Parents reported first-graders were spending 28 minutes on homework each night versus the recommended 10 minutes. In the study involving questionnaires filled out by more than 1,100 English and Spanish speaking parents of children in kindergarten through grade 12, researchers found children in the first grade had up to three times the homework load recommended by the NEA and the National PTA. Related: The great homework debate: Too much, too little or busy work?

The NEA and the National PTA do not endorse homework for kindergarten. That translates into 10 minutes of homework in the first grade, 20 minutes in the second grade, all the way up to 120 minutes for senior year of high school. The standard, endorsed by the National Education Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association, is the so-called “10-minute rule” – 10 minutes per grade level per night. The study, published Wednesday in The American Journal of Family Therapy, found students in the early elementary school years are getting significantly more homework than is recommended by education leaders, in some cases nearly three times as much homework as is recommended. Now a new study may help explain some of that stress. Nothing quite stresses out students and parents about the beginning of the school year as the return to homework, which for many households means nightly battles centered around completing after-school assignments.

Statistics for homework