Homework Does Not Help Average Achievers Increase Test Scores
Does extra homework help students achieve better scores on math tests? It works differently depending on the kind of student, a study from researchers at the State University of New York at Binghamton and the University of Nevada has found.
In a paper published in the July issue of The Econometrics Journal, the researchers said that giving additional homework is most effective for high and low achievers, but it has a lesser impact on the math test scores for average achievers.
Pushing high-achieving students harder might be beneficial for them, as well as giving extra homework to low-performing pupils who might have been not challenged enough, the researchers found.
“But for the average achieving classes, who may have been given too much homework in an attempt to equate them with the high achieving classes, educators could be better served by using other methods to improve student achievement,” said Daniel Henderson, an associate professor of economics at Binghamton University, in a university news release.
The researchers, who used data from a large study of eighth-grade students conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics, said their findings might interest those schools that are trying to help their students pass state-mandated tests by increasing their homework load. —Maria José Viñas
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