Does Homework Actually Help? What the Research Says, Age by Age

"Is homework good for students?" is one of the oldest arguments in education, and it tends to split into two camps that both overstate their case. One says homework builds discipline and results. The other says it is busywork that steals childhood.

The research lands between them. The answer depends a great deal on the child's age, and on what the homework actually is.

The short answer

• Homework helps on average. The effect is real but moderate.
• It helps teenagers much more than young children. For primary-age children, the measured benefit is small.
• What the homework is matters more than how long it takes. Short, purposeful tasks linked to class work, with feedback, do better than long, generic ones.

What the largest reviews found

The US evidence. In 2006, Harris Cooper, Jorgianne Civey Robinson and Erika Patall reviewed the American research published since 1987. Every study they found had design flaws. Even so, across different kinds of study they found generally consistent evidence that homework has a positive influence on achievement.

Two details matter most for parents. The link between homework and achievement was stronger in grades 7 to 12 than in kindergarten to grade 6. It was also stronger when students, rather than parents, reported how much time they spent.

The UK evidence. The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit is widely used by schools in England. It rates homework at +5 months of additional progress on average, based on 43 studies, in a review last updated in August 2021. Behind that average:

• secondary school: +5 months;
• primary school: +3 months;
• similar effects for reading, mathematics and science;
• larger effects where homework was linked to class work and came with feedback.

The two reviews use different methods and different countries' studies, but they point the same way. Homework helps more as children get older.

Why it helps teenagers more

The research does not settle the reason, but the pattern fits what homework is for.

Older students are practising material they have already been taught, revising for exams and learning to organise their own study. Those are things homework is well suited to. The rereading research we covered in why rereading notes feels like studying shows the most useful kind: trying to recall material, spaced over days.

Young children are still building the basic skills that make independent practice productive. An hour of worksheets at seven mostly measures how much help is available at home. That is one reason the gap between children can widen through homework instead of closing.

More is not better

The Education Endowment Foundation notes some evidence that the benefit shrinks as the time spent on homework rises, and that the quality of the task seems to matter more than the quantity.

That matches what most families see. The first twenty focused minutes do most of the work. The next forty are often spent avoiding the task or half-doing it with a phone in reach. Our articles on why children put off homework and homework with a phone beside it cover both problems.

The ten-minute rule

The most common guideline in the US is the ten-minute rule: about ten minutes of homework per night for each grade, starting in 1st grade. That means twenty minutes in 2nd grade, sixty in 6th and around two hours by the end of high school. It is associated with Cooper's research and endorsed by the National PTA and the National Education Association.

It is a rule of thumb, not a finding. No study shows that 60 minutes is right for a sixth grader and 70 is too many. It is useful as a warning sign. A child regularly doing far more than it, especially at primary age, is probably getting more than the evidence supports.

What good homework looks like

The research gives a fairly clear picture:

1. Linked to what was taught. Practice on today's lesson beats unrelated projects.
2. Clear about its purpose. "Learn these ten spellings" is better than "do page 34".
3. Short enough to do well. Especially at primary age.
4. Checked and returned. Feedback is where much of the benefit comes from.
5. Possible without a parent's help. Homework that needs an adult to do it measures the adult.

What parents can do

• Ask the school for its homework policy and how long each task is meant to take. If the real time is far longer, say so. It is usually a class-wide issue.
• Protect a regular time and place with the phone in another room.
• Help your child start, then step back. The aim is independent practice.
• At primary age, do not fight over it. Reading together and a good night's sleep are better uses of the evening than a battle over a worksheet.

The honest summary

Homework works on average. It works clearly for teenagers and only a little for young children. The benefit comes from purposeful practice with feedback, and it fades when the minutes pile up. The ten-minute rule is a sensible ceiling, not a target, and the best homework is short, linked to class, and checked.

Sources

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), 1–62. doi.org/10.3102/00346543076001001
• Education Endowment Foundation. Teaching and Learning Toolkit: Homework (review last updated August 2021). educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk
• Education Week (2018). Kindergarten homework: too much, too early? — on the ten-minute rule and its endorsement by the National PTA and National Education Association.