When students at AHS voice their opinions, the school listens. In January, The Skier Scribbler printed a story that looked at homework conceptions at AHS.  The data has since been compiled and was presented to staff at the end of January.

The homework survey was taken by students in all grades, and was given to gather data on the homework load.

“What we were trying to determine was, were we assigning too much homework, or were students putting it off until the last minute?” Principal Tharyn Mulberry said. “The number one issue with students we found was they had too much homework, so we wanted to evaluate and see what they meant by that, so that’s what [the homework survey] was born out of.”

Teachers volunteered to administer the survey in class. This means that most people took this survey, but it is possible that there may have been some students who did not take the survey, and that the survey still had some flaws.

“It’d be hard to be accurate for every kid, but I mean it gives us a general idea of the load,” Mulberry said. The survey showed which classes are giving the most and least amount of homework.

According to the survey data, English and math give the most homework out of all departments. Students reported that English homework took the most amount of time, and math homework was assigned more often than other classes. Mulberry says this is just the start to analyzing what the data means.  He says teachers assign what they think students need to know.  

“It’s going to spark a bigger conversation,” Mulberry said.  “I don’t think teachers give kids frivolous assignments. I think when teachers assign something for a student, they’re absolutely doing it with the best of intentions. There’s a lot of analysis that needs to be done.”