In addition to considering the move to change  school start times as part of its initiative on tackling student stress, North Allegheny is now turning its eye to homework. To what extent, the district is asking, does a student’s homework load contribute to stress?  Additionally, would a district-wide reduction in homework tarnish academic quality?  The answers to such questions will prove integral to the course the district takes.

“Many students are already busy outside of school,” NAI sophomore Emily Barnett said.  “Too much homework can be the added layer that causes real problems.”

On the other hand, junior Jonathan Torquato questioned the district’s focus on homework.  “Homework is not the root cause of student stress,” he said.  “A reduction in the amount of homework would probably help, but there are deeper issues associated with growing up that will not disappear even if we no longer have homework.”

The Central Office is paying close attention to such views.

“People think we already have an answer,” Assistant Superintendent David Christopher said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Recently, students, parent, and district personnel received an email linking to a survey that asked if and how they thought homework could contribute to student stress. So far, over 4000 responses have been collected, with roughly a 48/47/5 split between students, parents, and teachers, respectively. Areas of special interest include the distinction between “busy work” and genuinely important and helpful work, increasing the standardization of each class (e.g. all Honors Biology classes should have similar difficulty and workload regardless of teacher), and even the scheduling process itself.

“Getting data is like opening presents on Christmas morning,” Christopher quipped. However, he makes it clear that administration takes these presents very seriously, remarking that “If our beliefs contradict with the statistics, that means we were probably wrong.”

The biggest point of contention by critics will probably be retaining our nationally acclaimed academic reputation. At first glance, one would think that reducing homework would harm our academic performance. Administration makes clear, however, that the goal is never to compromise the quality of education.

“We have to be very careful to tinker with the formula,” Christopher said. “It’s like a see-saw, one that we want to balance exactly. We have to find that thin line between our current excellence and student happiness.”

Although this initiative is still in a preliminary stage, NA is already dedicated to the issue. Each year, teachers have eight professional development in-service days, where they work with a variety of consultants and each other to improve their teaching. Next year, the primary focus of these days will be homework and stress.

“This is more than just an administrative issue,” Christopher said. “We have great teachers here at NA, and we don’t want to work on the teachers; we want to work with them. Despite any changes we might make, teacher freedom is very important to us.”

He also made it clear that the entire community is involved throughout the entire process, from data to decision. Currently, NA is working with outside consultants and will be holding public forums in the future to gather the wider perspectives on the topic.

The implications of these potential changes will impact more than just NASH and NAI. According to surveying, even middle-schoolers are feeling stressed, even without the heavy pressure of  AP classes and GPA. As a result, there may be targeted changes aimed at middle schools as well, although those measures will most likely be different from any taken here.

District administrators are also keen to partner with other districts in this initiative. “The problems we’re struggling with appear to be more universal than local,” Christopher said.   The Assistant Superintendent noted that even districts that NA doesn’t regularly communicate with (e.g., State College) are examining the same problems and proposing similar action be taken.

The stress initiative also includes a closer look at testing, so we may expect preliminary data collection on that issue to be coming soon.