After years of assigning the kind of homework she had done as a student and observing students’ disengagement with it, a teacher overhauled how she assigns math practice.

Student work posted in an elementary school before the pandemic shows the “partial product” method of solving a multiplication problem, one of many methods students have learned with Common Core.

The issue of assigning homework is controversial in terms of its purpose, what to assign, the amount of time needed to complete it, parental involvement, its actual affect on learning and achievement, ...