Through comprehensive research, I have read and studied many conflicting viewpoints about the importance and benefits of homework. I hope that with this paper, I will explore why reading has been under scrutiny. I also want to show how researchers were vital in determining effective methods for improving student achievement. At the forefront of those studies was Professor Harris Cooper.
             Due to Cooper's studies, a new understanding of why homework is necessary and how reading can and should be assigned. His ideas, influenced and motivated by other's research, help promote the adoption of homework policies. This paper also discusses the positive and negative effects of homework on children and ways to overcome the negative, creating a positive and effective learning tool. Everyone is familiar with homework. By definition, homework is work, such as schoolwork or piecework, that is done at home (American Heritage, 2000). By the time students arrive at college, they have adopted certain attitudes about homework and specific approaches. Unfortunately, these attitudes and practices are likely to be carry-overs from high school or even earlier academic experiences when homework had a different nature and purpose.
             The 20th century has been a time of great debate over the importance and benefits of homework. On average, assignment accounts for approximately 20 percent of American students' academic tasks. However, little attention is paid to reading in teacher education (Cooper, 2003). Now, more people are starting to research and document the nature and purpose of homework as researchers are finding both positive and negative effects. From the early 1900s to the 1940's most educators agreed on the importance of homework. At that time, homework was usually memorization or drills. In the 1940s, educators began to question the positive effects of homework. When the Cold War came about in the 1950's America was ushered into a new kind of war...