Changes To Homework Policy Discussed After Teacher Outcry

FAIRFIELD, CT — The proposed homework policy that elicited outcry from Fairfield teachers at a recent school board meeting is expected to soon return to the board, but not without some changes. A previous draft of the policy had mandated homework make up at least 10 percent of a student's grade for a high school class and at least 15 percent of each course grade in middle school. Members of the board's policy committee have plans to change that requirement.

Instead, the committee considered mandating that course grades will not be determined only by summative assessments — schoolwork that is expected to reflect mastery of course material. During the past school year all grading was summative.

A parent and student in the school district attended the committee's meeting Tuesday to speak in favor of the solely summative approach to grading. They said it created an environment where students could use their homework to practice skills without worrying about a grade.

Bob Smoler, a math teacher at Fairfield Warde High School and president of the Fairfield Education Association, spoke against the homework percentage requirement, but was less opposed to the mandate that grading not be completely summative.

"I could get the teachers behind that," he said.

Other topics of discussion included an item dictating homework with an online component be posted no later than two hours after dismissal. Smoler expressed concern teachers could be less likely to assign homework because of the rule, but committee member Jeff Peterson noted that the policy's level of detail was in response to parent complaints.

The consistency of homework expectations in cases where multiple instructors teach the same course was another point of debate.

"Teachers would be very, very upset if they were prescribed the amount of homework they had to deliver," Smoler said.

However, committee member Jennifer Jacobsen was adamant about the need for consistency in the experiences available to students. Peterson pointed out that the issue of consistency extends beyond the homework policy.

The committee discussed removing specifics regarding GPA, grade impact, and formative and summative assessments from the section about consistency and relaxing the language of the policy to provide a less immediate timeline for achieving consistency across courses.

The school board's next meeting is 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at 501 Kings Highway East.