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'There's only so far I can take them': Why teachers give up on struggling students who don't do their homework
Phys.org ^ | 9/27/2022 | Jessica Calarco and Ilana Horn

Posted on 09/27/2022 9:25:40 AM PDT by LibWhacker

Whenever "Gina," a fifth grader at a suburban public school on the East Coast, did her math homework, she never had to worry about whether she could get help from her mom.

"I help her a lot with homework," Gina's mother, a married, mid-level manager for a health care company, explained to us during an interview for a study we did about how teachers view students who complete their homework versus those who do not.

"I try to maybe re-explain things, like, things she might not understand," Gina's mom continued. "Like, if she's struggling, I try to teach her a different way. I understand that Gina is a very visual child but also needs to hear things, too. I know that when I'm reading it, and I'm writing it, and I'm saying it to her, she comprehends it better."

One of us is a sociologist who looks at how schools favor middle-class families. The other is a math education professor who examines how math teachers perceive their students based on their work.

We were curious about how teachers reward students who complete their homework and penalize and criticize those who don't—and whether there was any link between those things and family income.

By analyzing student report cards and interviewing teachers, students and parents, we found that teachers gave good grades for homework effort and other rewards to students from middle-class families like Gina, who happen to have college-educated parents who take an active role in helping their children complete their homework.

But when it comes to students such as "Jesse," who attends the same school as Gina and is the child of a poor, single mother of two, we found that teachers had a more bleak outlook.

The names "Jesse" and "Gina" are pseudonyms to protect the children's identities. Jesse can't count on his mom to help with his homework because she struggled in school herself.

"I had many difficulties in school," Jesse's mom told us for the same study. "I had behavior issues, attention-deficit. And so after seventh grade, they sent me to an alternative high school, which I thought was the worst thing in the world. We literally did, like, first and second grade work. So my education was horrible."

Jesse's mother admitted she still can't figure out division to this day.

"[My son will] ask me a question, and I'll go look at it and it's like algebra, in fifth grade. And I'm like: 'What's this?'" Jesse's mom said. "So it's really hard. Sometimes you just feel stupid. Because he's in fifth grade. And I'm like, I should be able to help my son with his homework in fifth grade."

Unlike Gina's parents, who are married and own their own home in a middle-class neighborhood, Jesse's mom isn't married and rents a place in a mobile home community. She had Jesse when she was a teenager and was raising Jesse and his brother mostly on her own, though with some help from her parents. Her son is eligible for free lunch.

An issue of equity

As a matter of fairness, we think teachers should take these kinds of economic and social disparities into account in how they teach and grade students. But what we found in the schools we observed is that they usually don't, and instead they seemed to accept inequality as destiny. Consider, for instance, what a fourth grade teacher—one of 22 teachers we interviewed and observed during the study—told us about students and homework.

"I feel like there's a pocket here—a lower income pocket," one teacher said. "And that trickles down to less support at home, homework not being done, stuff not being returned and signed. It should be almost 50-50 between home and school. If they don't have the support at home, there's only so far I can take them. If they're not going to go home and do their homework, there's just not much I can do."

While educators recognize the different levels of resources that students have at home, they continue to assign homework that is too difficult for students to complete independently, and reward students who complete the homework anyway.

Consider, for example, how one seventh grade teacher described his approach to homework: "I post the answers to the homework for every course online. The kids do the homework, and they're supposed to check it and figure out if they need extra help. The kids who do that, there is an amazing correlation between that and positive grades. The kids who don't do that are bombing.

"I need to drill that to parents that they need to check homework with their student, get it checked to see if it's right or wrong and then ask me questions. I don't want to use class time to go over homework."

The problem is that the benefits of homework are not uniformly distributed. Rather, research shows that students from high-income families make bigger achievement gains through homework than students from low-income families.

This relationship has been found in both U.S. and Dutch schools, and it suggests that homework may contribute to disparities in students' performance in school.

