HOMEWORK - A COMPARISON OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS PERCEPTIONS OF THE PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY STUDENTS IDENTIFIED AS HAVING BEHAVIORAL-DISORDERS, LEARNING-DISABILITIES, OR NO DISABILITIES

With the significant attention given to the American educational syste m by national commissions and reports in the 1980s, a variety of pract ices have come under review. One such practice is the role of homework in the curriculum. Findings that American students at the secondary l evel generally spend less than 1 hour per day on homework, combined wi th empirical data suggestive of the positive effects of homework in ac hievement, have given rise to increased commitment to the assignment o f homework. However, scant attention has been given to the effect of t his trend on students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to determine the homework problems experienced by students identified as having either learning disabilities or behavioral disorders as com pared to an age-matched sample of students in general education. An an alysis of data from both teacher and parent ratings on the Homework Pr oblem Checklist indicated that more significant problems were found fo r both of the groups of students with disabilities. Post hoc analyses revealed that the students with behavioral disorders had the most pron ounced difficulties. The discussion focuses at length on the implicati ons of these findings for educational interventions.