Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recent years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on this educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student's academic grade.
家庭作业从来就不曾得到学生甚至许多父母的真正欢迎，但近几年尤其饱受诟病。全国的学区，如最近的洛杉矶联合学区，都在修改他们有关此教育惯例的思路。不幸的是，洛杉矶联合学区制定了一项硬性规定，责令除某些高级课程之外，家庭作业在学生学业成绩中所占比例不得超过10%。
This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot complete on their own or that they cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children.
此规定旨在解决贫困或混乱家庭学生在完成家庭作业方面可能存有的困难。但政策内容不明且自相矛盾。当然，不应给学生布置他们无法独立完成或者需要贵重设备才能完成的家庭作业。但如果学区本质上是在给那些因家庭复杂而不做作业的学生以通行证，则近于冒险暗示应降低对贫困孩子的标准。
District administrators say that homework will still be a part of schooling; teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see very lttle difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across-the-board rule.
学区管理者表示,家庭作业仍将是学校教育的一部分;教师可以自主安排作业量。但在家庭作业仅占学业成绩的10%的情形下,学生大可逃掉一半的作业而成绩报表却几乎不会有变化。有些学生可能没做家庭作业也会在州考中表现良好,但那些做了家庭作业且在国家测试中表现良好的学生又该怎么解释呢?很有可能家庭作业起到了助益作用。然而该政策不是授权教师去探索什么样的方式最适合学生,而是强制颁布一项呆板的、一刀切的规定。
At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students' academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework matters, it should account for a significant portion of the grade. Meanwhile, this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful or appropriate to their age and the subject, or that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.
与此同时，该政策并未解决任何关于家庭作业的真正棘手问题。如果学区发现家庭作业对学生的学业成绩影响不大，那么它应该减少甚至排除家庭作业，而不是让其在成绩中的比重变得微乎其微。相反，如果家庭作业确实重要，那就应该让其在成绩中占据重要比例。并且，这一政策并未采取任何措施确保学生的家庭作业对于他们的年龄和学科来说是有意义且合适的，也不能确保教师布置的作业量未超过他们愿意批改的量。
The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L.A. Unified to do homework right.
有关家庭作业的规定应暂缓实施，而负责制定教育政策的校董事会应深入调查并举行公众听证会。洛杉矶联合学区要正确对待家庭作业，现在还为时不晚。
