Nobody Knows How Well Homework Works

A short methods deflation of the homework-effectiveness literature: nearly all studies use confounded 'time spent on homework' as the independent variable (a poor proxy for homework assigned, entangled with ability, motivation, and home environment), and the few randomized studies are unpublished, cluster-randomized, or bungled. Surfaces the one good individually-randomized study (Nawaz & Welbourne: 9th-grade algebra homework helps, p<0.0001) while noting it doesn't generalize to elementary/reading -- so for everything else, 'just go with your priors.'

Quality 64 · Strong. Strong-floor: a sharp, honest, useful demolition of a confounded literature that surfaces the single credible RCT; kept low-Strong by its brevity and narrow scope.

Claude’s paradigm shift 38 · Slight. Slight/Moderate-low: the time-spent-is-a-confounded-proxy critique is cleanly made but not novel.

Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. Negligible/within-community: an education-methods note with no material footprint.