Tougher struggles

On top of uneven academic benefits, research also reveals that making sense of the math homework assigned in U.S schools is often more difficult for parents who have limited educational attainment, parents who feel anxious over mathematical content. It is also difficult for parents who learned math using different approaches than those currently taught in the U.S..

Meanwhile, students from more-privileged families are disproportionately more likely to have a parent or a tutor available after school to help with homework, as well as parents who encourage them to seek help from their teachers if they have questions. And they are also more likely to have parents who feel entitled to intervene at school on their behalf.

False ideas about merit

In the schools we observed, teachers interpreted homework inequalities through what social scientists call the myth of meritocracy. The myth suggests that all students in the U.S. have the same opportunities to succeed in school and that any differences in students' outcomes are the result of different levels of effort. Teachers in our study said things that are in line with this belief.

For instance, one third grade teacher told us: "We're dealing with some really struggling kids. There are parents that I've never even met. They don't come to conferences. There's been no communication whatsoever. … I'll write notes home or emails; they never respond. There are kids who never do their homework, and clearly the parents are OK with that.

"When you don't have that support from home, what can you do? They can't study by themselves. So if they don't have parents that are going to help them out with that, then that's tough on them, and it shows."


TOPICS: Education; Science
KEYWORDS: homework; struggling; students; teachers
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To: IYAS9YAS

He may have been exaggerating a bit. ;)


81 posted on 09/27/2022 11:36:26 AM PDT by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: IrishBrigade

If you say so!

As you say you’ve not a done a geometric proof not picked up a test tube. I guarantee you’ve applied the principles those classes taught.


82 posted on 09/27/2022 11:36:49 AM PDT by Reily
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To: TexasGator

‘What is your point?’

his point seems rather obvious, does it not...? that schools hamstring students by forcing everyone too far into into a common curriculum, with no thought given to individual abilities (or lack of same)...

by way of explanation I use the course that caused me to fantasize about offing myself to get my father off my back about bad report cards: Plane Geometry...in what sane world does someone not in a hard science career path need to master the arcana of Euclidian theorems, corollaries and proofs...? and yet, Plane Geometry was a required course in a college prep curriculum...

‘but it teaches you to think,’ you say; true enough, but so did every other course I took, including those I found conducive to my abilities, so what special learning was I afforded by being forced to endure such technical minutiae to the point of failure...?


83 posted on 09/27/2022 11:39:07 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: LibWhacker

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink

You can send a kid to school, but you can’t make him think


84 posted on 09/27/2022 11:42:59 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day)
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

That’s a good one


85 posted on 09/27/2022 11:46:39 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: IrishBrigade

“his point seems rather obvious, does it not...?”

No. That is why I asked.


86 posted on 09/27/2022 11:47:14 AM PDT by TexasGator (!!!)
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To: Zuriel

I used just basic math as a Sr Financial Analyst of 30 some years. Never used calculus, Algebra, Chemistry, Biology.

Percent changes, division, add, subtract. Used formula’s in Excel, Pivot tables, etc.

Teach the basics in math for 4 years or until the student gets it. If students are going to be engineer, chemist, etc, let them take those Advanced Math and other subjects but not mandatory for every student who can’t even learn how to divide.

Teach how to make change without calculator or cash resister. Teach budgeting money. Teach rate of investment for savings, teach interest rates you will pay buying a home or a car, etc.


87 posted on 09/27/2022 11:55:23 AM PDT by Engedi
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To: Engedi

“If students are going to be engineer, chemist, etc, let them take those Advanced Math and other subjects but not mandatory for every student who can’t even learn how to divide.”

When were they ever mandatory?


88 posted on 09/27/2022 11:58:57 AM PDT by TexasGator (!!!)
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To: Reily

‘I guarantee you’ve applied the principles those classes taught.’

of what value, then, is a set of principles forced on a student to the extent he suffers failure and humiliation if it cannot be impressed on the student that the same set is in fact inadvertantly useful in future endeavors...? .

schools are not, or at least were not, unaware of student imdividual proclivities; it seems stodgy adherence to a curriculum requiring the difficuties encountered in higher math be mastered is counterproductive...

my mathematical necessities were more than adequately addressed by arithmetic, which forced me to think long and hard, using such things as logic and deductive reasoning...


