Homework Help Site Review

Introduction to Homework Help Sites

There are now so many homework help sites -- that is, places on the web where kids can search for information to help get their homework done -- that hundreds of print and online sources review them. That said, only ten reviews appear in our All The Reviews Reviewed chart, and none receive our top rating. Why? It appears that almost every library, school, children's organization and web-oriented publisher has its own website now, many of which include a recommended list of homework help sites, but very few of these say anything more than "here are a few sites we like."

We found the best roundup at TopTenReviews.com, which ranks 14 sites according to features, ease of use and support. This review is especially helpful because it compares each site's features directly rather than just discussing each one separately. It's also one of the few sources to mention any of the sites' drawbacks. However, the reviews here are still primarily positive, and TopTenReviews.com strangely fails to include two of the most popular homework help sites out there: BJPinchbeck.com and MathForum.org.

Another good (and in many ways better) review comes from The Wall Street Journal, in an article by Peggy Edersheim Kalb. The author starts with a middle school geometry problem asking which would be a better buy: a round pizza 9 inches in diameter or a square one that measures 8 by 8 inches. She and a sixth-grade tester then go to several math sites and rate how effectively each helps answer the problem. Although the sites aren't ranked, the article does discuss pros and cons in enough depth to be useful. Only math problems are considered, however.

Good Housekeeping conducts a similar experiment with a social studies question, but its analysis is not nearly as detailed or informative. Education World, Common Sense Media and Berit's Best Children's Sites all provide short, generally positive reviews that discuss homework helps sites in terms of content, ease of use and organization, but some of the information at all three is clearly outdated. Most of the remaining reviews reflect so much enthusiasm and overly optimistic hype that we question their credibility. User comments posted for some reviews provide a bit of balance and an insight into some less positive consumer experiences.

So while reviews aren't generally very critical of homework help sites, at least the majority are free, or at least free to try. For ConsumerSearch Fast Answers, we've included sites that are worth a first look.

While many students head straight for Wikipedia.org when researching an assignment, most educators -- and even Wikipedia itself -- admit that its content can be inaccurate and prone to hijacking by interested parties. In fact, some teachers go as far as banning Wikipedia from student work. Wikipedia articles aren't vetted before being published and anyone can add or delete content, meaning information may not be contributed by experts and isn't guaranteed to be reliable. On the other hand, Wikipedia's editors say their open policy leads to a more balanced perspective based on consensus rather than one expert's opinion. They do caution, though, that any encyclopedia, from Wikipedia to a large commercial encyclopedia like Encyclopaedia Britannica, is at best a good research starting point and should never be considered as a primary source. Especially for younger children, an information portal designed specifically for students may be the best option.