Capstone B:

The effects of homework grading

strategies on completion rates and
overall student achievement

Katie Cutshall
Coopersville Middle School
 This study was conducted during the
2009-2010 school year at Coopersville
Middle School.
The study set out to answer 3 questions:

1. How do factors of homework grading policies

and extrinsic rewards affect students’ homework
completion and motivation?

2. What do students feel is necessary to make

homework more meaningful?

3. What is the relationship between homework

completion and a student's overall achievement?
Q1. How do factors of homework grading policies and
extrinsic rewards affect students’ homework completion
and motivation?

Source 1: Teacher Survey

6.7

35.6
Not graded
Accuracy
Completion
Variety

44.4

13.3
Figure 1, Teacher Opinions on Grading Policies: percentage of teachers
surveyed who grade homework according to factors indicated
Q1. How do factors of homework grading policies and
extrinsic rewards affect students’ homework completion
and motivation?

Source 2: Homework completion rates from grade book during two

different grading strategies

Completion

Pre-Intervention

Accuracy

86 87 88 89 90 91

Figure 2, Percentage of students submitting homework on time during grading strategies

Q1. How do factors of homework grading policies and
extrinsic rewards affect students’ homework completion
and motivation?

Source 3: Homework completion rates during extrinsic rewards

Extrinsic Rew ards

Pre-Intervention

89 90 91

Figure 3, Percentage of students submitting homework on time

 Q2. What do students feel is necessary to make
homework more meaningful?

Source 1: Student survey

12%
25%
5%
Accuracy
Completion
Not graded
Variety

58%

Figure 5, Percentage of students' preferences in homework grading methods

 Q2. What do students feel is necessary to make
homework more meaningful?

Source 2: Teacher observations

Student comments ranked by frequency

f = 113 Students commented about the length of the homework

assignments.

f = 74 Students asked to work with partners on their homework in

class.

f = 57 Students commented about application problems being on the

homework assignments.
 Q2. What do students feel is necessary to make
homework more meaningful?

Source 3: Another student survey

it is graded

my parents will be mad if I do not do it

it helps me do better on tests

it helps me practice what I have learned

Pre-Survey
it will teach me to have a good work ethid Post-Survey

another reason

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Figure 6, Percentages of students' responses to "I do my homework because..."

 Q3. What is the relationship between homework
completion and a student's overall achievement?

Source 1: Individual student homework completion rates

 Q3. What is the relationship between homework
completion and a student's overall achievement?

Source 2: Student assessment scores as overall achievement

100

90

80
(Test score avg. percentage)

70
Overall Achievement

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Homework Completion (percentage)

Figure 8, Homework completion vs. student achievement

 Q3. What is the relationship between homework
completion and a student's overall achievement?

Source 3: Another teacher survey

3% 5%

Frequently
40% Occasionally
Rarely
Never
52%

Figure 9, Percentage of teacher responses to survey question: How often they

see a student with poor homework completion but good achievement.
Conclusion:


Students prefer homework to be graded on
completion

Teachers prefer homework to be graded more
on accuracy

Extrinsic Rewards helped homework completion
rates

The higher the homework completion, the higher
the overall achievement
Action Plan:


Teachers should use a variety of grading
strategies to meet the needs of students and
teachers

Extrinsic rewards should be used to help
students complete homework

Monitor all strategies and the results to
continue to make improvements

Help students understand the importance of
homework
 Mills (2007) says that “knowledge gained
through action research can liberate students,
teachers, and administrators and enhance
learning, teaching, and policy making” (p. 8).

By doing research and making informed

decisions on what is best for students,
teachers will find themselves empowered to
make positive changes in their classrooms and
to share their findings with others.
The full study is available for review.
 References

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completion. Unpublished master's thesis, Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL.

Baines, L. (2008). Learning from the World: Achieving More by Doing Less. Education Digest. 73(5), 23-26.

Bartel, L. & Cameron, L. (2009). The Researchers Ate the Homework! Education Canada. 49(1), 48-51.

Bempechat, J. (2004). The motivational benefits of homework: A social-cognitive perspective. Theory into
practice. 43(3), 189-96.

Bryan, T., & Burstein, K. (2004). Improving homework completion and academic performance: Lessons from
special education. Theory into practice. 43(3), 213-19.

Cooper, H. (2008). Effective Homework Assignments. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Retrieved February 13, 2009, from http://www.nctm.org/news/content.aspx?id=13812

Fairbanks, E. K., Clark, M., & Barry, J. (2005). Developing a comprehensive homework policy. Principal.
84(3), 36-39.

Heitzmann, R. (2007). Target homework to maximize learning. Education digest: Essential readings
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Kohn, A. (2006). The Homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Philadelphia: Da Capo
Press.

Mills, G. E., (2007). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher. Upper Sadle River, NJ: Pearson
Education, Inc.

Protheroe, N. (2009). Good homework policy. Principal. 89(1), 42-45.