Homework Policy for Advanced/Honors Students Perusing Twitter just now, I saw this tweet from the @CSTeachingTips account, and it got me thinking about the general topic of homework as it applies to our discipline:


  Downsize homework because, like a job, students should be able to do
  the work during business hours.


I personally struggled a lot with what and how much homework to assign my AP students this past year. I wanted it to be effective and not just "homework-for-homework's-sake."

I found students worked more effectively on coding when I was in the room and they could ask for help. If they hit a brick wall at home, they were stuck until a) they got to class the next day or b) they received an email from me (presuming they took the time to send one and I got it in time to reply in a timely manner). 

On the other hand, the content required in an AP class, especially CS50 AP, seems to necessitate some work be done at home. There's a lot to cover, and class minutes are at a premium, so if homework can reinforce the day's work and/or give a head start for the next day, it's worth it. Yet, as with the tweet's sentiment, I want to honor the lives of students outside of just my classroom.

For my question, I'm thinking particularly of honors-level HS students (either AP CSP or AP CS A - I think this would apply roughly equally to both). 

What homework assignments do you and your students find beneficial? What type/amount of work done at home is most effective for increasing student learning?
My students are already slammed with homework, so when possible, I try not to add to their misery.  I have done some formal polling of my students several years back, so I have used real data to balance my own approach.  Of course, as of this writing, I cannot find those numbers any more, so I will be working from rough memory here:

I mentally aim for 50% of the kids to be able to finish labs during provided lab time. In reality, it is usually closer to 15-20% of the kids who are able to finish the labs during the provided lab periods, but there remains a large portion are able to complete their work in &lt;3 hours of outside work (something like 60%).  Only the remaining 20-25% had substantial work from the labs.  While I offer help outside of class, I have not found a reasonable way to prevent this problem; kids who are slow at labs will always take more time than I can provide.

If I am teaching a brand-new course with a brand-new curriculum, all bets are off, as I have very little sense of how long the activities will take.  

However, I once found a Williams College professor's labs posted online, and she added a short question to the end of every lab to the effect of, "How long did this portion of the lab take you?  This answer will have no bearing on your grade, it is only used to help me adjust student workloads in future years."