Later Start Times in High Schools Would Help Student Performance
I remember when I first started college, I was shocked that none of my classes started until 10:00am. It was a great change from high school, when my first class began at 7:50am. I was also very excited because this later starting time meant I would get to sleep in later in the mornings. Score!
Evidently I was not the only one who thought that high schools start a little too early. A few years ago, Finley Edwards, a student at Colby College, began a study concerning the starting times of high schools and how well students do in school. He was inspired by his little sister’s early mornings: she woke up at 6:30 each day and class started at 7:15.
“I thought that this couldn’t possibly be good,” he recalls. Sadly, there wasn’t any previous research available for Edwards to read about this subject, so he decided to make his own. Now, he has found that “start times really do matter. We can see clear increases of academic performance from just starting school later.” Read the rest of this entry »