The practice of requiring students to carry out academic tasks during nonschool hours is as old as formal schooling. Assessments of the value of homework, however, have fluctuated over time with strong positive opinions prevailing at the turn of this century and the early 1960's and negative opinions holding sway in the 1930's and 1970's. Recently, in response to calls for higher standards of excellence in American education, schools have begun to place increased emphasis on homework as a means for improving student performance. Opinions of homework and its utility have never been greatly influenced by empirical data on the subject. This is due partly to a general lack of public information on what research says about homework and partly to the seemingly contradictory findings of studies. The purpose of this project is to locate, describe, summarize, and integrate the empirical research concerning the effects of homework on numerous student outcome variables. Outcomes will include all the dependent measures employed in previous research, with special attention paid to academic achievement, attitudes toward school, and study habits. The review will go beyond previous reviews by (1) including the most recent research; (2) paying the greatest attention to schooling, homework, and research method characteristics that might mediate the effects of homework; (3) focusing on homework effects on different subject matters, with special attention paid to science and mathematics; and (4) employing quantitative synthesis techniques to estimate the impact of homework and uncover any subtle homework effects.
