Homework Practices that Support Students with Disabilities (continued)

In addition, the surveys indicated that teachers preferred the following strategies to maintain effective communication:

• Use technology to aid communication (e.g., use answering machines or e-mail, and establish homework hotlines).
• Encourage students to keep assignment books.
• Provide a list of suggestions on how parents might assist with homework. For example, ask parents to check with their children about homework daily.
• Provide parents with frequent communication about homework.
• Use written modes of communication (e.g., progress reports, notes, letters, forms).
• Encourage the school administration to provide incentives for teachers to participate in face-to-face meetings (e.g., release time, compensation).
• Suggest that the school district offer after school and/or peer tutoring sessions to give students extra help with homework.
• Share information with other teachers regarding student strengths and needs and necessary accommodations.

If students, teachers, and parents do not find homework strategies palatable, they may not use them. "The ultimate impact of these homework practices on students may depend largely on how favorably teachers, parents, and the students themselves perceive them," Bursuck adds. "Our research underscores the need to check out practices with all stakeholders. Simply put, practices that are not acceptable will not be used."

Planner Increases Homework Completion and Communication

"Homework accounts for one-fifth of the time that successful students are engaged in academic tasks," Tanis Bryan, Arizona State University researcher, states. "Yet students complete homework in environments over which teachers have no control-which, given the fact that many students experience learning difficulties, creates a major dilemma." With OSEP support, Bryan and her colleague, fellow researcher Karen Sullivan-Burstein, began investigating how teachers, parents, and students might improve study skills, and ultimately, homework completion.

"Both general and special education teachers consistently reported that homework problems seemed to be exacerbated by deficient basic study skills," Sullivan-Burstein explains. "We found that many students, particularly students with disabilities, needed instruction in study and organizational skills." Among those organizational skills most basic to homework were:

• Identifying a location for doing homework that was free of distractions.
• Having materials available and organized.
• Allocating enough time to complete activities and keeping on schedule.
• Taking good notes.
• Developing a sequential plan for completing multi-task assignments.
• Checking assignments for accuracy and completion.
• Knowing how to get help.
• Turning in completed homework on time.

Bryan and Sullivan-Burstein found it effective for teachers to provide classroom instruction on the organizational skills and then talk with parents about how best to support the application of skills at home. [Note: For information on Bryan and Sullivan-Burstein's study skills curriculum program, contact Planning for Success at ksulli@asu.edu.] Bryan and Sullivan-Burstein also found that students with disabilities often needed additional organizational support. One of the strategies the researchers found to be effective in increasing students' completion and return of homework was use of a planning calendar. "As adults, we use calendars and schedulers, lists, and other devices to self-monitor our activities," Bryan said. "Students can benefit from learning how to use these tools as well."

To help students with disabilities address the self-monitoring requirements of homework, Bryan and Sullivan-Burstein developed a planning calendar and taught students how to use it to keep track of homework assignments. Sullivan-Burstein added, "These planners evolved into a communication tool with parents. We included a place for parents to sign that their child's homework had been completed, and we also left a space where both the teacher and parent could write messages." In conjunction with the homework planner, students graphed their homework return and completion rates-another strategy that was linked to homework completion and improved performance on classroom assessments.