The district needs to go back to putting things online in PDF format so they can be read on any computer and operating system... Not everyone has a copy of Office2008....
Here is the blurb from the Brooks thing:
Information Regarding Homework Statement for 2009-2010
As you read through copies of the Brooks Student-Parent Handbook (will be posted online in early August) you will note that District 204 has adopted a new statement in accordance with our current policy as it relates to homework at the elementary level. What follows are the history, research, and practical application behind the new statement.
During the course of the 2008-2009 school year, the District 204 elementary school principals conducted an in-depth study on the topic of homework in order to guarantee that the district was current with best practices. Several interesting results were found. They included:
➢ The focus on the purpose of homework should be student learning and not compliance. Teachers know that certain learning skills require practice to perfect, and often homework is used for practice. Research confirms that mastering a skill requires focused practice (Marzano et. al, 2001.)
➢ Research does seem to verify that a small amount of homework may be good for learning, but too much homework may be bad for learning. Up to a point, homework appears positive, but past the optimal amount, achievement either remains flat or declines. Curiously, the research about the appropriate amount of homework for different grade levels is already consistent with an informal guideline that many teachers already practice – the “ten minute” rule (Cooper, 2007.)
➢ All homework can be used to check for understanding if we convince students not to be threatened by grades. Grades are not necessary for learning to take place. Grades on homework often get in the way of learning, demotivate students, and create power struggles between students and teachers and between students and parents (Guskey, 2003).
➢ The goal of assessment of learning should be to keep failure at a minimum and to maintain learner’s confidence – the opposite occurs when homework is graded. The most important question to ask about grading homework is “What is the effect on future learning?” (Stiggins, 2007.) Priority must be given to tasks that do not cause students to give up.
➢ All homework should receive feedback. Moving from grading to feedback encourages student ownership of learning. Allowing students to take control of their learning makes learning personal (Guskey and Anderson, 2008.)
As a result of these findings, the principals, with input from teachers, revised the District #204 homework statement in order to confirm that reasonable time-limited homework, which provides feedback to our students, is still important to the learning process. With this new statement, homework will continue to be a part of the learning process for students. It will be valued and a part of the expectation for learning. The practice that homework provides is a key to the learning process, and experience shows that most students will not receive good grades if they do not practice. However, homework will not be graded and factored into the grades that a student receives on progress reports or report cards.
Student grades will be determined from the skills and learning that are demonstrated at school. Our teachers have and will continue to assess student performance and learning individually. Appropriate feedback for homework will be provided to ensure that students value the practice and participate in the learning activities associated with the classroom. We will revisit this conversation in each classroom during our fall curriculum night, held at the beginning of the school year. Each teacher will be able to provide you with a realistic understanding of what homework, assessment and grading will look like in the classroom.
