Site Council members are extensively discussing possible homework policy changes this year for the first time at their monthly meetings.

The main goal of the Site Council is to find ways to improve upon students’ education. They utilize data from surveys such as the California Healthy Kids survey and the Challenge Success survey to determine if and how changes should be made.

Students and parents are concerned that students are overwhelmed by the amount of homework being distributed and that not all of the homework is meaningful, said site council member teacher Liz McCarthy.

“The first step the Site Council will take after more extensive discussion on the topic will be to encourage teachers to reconsider the homework they assign,” principal Brent Daniels said. “From there, teachers will likely make changes on their own if needed.”

The Site Council is also considering how students perform on standardized tests in relation to homework. The high test scores students are receiving suggest that students are well prepared from their classes. If homework policies were to change, it could affect student performance, particularly with standardized testing. The Site Council wants to ensure that homework policy changes will not deter student success, Daniels said.

“Teachers are doing a great job of preparing students with their education and their futures as a whole, but they should always be searching for ways to improve to create the best possible success for students,” Daniels said.

Math teacher John Hayden said that he recognizes that students receive homework from other classes and that giving large quantities of homework is not always necessary.

“It’s hard to determine a reasonable amount of homework because it is different for each individual student,” Hayden said.