Summer Break vs. Summer Homework: An Analysis

Ah, summer. The season of swimming, sun, sundaes, and…studying? That’s right. The school year, it seems, does not conclude after 180 days. In reality, during the summer months, many students are busy balancing work, travels, and spending time with family and friends, and come the summer after sophomore year, students are overloaded with assignment after assignment, all of which must be completed without assistance from their teachers. Indeed, students must begin their work for a class before they even know who their teacher is. 

This structure is fundamentally flawed because it disrupts the learning process before it even begins. For instance, some students struggle to complete assignments for classes which they have yet to begin taking. Senior Ananya Sharma explains, “I think it’s cruel for teachers to give ambiguous instructions when students don’t know the teachers well enough to ask questions. No one is going to email a teacher they don’t know over the summer and also, we don’t know how they grade yet, so we don’t know their expectations. So they should make them overtly clear.” Adds fellow senior Skylar Helfman, who also sometimes finds summer assignment instructions confusing, “I hate emailing teachers over the summer because I don’t want to bother them, but sometimes we just have to. When instructions are just written down it can be hard to (know) the quality or quantity that they want, especially when we don’t know who our teachers are going to be.” Sharma’s and Helfman’s perspectives suggest that summer work would be more valid if students were given their schedules and teachers before summer work were distributed. However, that solution would undoubtedly increase the number of emails teachers receive over the summer, which is also unfair. Summer should be a break for students and teachers. With summer work, it is a break for neither.

Moreover, summer work has an inequitable impact on the students who take accelerated and AP classes despite the fact that leveled classes are designed to increase equity and opportunity for all students by providing the level of challenge and support that each student needs. In my poll of four rising seniors, 100% reported that they had never heard of or experienced an honors or college prep class getting summer homework. In contrast, every AP class and many accelerated classes have lengthy summer homework. Accelerated classes that give homework include a range of subjects, from precalc to senior studios (art). Therefore, students who mostly take accelerated and AP classes, who already generally have more homework during the school year, get less of a break over the summer. Since the intention of leveled classes is to give every student the challenge that they need, taking higher level classes should entail an increased challenge, not an increased workload. If all students are taking classes at the right level of challenge for them, then should they not all be granted the same amount of rest time over the summer? 

To make matters worse, summer work often feels disconnected from the actual course material, and at worst is counterproductive to the course’s goals. While in some cases, such as that of AP US History, summer work is the first unit of the school year, in many others, assignments appear unproductive. For example, the summer work for AP Art and Senior Studios are assignments separate from the tasks assigned during the school year and actually prevent many students, including interviewee Skylar Helfman, from pursuing their own creative interests outside of school, which seems contrary to the purpose of an art class. The same is true for pursuing academic interests. For example, many students who take higher level classes also pursue their academic interests through programs, jobs, and internships over the summer, which means that summer is even less of a break for them. Senior Max Scott, for example, traveled to Oxford, England this past summer to study international relations and law. Sofía Martinez, another senior, has dedicated her past two summers to working in a lab through the Young Empowered Scientists for Continued Umbrella of Research Experiences program at Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Ambitious upperclassmen are heavily involved!

Furthermore, summer work is not standardized throughout various schools. In a poll of eight  non-Needham students who go to various schools throughout the United States, 100% said that they have summer work. However, the amounts differed: Maxine Van Nortwick of New York states that “The only summer work my school had was like three books for AP English. I’ve heard of a precalc class with a packet, but besides that, just reading.” In contrast, Eme Cummins, who attended a private school in Delaware, noted that her summer work “varied by class. APs would have multiple textbook chapters due, essay assignments, and two or more books. Honors would have books and a math packet or two.” Says California private school senior Nora Bitar, “We usually have to read one book and do a decently long math packet. This year I’ve got math and three books.” Summer work is not standardized across levels, grades, or states. However, many classes, especially AP classes, are standardized across the country. Students from Massachusetts to California take classes like APUSH, AP Language and Composition, and AP Calculus. However, although official AP tests are the same for students worldwide, the summer work approach varies even within the state of Massachusetts. 

Recent Marblehead High School alum Sadie Jennings took AP US History her junior year. Unlike at Needham High, though, where the summer work consists of 40 questions on the first seven  chapters of the American Pageant textbook and makes up the first unit of the class, Jennings only read one book: These Truths by Jill Lepore. “It aligned with the textbook we read,” Jennings reports, adding, “I should clarify that we didn’t have to read the whole book. I think (we read) only until around page 75 because that was a general overview of American History as a whole and unit one.” No work accompanied the reading, and when asked if the lack of intense summer work affected her preparedness for the exam, Jennings said, “The course was fast paced but I didn’t feel overwhelmed by it.” Of course, it is worth noting that Needham High prides itself on its overwhelming success rate on APUSH. Each year, over 90% of people at NHS pass the APUSH exam. In contrast, 72% of students worldwide passed in 2024 and only 47.5% passed in 2023. But is that due to summer homework or amazing teachers? (Thank you, Mr. Stanczak and Mr. Schotland!) Is “passed” the right term? Does that mean above a four or something? 

Nonetheless, not all students are bothered by summer work. Senior Orli Kadar reports that she does not find summer work directions confusing, and fellow senior Grey Whalen adds that summer work only annoys them sometimes. Whalen explains that summer homework from non-AP classes frustrates them far more than summer homework for AP classes because “What are you trying to get ahead for?”

But what do educators think? In the 2023 article Should Schools Assign Summer Homework? Educators Weigh In, by Elizabeth Heubeck, high school biology teacher Lori Danz argues that “Students should have no formal ‘homework'—worksheets or practice books. I think it’s good for students and families to get away from that, and learn in authentic ways: hiking, cooking, fixing things. So much learning happens that way. We forget that it’s learning.” Alternately, second grade teacher Krystal Colbert believes that “Reading for pleasure authentically enhances many academic skills such as cultivating a love for reading, improves reading and writing skills, develops concentration, encourages creativity and imagination, and allows children to be more open to differences and perspectives.” Adds director of McGuffey Reading Services at the UVA School of Education and Human Development Tisha Hayes, “Reading books for pleasure is how children’s literacy journeys begin…Taking a break from required reading to pick up something for pleasure benefits our reading skill, creates important connections with family and friends, and exposes us to people and places well beyond our lived experience.” 

Reading for pleasure helps children not just academically, but throughout the rest of their lives. But this begs another question: Does summer homework foster a love of learning and recreational reading? In high school, does excessive assigned reading instead prevent students from pursuing their own interests? High school should help teenagers develop a love of learning, not an intense level of burnout. So summer vacation: Is it a break or burnout? Let your assignments decide.