You'd think they were serving spinach in the cafeteria. While the verbal reaction to homework is remarkably consistent, little else is when it comes to this facet of schooling. That's because when work is assigned to be done at home, an amazing array of variables come into the educational equation. Then there are the kids who have run away from home and are living in a shelter. There are fewer of the former and more of the latter than you'd probably expect.
Homework is, alas, a complicated issue.
That last question is a crucial one. I encouraged them to read ahead on weekends if, say, extra-curricular overload or tests in other classes were looming. By giving this lead time, I was able to forge ahead knowing that most of the students would come to class having done their assigned reading. It's not always possible to work like this, though. And I've found that the homework completion rate drops as the lead time shrinks.