Last week, the Broward County School Board in Florida approved new homework guidelines that suggest that teachers not assign too much homework and that the homework that is assigned be meaningful. According to The Sun Sentinel, the policy requires teachers to “provide ‘timely and appropriate feedback’ on assignments, be sensitive about the costs of materials for projects, and collaborate with other teachers so projects are not assigned at the same time.”
Stop Homework 
Well I think someone needs to tell the middle school teachers about “not assigning too much homework” because my daughter’s had truck loads of homework in 4 classes out of 6 (the other two are PE & Art) and spends 4-5 hours after school doing homework…in fact, it’s 11:15 pm and she’s STILL doing homework…not cool!!!
I’ve seen the homework and “meaningful” is far from what some of this is! 😦
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Sara, is this the article you meant?
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/back-to-school/sfl-palm-schools-homework-081909,0,562331.story
I don’t see any good news here. The school district proposes 90 minutes a night for 5th graders, which is way too much.
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to FedUpMom…how about 4hours for 8th grader?!!!! That’s what I’m dealing with, nightly…insane amounts of homework since day one!
by the way, why am I the only one here who uses their real name?! lol
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Tara Burner — 4 hours of homework for an 8th grader is just too much. Have you read The Case Against Homework?
Have you talked to the teachers yet? You can set a time limit at home. Harris Cooper, whom I don’t really agree with, recommends a maximum of 80 minutes for 8th grade. After your daughter gets to your time limit, tell her she’s done, and write a note to the teachers explaining what you did. Warning: you will have to be vigilant to ensure that your daughter doesn’t get punished for the unfinished homework.
You say a lot of the homework isn’t meaningful. Your opinion counts! If your daughter comes home with tedious work that does nothing but make her hate school, write a note to the teacher explaining why she isn’t going to do it. Again, you will need to monitor the situation at school.
Good luck! Please let us know how you and your daughter are doing.
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FedUp Mom: Broward County did set some limits, but Palm Beach just instituted a new, outrageous policy. And that’s one of the big problems. A few communities institute better (but not good) policies; many are instituting worse, especially for young elementary school children.
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Hiya! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa? My website discusses a lot of the same topics as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Great blog by the way!
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