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In a new working paper, @ilana_horn, Grace Chen, and I find that homework can operate as a status-reinforcing process. Like tracking and standardized testing, it amplifies then naturalizes inequalities in student outcomes.
(thread) 1/ https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/xf96q/
(thread) 1/ https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/xf96q/
Focusing on the case of math homework, we use a longitudinal, ethnographic study of students in a socioeconomically diverse (primarily white) school district to trace students' homework experiences from school to home and back again, examining inequalities in that process. 2/
Math homework was a struggle for many families. Yet, higher-SES (white) families typically had the resources to ensure (either by their own efforts or with outside help) that their children's homework was consistently correct, complete, and on-time. 3/
Meanwhile, many lower-SES (white) parents struggled to support their children with math homework, even when they wanted to do so. In some cases, their work schedules created challenges. In other cases, limited math knowledge and confidence made helping difficult. 4/
Because their parents had more resources to support homework production, higher-SES students' math homework was more consistently correct and complete than lower-SES students' homework. Elementary report card grades for math "homework effort" showed similar SES patterns. 5/
Teachers knew that students got unequal support with homework. Yet, official homework policies treated homework as students' individual responsibility, effectively erasing those unequal contexts and leading teachers to interpret/respond to homework in status-reinforcing ways. 6/
Teachers' interpreted missing/incorrect math homework as evidence of students' lack of responsibility, motivation, and ability. As one seventh grade math teacher explained in an interview, if students don't do their homework, they probably "don't know what they're doing": 7/
Teachers' assumptions about students' math homework had a status-enhancing effect on higher-SES students and a status-degrading effect on their lower-SES peers. Compare, for example, how teachers talked about Bailey (higher-SES, white) and Kara (lower-SES, white): 8/
Those assumptions about students' math homework also led teachers to justify subjecting students to unequal rewards (e.g., praise, higher grades, consideration for higher track placements) and punishments (e.g., reprimands, missed recesses, lower grades). 9/
By justifying teachers' unequal allocation of rewards and punishments, math homework tended to have status-enhancing effects on higher-SES students and status-degrading effects on lower-SES students. 10/
Now, teachers did sometimes try to offer accommodations for students who had fewer resources or less support at home. But those accommodations were rarely sufficient to overcome the inequalities that homework created. 11/
Ultimately, then, we conclude that homework - as traditionally practiced in U.S. schools - operates as a status-reinforcing process. It amplifies and then naturalizes inequalities in student achievement and student discipline. 12/ https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/xf96q/
Given these findings, we recommend that schools discontinue the assignment of traditional math homework, especially in the early grades, where its benefits appear most limited. 13/ https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/xf96q/
Meanwhile, when school is online, all schoolwork is homework. Thus, in the context of the pandemic, our findings highlight the need for sensitivity to inequalities at home and the need to avoid judging/penalizing students for work that isn't correct, complete, and on-time. 14/14
