While the Department of Education in the state of Attra recommends that high school students be assigned homework every day, the data from a recent statewide survey of high school math and science teachers give us reason to question the usefulness of daily homework. 

While the Department of Education in the state of Attra recommends that high school students be assigned homework every day, the data from a recent statewide survey of high school math and science teachers give us reason to question the usefulness of daily homework. 

In this argument, the author believes that homework for high school students should only be given less than two times weekly. However, the analysis process is flawed in logic thus leading to the failure of proving the ultimate point.

A threshold problem is that the sample of this survey is not adequate. On the one hand, the numbers of respondents in Sanlee and Marlee are not provided in the report. Under this circumstance, the situation is possible that there are far more students taking this survey in Sanlee. As the number of respondents goes up, the average excellent rate is relatively lower in most cases. Only focusing on the overall grades is unquestionably not comprehensive. On the other hand, the number of districts that are taken into consideration is only two, which seems too small to draw a conclusion. What if the method of assigning more homework is not working well in all other districts in this country? Apparently, more districts should be counted as parts of the survey.

Another fundamental problem is the relationship between homework and academic performance. According to the writer, higher grades are caused by more homework. Nevertheless, this assertion does not include all possible cases. For example, students in Marlee are likely more eager for knowledge. This character results in the situation that most students in Marlee usually not only finish their homework but also explore and broaden horizons by themselves through reading more books and doing more experiments. It should be noticed that the teachers interviewed are all teaching math and science, which are subjects relying on experiments and exploration.

Finally, even if homework decides the academic achievements of different students to some extent, the result can also be related to self-discipline. It is universally acknowledged that juveniles are generally not as good as adults at controlling themselves. In this case, some students may incline to play video games after school instead of doing homework, even if it is assigned. Consequently, this behavior would lead to poor academic performance. Since we are not told what percent of the students in these two districts actually finish their homework, the grades cannot be simply compared without more details.

To summarize, although the author makes statements that seem appealing, the logic inside is neither solid nor convincing. The amount of homework is not the determining factor in grades. If we would like to reach a more persuasive conclusion, further study and information are undoubtedly required.