i agree, as someone who is student teachin in the fall, homework is a neccessity in order to allow the students to learn the content they need to know. We are burning kids out on structure and not allowing them to have oppurtunities to learn. Parents are the problem here for allowing this to happen, and to B word about the academic expectations of their kids, which will exceed the expectations that were placed on the parents. The whole education system is screwed because of No Child Left Behind and the parents. The whole premise of standardized testing does not favor the american school system because all of our children are in schools until grade 10 and all have the oppurtunity to get their high school diploma, where other countries look better because they restrict who can go to school after the age of 14 in some cases. Also, the whole emphasis on testing has been shown to reduce the amount of time spent on phys ed, science (i kid you not), music, and other arts. We are preaching to the country only math and english matter in the current setup.
:rant off: sorry.