89 posted on 09/27/2022 12:01:21 PM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: Engedi

You should write a letter thanking those people who understood math and wrote all those formulas and algorithms to make it possible for you to do your job. And maybe you should also thank to software QA folks who verify every one of them on a routine basis. Bad algorithms and formulas can cause bridge collapses, reactor melt downs, and plane crashes just like incompetence can.


90 posted on 09/27/2022 12:04:26 PM PDT by TN4Liberty (My tagline disappeared so this is my new one.)
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To: TexasGator

‘When were they ever mandatory?’

as i stated in a prior response to you, Plane Geometry was required in my high school for a college prep curriculum...perhaps you can explain to me, all these years later, why such a difficult subject requirement should be mandatory...


91 posted on 09/27/2022 12:09:41 PM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: IrishBrigade

Ok fine


92 posted on 09/27/2022 12:12:51 PM PDT by Reily
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To: TN4Liberty

‘You should write a letter thanking those people who understood math and wrote all those formulas and algorithms to make it possible for you to do your job...’

why do you assume that I, or anyone else as deficient as I was in understanding the higher maths am not in fact appreciative and admiringof those who are applying those principles to make society function more fully...?


93 posted on 09/27/2022 12:14:07 PM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: alternatives?

Like me, he grew up on a grain and livestock farm (although a smaller operation), and knew he wasn’t going to be a farmer. Hence his taking all of the college prep classes.

One of my best friend’s parents owned and managed a grocery store. Before he was out of middle school he had learned how cut meat, how to gab with the customers, and by high school graduation knew how manage the place. His sales skills suited him well when he chose two years later to be a motorcycle salesman. He also sold new cars and was excellent at that as well. His calm demeanor, and a dry wit that was second to none, really helped the nervous buyer to relax. But the cigarettes finally got him at 56. :(


94 posted on 09/27/2022 12:16:01 PM PDT by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: dfwgator

Back during most my school days, there were a couple of topic specific study books. One popular brand was i.e. Cliff Notes,
another couldd have been “Algebra For Dummies”.
I never liked the subtle insult of being called a ‘Dummy’, though I’m sure the publisher considered it quite clever and amusing.


95 posted on 09/27/2022 12:16:51 PM PDT by lee martell ( )
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To: Engedi

I agree.


96 posted on 09/27/2022 12:18:20 PM PDT by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: Red Badger

Same here. Exactly!

The soft bigotry of low expectations on display for all to see. They are racists aka bigoted, self-anointed elites who think they must help the poor down-trodden student by not expecting anything from him - just so they can feel good about themselves. And these bigots need that because they’re not very bright but ‘feel’ they know what’s best for all.


97 posted on 09/27/2022 12:19:27 PM PDT by curious7
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To: LibWhacker
This relationship has been found in both U.S. and Dutch schools, and it suggests that homework may contribute to disparities in students' performance in school.

The Leftist attitude towards public schools is that nobody should be allowed to do better than the lowest-achieving students. (Of course, THEIR kids are in private schools where they are pushed to achieve).

Parents should remove their kids from such sewage.

98 posted on 09/27/2022 12:24:05 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people won’t be offended)
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To: LibWhacker

Our schools are set up to teach large numbers of students.

This forces the schools to make large assumptions.

“All students are the same.”

“The teacher will have no effect on the student beyond the coursework.”

“All students must be taught the same things.”


99 posted on 09/27/2022 12:24:41 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: IrishBrigade

“as i stated in a prior response to you, “

I was responding to your latest where you referred to every student.


but not mandatory for every student who can’t even learn how to divide.


100 posted on 09/27/2022 12:24:45 PM PDT by TexasGator (!!!)
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