Montclair public schools do an excellent job of preparing students for college and we're proud of our students' accomplishments. But for many, success comes at a steep price, particularly at the more advanced levels of study. The amount of homework being assigned in each of the higher level classes is excessive when combined each day. Students taking multiple AP courses are doing upwards of two hours per class and its led to late nights, diminished sleep and multitudes of stress.
The New York Times published an article about efforts by New York's elite schools to lighten the workload of their students, citing a study by a lecturer at the Stanford School of Education. Denise Pope, who found that excessive amounts of homework is detrimental to students. Specifically, she reported that students assigned "more than 3.5 hours of homework a night had an increased risk of physical and mental health issues, like sleep deprivation, ulcers and headaches And in a separate study of 26 schools, Ms. Pope said that 67% of more than 10,000 students reported that they were often or always stressed out."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/education/24homework.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
We ask that you consider the ill effects of "too much homework" on our students' mental and physical health and take steps to find workable solutions to reduce the overload.
