Over the longer period the study showed that homework levels rose in the U.S. between the 1940s and the 1960s, dropped again in the 1970s, and then have stayed fairly consistent since. It is unclear why there is a difference in results between the study discussed in Gill and Schlossman and that discussed in Matthew, although both generally indicate that the level of homework in the U.S. should not be of concern. When considering the degree of burden which homework may cause to students in the U.S., it may also be relevant to consider making comparisons with other countries. Although the paper by Chen and Stevenson uses data from the late 1980s, this clearly shows that the levels of homework assigned in the U.S. are less than that in both China and Japan. The paper also presents evidence that this correlates with higher levels of student achievement in China and Japan. Although this evidence is relatively old, there is more recent evidence which supports the idea that the difference may remain. In a book which discusses children's leisure time in China, Jieying and colleagues cite the average length of time spent on homework as being 57.88 minutes per day. While it is not clear of the age range from which this data is taken, this is far higher than the half an hour which is the average for young American schoolchildren. When contrasting children in the U.S. To those in Europe, it would appear that the levels of set homework may however be somewhat similar. In a review of the German school system, Trautwein found that almost 34% of students reported spending less than...

This shows that the level of homework appears to be quite varied across schools within the country, but at a similar range to that of the U.S. The study also discusses similar results taken from Switzerland and the Netherlands, which suggest quite a varied level of homework across Europe.
Overall, the evidence would appear to be highly supportive of the opinion put forth by Matthews, which is that the homework level currently set in the U.S. should not be cause for concern. The level would appear to be at an optimal level for encouraging achievement, and is on a par or even less than many other developed countries. This further demonstrates that the information portrayed by the popular media on the subject should be interpreted with caution.

Works Cited

Chen, S. And H.W. Stevenson. "Homework: A cross-cultural examination." Child Development 60 (1989): 551-561.

Gill, Brian P. And Steven L. Schlossman. "A Nation at Rest: The American way of homework." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 25.3 (2003): 319-337.

Jieying, Xi, Sun Yunxiao and Jing Jian Xiao. Chinese Youth in Transition. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2006.

Matthews, Jay. "Class Struggle: Is homework really so terrible?" Generating Ideas from Reading. 21-25.

Trautwein, Ulrich. "The homework-achievement relation reconsidered: Differentiating homework time, homework frequency, and homework effort." Learning and Instruction 17.3 (2007): 372-388.