Think kids today have too much homework? Think again. Two new studies show that the opposite may actually be true. A report by the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy found that most elementary through high school students in the United States spend less than an hour per night on home-work. What's more, a Rand Corporation study found that only about one in eight high school students does more than two hours of homework a night--much less than kids in other countries.

What about all those stories of American kids overloaded with homework? "We're not suggesting that kids and parents are lying," says Brian Gill, the coauthor of the Rand study. "It's just that it's pretty clear that those stories are the exception rather than the norm."