Strategies for improving home-school communication about homework for students with disabilities

Increased emphasis on the inclusion of students with disabilities in genera l education classes has led to heightened research attention to educational practices affecting the outcomes of these students. Educational interventi ons, including homework, have been the focus of several studies, including those in which the opinions of educators and parents have been sampled thro ugh focus group interviews. The purpose of this study was to establish, thr ough a national survey, the perceived effectiveness of several strategies f or improving homework communication between parents, students, and teachers . Initially, principals were asked to randomly select two teachers from the ir schools for the survey. These nominated teachers then were mailed a surv ey on homework recommendations. A total of 639 general education teachers ( 50.5%) responded. The results indicated that these general education teache rs perceived several common practices, as well as use of technology, to be highly effective for improving home-school communication about homework for students with disabilities. Among the most highly ranked recommendations w ere release and mutual planning time, assignment books and logs, parent att endance at meetings and daily monitoring of their child's homework, and use of telephone networks or answering machines to provide remote access to as signments. Several practice recommendations are discussed.