Tradition of School Start Time Needs To End
Despite research to the contrary, we continue to educate kids outside of their peak hours.
I have, quite literally, spent more than half of my life in a high school. At 49 years old, I have spent 22 of my 27 years as a Teacher in a high school. Add in the four years I spent as a student and you get 26 years (and counting) in a high school building.
By spending a little more than half of my life in a high school classroom, I realize the duality of public education. On the positive, the concept of giving a free education to students is one of our society’s greatest ideas. We educate all students to be productive, thriving members of society.
On the other hand, the system in which we operate does need some fixing. No matter how great we do—and we are doing an amazing job as educators—we cannot ignore the flaws in the system. We must continue to work to improve our public education system.
The issues are many, ranging from homework reform, workload, curriculum development and delivery, falling reading rates, to what to feed them, how many AP courses should be shoved down their throats, and what the value of a grade should mean to them.
Because all of those issues and the many more that exist deal with kids, making impactful change is tough. Unfortunately, it takes time to make the change. Then it takes time to get the staff trained enough to implement the new change. With so much happening, many teachers and administrators simply backslide into old habits considering the inconsistencies of professional development and the dearth of actual meaningful professional development. Change moves at a glacial place in the education world.
With experience as a student, a teacher, and department coordinator, I realize the word “easy” doesn’t really exist when it comes to the idea of change. That doesn’t mean we don’t try.
There is one change that could be instant and have such a great impact on students. It wouldn’t require any teacher training or any new professional development. It would simply make the culture of a high school instantly better and put kids in a much better place to learn and thrive.
The rise of social emotional learning has allowed students and teachers to be better equipped to deal with trauma or even just the everyday. This “new found” focus on well-being is a step in the right direction, but we still are missing the plot on one key thing.
Sleep.
The CDC recommends that children ages 13-18 get between eight and ten hours of sleep per night. Children who get less than that, on average, are “at higher risk for obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental health, and problems with attention and behavior.” (“Sleep in Middle and High School Students“)
According to the same 2020 findings, more than 70 percent of teenagers are, in some form, sleep deprived. Following up in 2022, the CDC said that 79.7 percent of female students don’t get enough sleep.
Yet, most high schools start their first class around 7:15 AM. This requires students to wake up earlier, get ready, wait for the bus, maybe eat something, and then dive right into classes for the next seven hours. Why are still beholden to the ancient practice of starting high school so early? Why are we still doing this when we know a lack of sleep leads to problems with attention and behavior?
A typical high schooler’s day starts before 6:00 AM. They get up, get ready, and sleepily get to school around 7:00 AM. They are in classes all day with, perhaps, a lunch break. The little secret of today’s high schools are that many students don’t even take lunch; instead, they take an extra course so that their college resume looks better.
Then, at 2:15 the bell rings. Many run to sports. Others to clubs. Others to extra help. Many more go to work to help support their family. If your kid is in a drama society like mine is, rehearsals go until around 9:00 PM. Then, it’s dinner and homework. At best, kids are in bed around midnight.
Repeat that for 180 days.
We wonder why kids aren’t as engaged or have “the drive” to learn. Yet, we don’t look at the flawed system that we’ve placed them in. We are driving them past the point of exhaustion. If that sounds dramatic, let’s put it this way: they are not getting the recommended rest to function properly.
As a Teacher, I am simply proud that they show up every day and do everything they need to do in a day.
Like I said before, the word “simple” doesn’t really exist in the context of education reform. However, this is pretty simple. One education fix is simple, easy to implement, would have a great impact on student learning, and, most importantly, have a great impact on their well being.
High School start times should be pushed back to 9:00 AM.
With two hours of extra sleep, students will be better rested and better prepared to learn. With teenagers in the nocturnal phase of their sleep habits (science says that they are wired to stay up later), the extra two hours in the morning would make the difference between five hours a sleep per night and getting eight or nine hours of sleep per night. With more rest, students will be in better moods and better able to focus longer on learning.
There are obvious arguments against this, ranging from busing issues to after school activities. None of those arguments are unsolvable. Actually, almost all of them are solved rather easily.
Bus runs can be configured to allow high schools to start later. The elementary runs can start a bit earlier, considering that this age group is in most need of supervision in the morning as parents are scrambling to get their kids to school and get to work. This would allow those parents to have their kids in school earlier and get to work. Sure, the elementary day would end a bit earlier, but parents usually have day care options after school anyway so nothing changes there. The same goes for middle school students. They start a bit earlier and are out a bit earlier. That opens up the slot for high schools to start at 9:00 AM. Busing rearrangement is “easy”.
After school hours are important to high school students and the culture of the school. With clubs, sports, and extra help all being offered after school hours, the argument is that these will suffer with a later start time. That’s false because we can configure the school day differently, which would allow access to everything.
Most high school athletic competitions start around 4:00 PM so the extra time does not impact any of that. But, we can still trim the day a bit in the schedule so students aren’t ending their day at 4:00 PM. If we shaved five minutes off of each period (typically eight periods), that’s 40 minutes saved. That puts the end of the day time to 3:20 PM, just an hour later than the traditional high schools. Extra curricular activities can start then and end by 4:00 PM. This would allow students who have jobs enough time to get to work.
That’s not even mentioning the idea of getting creative with scheduling with ideas such as fluctuating period lengths and when students attend those particular periods. There can be a rotating schedule and even a whole school lunch/activity period. There are options for scheduling if we allow ourselves to stop following the traditional schedule that maybe worked in the 1940’s, but is no longer conducive to a child’s education.
With after school hours still relatively the same and with athletics untouched, students will come to school better rested and have a far better capacity to learn. It really is that simple in a world where nothing is ever that simple. And, there are already some districts that are using this model and having success.
We talk a lot about doing “what’s best for kids” in education. This is clearly in the best interest of kids. The only things in the way is the archaic thinking and the excuses being made. If we want our kids to learn better, work harder, and be more creative, let’s give them the opportunity to come to school better rested. That would go a long way towards closing gaps in learning.
And, more importantly, they’d be happier.