Research & data

The research desk publishes original datasets about US schools: what districts actually write into their homework and AI policies, how grades and homework time have changed, and what it takes to close school for snow. Each page states its method, its gaps and its snapshot date, and five of the six come with a free CSV you can reuse.

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• Homework policies in 32 large districts: time limits, grade weight and whether anyone actually uses the 10-minute rule.
• AI policies in 32 large districts: a 2026 tracker of which districts allow, restrict or have not decided on AI.
• Do AI detectors flag honest students?: what six studies and vendor reports found about false positives.
• Grade inflation in US high schools: average GPA from 1990 to 2019 next to flat test scores.
• Homework hours by country: PISA weekly homework time for 65 countries and economies.
• Snow day thresholds: 32 sourced closure triggers, from “any snow” to wind chill.

How a dataset gets built

Every dataset starts with a question someone actually asks, such as “is there a homework limit in my district?” We then go to the primary record: a board policy, a federal survey table, a study’s own results section. Each row carries a link to that source. Where a document could not be found or opened, the row says so instead of filling the gap with a guess. That is why some tables show “unknown” more often than you might expect. It also means the numbers can be checked line by line, which matters if you plan to cite them.

How the research feeds the rest of the site

These pages are the evidence layer under our guides and tools. The district homework data sits behind how much homework is normal and homework statistics. The detector studies support do AI detectors actually work? and the teacher guide to detecting AI work honestly. The GPA trend gives context to the GPA scale and converter, and the snow thresholds inform the snow day calculator. State-level rules, such as kindergarten cutoffs and required school days, live on the school facts by state pages.

Using and citing the data

The CSV downloads are free under CC BY 4.0: credit The Homework Site and link to the page. Journalists, teachers and students are welcome to quote individual figures with the same credit. If you spot an error or a newer source, the contact section of our about page is the fastest route to a correction.