Lead
"Did you do your homework?" is the default evening prompt in many households. Homework has been treated, largely without examination, as something that improves children's learning. Schools believe it; families accept it.
Researchers, however, have spent more than 40 years producing a careful answer to that question. Their conclusion diverges somewhat from common sense: the effect of homework on academic achievement varies enormously by grade level.
This article steps back from "how to do homework better" and asks the more fundamental question: does it work at all?