Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Boca Parents Irate Over Homework Policy

Next month elementary school students in third, fourth, and fifth grades will have different teachers for reading/language arts, math, science, and social studies. The new model is called departmentalization and is said to prepare children for middle school changes.

Along with this change, elementary school principals agreed to set homework expectations for these grades. The new rule is that third graders will receive a maximum of one hour of daily homework and fourth and fifth graders will receive a maximum of ninety minutes.

This includes 30 minutes for reading plus other assignments.

Many parents in Boca Raton are upset about the new guidelines stating that the national standard is 10 minutes of homework multiplied by grade level. For example, third graders would receive 30 minutes, fourth would receive 40 minutes, and so on.

Chief academic officer for Palm Beach County schools, Jeffrey Hernandez, stated that this is the "maximum that we would want to reach on any given day."

"It's up to that amount," he said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that each day they're going to be receiving that amount."

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