Are there any established guidelines for amount of homework expected in middle school?

There are no established guidelines.

At some schools, like the one I teach at, there are guidelines on how much of a student's grade can be based on homework. At my school, no more than 10% of a grade can come from homework.

With math, I'm sure you will find that the more proficient your son becomes at math, the quicker his homework will get finished.

I remember in parochial school in grades 6-8 having 2-3 hours of homework a night. I was an overachiever, and I would actually do as much as I could after supper, and then would actually get up at 5am to finish the rest.

As a poster said before me, I actually had less homework in high school than middle school.

If you want, you could email his teachers and ask how much time should he actually be spending on the homework, because it could be that he could be doing more than expected or the teacher hasn't realized how much time it takes to complete the tasks requested, or all the teachers he has do not realize the time commitment of the combination of their requests.

It doesn't hurt to ask; believe me, I would rather a parent ask than sit with the question. Let the teacher know you don't want to be a complainer, but that you were wondering. Maybe your student needs extra help so that the homework isn't going to be that burdensome.

:) Would love to hear how things progress.

My kids had way more homework in middle school than they did in high school. there is so much the student need to learn in just 3 years to prepare them for high school work. Most middle school parents say the same thing, homework load is very heavy.

Now is the time to teach your child time management and organization skills. You need to teach them how to study-school do not do this. Study habits you teach now will stay with your child through college. Figure out how your child studies the best.

For my kids-my son did better coming home resting and eating then doing homework later. My daughter did better doing it right after school. My son did better at the kitchen table or library. My daughter could have TV or music on and do fine. If she had a book to read, she would make a schedule of how much to read each day to get it finished. She didn't do well with reading for a long period of time. But writing, she was better off doing it all in one night. Once she got writing, it was best not to break her concentration.

Study with other students from the same class helps- especially as they get into HS.

Go over all tests and quizzes they get back. What did they get wrong, what did they get right. Where was the teacher pulling questions from- the text, lectures/notes? What kinds of questions did they ask. Study the test and they will be better prepared to study for the next one.

Are there established guidelines, No. Some middle school students can have 7 different teachers. Who seem to never communicate with each other. So big assignments and tests seem to be all at once.

I am now 20 and I'm going to graduate from college in the spring, I've had straight A's my entire life. I had 30 above grade level problems every day for math class since 5th grade. Also I had a few essays, and worksheets here and there. I know at my school it was stated in the teacher's handbook that they weren't supposed to assign homework on Wednesday nights (a lot of families would go to bible study and complained) otherwise I had an hour or so for homework in 6th grade. But there are no set laws that I'm aware of in the US that say how much homework he should have.

There are no guidelines, it depends on the school and what they feel appropriate, sometimes the teachers say 1/2hr, it then takes some 10mins and others 45mins, it depends on the pace of the child and whether they understood the lesson. If you are desperate to know (although you couldn't change anything) you should ask the school, or the maths teacher if that's where the problem is. I know for upper school year 7 they say 4hrs, 8 6hrs, 9 8hrs, 10 10hrs, 11 12hrs, and 6th form 15 hrs, but they're only roughly. Hope this helped.