High School Start Times Research Paper

For years and years there has been a lot of discussion about when a reasonable time for students to wake up and go to school should be. There are two main sides. One side believes that school should start later, and the other side believes that the school start times should not be changed. The average teenagers’ alarm for school goes off as early as 6:00 A.M. A little less than half of U.S. public schools start before 8:00 A.M. Studies show that over half of students are not getting 8 hours of sleep or more. That leads to the 33% of teenagers who are found asleep in the classroom (Owens).

Wahlstrom reports on the contentious discussion and debate about whether or not schools should consider switching to later start times. When classes start before 8:15, students become sleep deprived causing memory deficits, impaired performance and alertness, and being able to stay on task. Even though there are all these negative consequences to early start times why do schools still continue to start before 8:15? Wahlstrom mentioned the possible reasons why more schools have not made the switch. Wahlstrom stated, “As other districts consider the change to a later start for their high schools… an extremely contentious decision because administrators do not want any local advocacy group or start policymaker to interfere in a decision normally

Opinions about schools starting time differ all over the United States. Many districts around the United States are trying to start a movement to have school start later than they usually do. 70 districts across the nation are going to start at 8:45. If this happens, it can change the schedules of a big amount of students tremendously. In the article on Newsela, facts are stated about how lots of schools use scientists advice for when they should start school. Based on the article titled, ¨More zzz’s can lead to more A’s: Seattle Schools Move Start Time for Teens¨, one believes that Beaumont High School should not change the start time to begin class later due to transportation,sports’ schedules, and the late dismissal.

What if you weren’t so tired in school? Imagine feeling energized like you just drank a gallon of coffee and refreshed in school, ready to learn with your classmates all around you, happily talking about class and catching up with each other. School could be so much better. Therefore, the question is-- should schools have later starting times? In “Should School Start Later?”

The Start School Later movement, it refers to a series of efforts by healthcare professionals, sleep scientists, educators, economists, legislators, parents, students, and other concerned citizens to restore a later start to the school day (KYLA L.WAHLSTROM). Based on a growing body of evidence that starting middle and high schools too early in the morning is unhealthy, counterproductive, and incompatible with adolescent sleep needs and patterns. In the second half of the 20th century, many public schools in the United States began shifting instructional time earlier than the more conventional bell time, thought to be about 9 a.m. Today it is common for American schools to begin the instructional day in the 7 a.m. hour and end about seven hours later, around 2 p.m. In the early 1990s, the University of Minnesota's landmark school start time study tracked high school students from two Minneapolis area districts (KYLA L.WAHLSTROM). Edina, a suburban district that changed its opening hour from 7:20 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and the Minneapolis Public Schools, which changed their opening from 7:20 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. Many positive benefits to students were found, including: Improved attendance and enrollment rates, Less sleeping in class, Less student-reported depression, Fewer student visits to school counselors for behavioral and peer issues, and More even temperament at home. “Everybody learns better when they’re awake.” (startschoollater.net). Researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming and found that shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, English, science, and social studies. Schools also saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression. Some even had a dramatic drop in teen car

A survey was conducted at McClain High School (Bland). The survey found that 35% of their students wake up at six o'clock in the morning and 60% of students go to bed at eleven o’clock at night (Bland). 42% of students think school should start at nine o’clock in the morning because 57% of students feel like they finally wake up at third or fourth period (Bland). Teenagers are very active in extracurricular activities so it's only natural that teens schedules are always busy. Teens wake up at as early as five thirty in the morning to make it to school on time. As soon as they are done with school they go do various things including extracurricular activities; a job; or just spending time with friends. With doing all of these activities after school it leaves them with little time to

“When schools have delayed the start of the school day, communities have seen reduced tardiness, sleeping in class, and car crash rates, as well as improved attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores” (School Start Later). There has been much debate whether start times for school should be kept where they are at or if they should be pushed back later. Research says that the teenage brain does not fully wake up till eight a.m. or later. So why don’t school systems make the decision to push back school start times for high school students? Although there are a few benefits to school starting earlier such as family time or an after school job, but the benefits of starting school later are much greater. Public schools should initiate later start times to increase the level of academic achievement, create a more positive attitude toward learning, and reduce the amount of stress on students.

You're in bed, feeling serene, having the perfect nights' sleep of your life. You wish it could go on eternally. Suddenly ''BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!", your alarm clock goes off and you comprehend that it's time for school, sound familiar? The subject of start times of school has been a very popular topic.  As many people already know, sleep is an exceedingly significant habit. As stated in the previous newscast, "Sleep physical, emotional, and mental health." Furthermore, students struggle with this habit.

When hearing the alarm, teens just want to sleep for ten minutes more. This can be possible if schools start later. I feel junior high and high schools should start later to improve adolescent’s health, safety, and academic performance. Teens need eight and a half to nine hours of sleep, according to sleepfoundation.org, if they don’t have enough sleep the following might be some of the repercussions.

School starting later in the morning has many benefits. One is that all the students could easily get the 8.5- 9.5 hours of sleep the students need each night (“Wake Up Calls”). The odds of them getting that much sleep are much higher if school would start later in the morning. It is proven that students learn better when they are awake and when

In sixth grade there are plenty of 10-12 year olds who don't get enough sleep. If you are 10-12 years old you need 10 or eleven hours of sleep each night. Having an early school start time means that those people at that age will need to go to bed at 6:30 to 7:30 if they want to wake up at 5:30. Kids at our school are most defiantly not going to bed at 6:30; most people have church, sports, just out of school activities that are usually in the afternoon, some running all the way to 8:30, even 9:00. Because kids aren't getting enough sleep they have harder times controlling emotions and focusing. Someone not being able to function correctly is a big problem. Students can have cognition problems; not being able to focus, make decisions, bad memory, late reactions and hardly any creativity. All of those things are needed for school, but it can be prevented. All we need to do is get a later start time to school for a healthier diet and a healthier student.

Starting classes at a later time would allow teens to get enough sleep, and complete their sleep cycle. All schools that start before 8 a.m have teens that are still being pressured by their melatonin to fall back asleep (Nolan). To prevent this urge to fall asleep, many sleep experts have been pushing for school starting times be set at 8:30. This gives teens time to complete the REM stage of sleeping, the dream stage. Allowing them to physically and mentally prepare themselves for the day.

Finally, your head hits the pillow after endless hours of school and homework. But just as you start to fall asleep...BEEP BEEP, your alarm set for six-thirty in the morning goes off. Making you tired, groggy, and grumpy. You have to skip breakfast and you are rushing around, trying to get to school by seven-thirty. This is just the case for two-thirds of high school students, who get less than seven hours of sleep. Therefore, school should start later for teens and earlier for younger students.

“Sleep is the best cognitive enhancer we have,” according to Russell Foster Ph.D. who is the Professor of Circadian Neurosciences. This was used in an article by schoolstarttime.org Many students are not receiving the appropriate amount of sleep which is affecting their learning. Starting school an hour later would improve attitudes, increase test scores, and increase attentiveness in students.

If school board’s want their student’s to become not only physically, but mentally healthier, it could be solved by pushing back the school start time.