The data from a survey of high school math and science teachers show that in the district of Sanlee many of these teachers reported assigning daily homework, whereas in the district of Marlee, most science and math teachers reported assigning homework no more than two or three days per week. Despite receiving less frequent homework assignments, Marlee students earn better grades overall and are less likely to be required to repeat a year of school than are students in Sanlee. These results call into question the usefulness of frequent homework assignments. Most likely the Marlee students have more time to concentrate on individual assignments than do the Sanlee students who have homework every day. Therefore, teachers in our high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week.
In the survey, the importance of daily and non-daily homework has been checked. The researchers have concluded that high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week. Their conclusion had been more valid if they would have considered more areas and schools, individuals’ performance and the feedback from parents and students. The results are not cogent.
This survey only has been performed in two areas and also it has been limited to high school math and science teachers. The samples of the study are very limited and are not enough for conclusion. There are some questions that must be answered. For example, whether all teachers in different fields in Sanlee assign daily homework, what about Marlee, all teachers only report assigning homework no more than two or three days per week. For improvement of results more teachers with different backgrounds must be considered.
Also, it is not valid that the results from two regions have overshadowed other regions. The survey should be done in different areas and according to the performance of students in one region should be decided whether daily homework is necessary for students of that area or not.
Additionally, in this survey, the overall score has been checked while for increasing the validation of results, researchers had to consider individual scores. They also did not check that standard deviation of the scores. The question is that whether the differences between the scores of the students in Marlee also are low or not. It is true that the overall score in Marlee students is better than their counterparts in Slanee, but if the standard deviation of grades in Slanee is less than Marlee, we may also be able to conclude that the performance of Slanee students has been better, so teachers should assign daily homework.
In addition to these, the survey had had better results if the feedback from parents and students would have been considered. Also there is no evidence to ensure that students in their extra time to concentrate on individual assignments. How many students really study in their extra time when they do not have homework?
In conclusion, the results of the survey are not enough and persuasive and different more factors should be checked.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 372 350
No. of Characters: 1838 1500
No. of Different Words: 151 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.392 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.941 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.551 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 136 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 98 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 70 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.579 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.287 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.632 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.328 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.328 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.084 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 225, Rule ID: IF_WOULD_HAVE_VBN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'had considered'?
Suggestion: had considered
... conclusion had been more valid if they would have considered more areas and schools, individuals’ pe...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 34, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: had
...ork. In addition to these, the survey had had better results if the feedback from par...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 127, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...nd students would have been considered. Also there is no evidence to ensure that stu...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, may, really, so, while, for example, in addition, in conclusion, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 55.5748502994 70% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1886.0 2260.96107784 83% => OK
No of words: 372.0 441.139720559 84% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.06989247312 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.39173103935 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65866058842 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 161.0 204.123752495 79% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.432795698925 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 568.8 705.55239521 81% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 60.8099532602 57.8364921388 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 99.2631578947 119.503703932 83% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.5789473684 23.324526521 84% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.73684210526 5.70786347227 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.227244179655 0.218282227539 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0656134921547 0.0743258471296 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0760207674742 0.0701772020484 108% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.11280017022 0.128457276422 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0849377965748 0.0628817314937 135% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.2 14.3799401198 85% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 48.3550499002 125% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 12.197005988 78% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.68 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 73.0 98.500998004 74% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.