http://schoolstarttime.org/

 

 

Here is a copy of an email from

Dennis Nolan, J.D.

Certified specialist, juvenile law (child welfare)

http://schoolstarttime.org/

I have not verfied all of this information.  I am just providing this for information.

 

Thanks,
Mike

Dear Superintendents Hopkins and McIntire,

 

News reports reflect that the Rochester School Department has appointed an ad hoc committee to determine whether secondary school students may perform better if start times are delayed. (Allen, Rochester panel wants to study data if students will perform better with later start (Oct. 2, 2012) Foster’s Daily Democrat.)

 

I write now to observe only that (i) 8:30 a.m. is the earliest start time proposed by any expert for middle or high school students (discussed infra), and (ii) overwhelming evidence supports the conclusion that later starting students outperform their earlier starting peers. Taking the second point first, economists have recently established a causal relationship between later start times and improved academic performance among adolescent students.

 

EdwardsEarly to Rise? The Effect of Daily Start Times on Academic Performance (Dec. 2012) 31 Economics of Education Rev. 6, pp. 970-983; see also, EdwardsDo Schools Begin Too Early? (Summer 2012) 12 Education Next 3; Buckhalt, Can Later Start Times Affect School Achievement? (Sept. 30, 2012) Psychology Today [citing Edwards‘ study as “direct evidence” of the “measurable significant effect” of later start times on adolescent academic achievement].

 

CarrellMaghakian, & WestA’s from Zzzz’s? The Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Performance of Adolescents (Aug. 2011) 3 Am. Economic J.: Economic Policy 3, pp. 62-81. When reading the study by Carrell et al., supra, bear in mind that biological adolescence lasts until around 19.5 years for women and 20.9 years for men. (Hagenauer, Perryman, Lee, & CarskadonAdolescent Changes in the Homeostatic and Circadian Regulation of Sleep (2009) 31 Developmental Neuroscience 4, p. 276; Kruszelnicki, Teenage Sleep (May 3, 2007) ABC Science.)

 

Relying upon the foregoing studies, the biological evidence, a recent study by Cortes, et al., and data reflecting the prevalence of sleep deprivation among adolescents attending early starting schools, economists from Columbia University and the University of Michigan “conservatively” estimate that shifting middle and high school start times “from roughly 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.[]” will increase academic achievement by 0.175 standard deviations and increase individual student future earnings by approximately $17,500, at little or no cost to schools; i.e., a 9 to 1 benefits to costs ratio. (Jacob & Rockoff, Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments (Sept. 2011) Hamilton Project, Brookings Inst., pp. 5-11, 21, n. 7.)

 

With respect to the costs involved in adhering to early start times, see Troxel, The high cost of sleepy teens (May 23, 2012) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

 

Start Time Recommendations:

 

“During the school year, many teenagers find themselves nodding off during their early morning classes as high school bells ring around 7:30 a.m. While parents and teachers may attribute falling asleep during class to staying up too late checking Facebook statuses and texting with friends, medical evidence suggests that an early school start time before 8:30 a.m. is a greater culprit because classes are occurring when students’ brains and bodies are still in biological sleep mode.”—Kyla Wahlstrom, Ph.D., Director, Center for Applied Research & Educational Improvement (CAREI), Univ. Minn. (Wahlstrom, Later High School Start Times Improve Student Learning and Health (Aug. 24, 2012) Univ. Minn., College of Education & Human Development, Vision 2020 Blog.)

 

“High school should start at 8:45 a.m., or better at 9 o’clock.”—Jeffrey Deitz, M.D. (Deitz, Children’s Sleep: Time For A Wake-Up Call (Dec. 11, 2011) Huffpost: Healthy Living.)

 

“The study strongly recommends that middle schools should consider delaying the school starting time by at least one hour. Such a change could enhance students’ cognitive performance by improving their attention level, increasing rate of performance, as well as reducing their mistakes and impulsivity.”—Dubi Lufi, Ph.D., Emek Yezreel College, Emek Yezreel, Israel, Orna Tzischinsky, Ph.D., Emek Yezreel College, Emek Yezreel, Israel, Sleep  Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, Stav Hadar, M.A., Emek Yezreel College, Emek Yezreel, Israel. (Lufi, Tzischinsky, & Hadar, Delaying School Starting Time by One Hour: Some Effects on Attention Levels in Adolescents (Apr. 2011) 7 J. Clinical Sleep Medicine 2, p. 137, italics added [study shifted start times from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.].)

 

“Probably, 9 o’clock would be the ideal start time for high schools.”—Judith Owens, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Brown University, Director, Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic, Hasbro Children’s Hospital. (Burns, No More Dozing Off in First Period (Aug. 1, 2010) Miller-McCune.)

 

Martin Ralph, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, recommends that high school classes begin at 11 a.m. (Kruszelnicki, Teenage Sleep (May 3, 2007) ABC Science; see, Lim, Maas Pushes for Later Start Time at Schools (Feb. 26, 2009) Cornell Daily Sun [Harvard study finds teen brain doesn’t fully awaken until 11 a.m.]; Preckel, Lipnevich, Boehme, Brandner, Georgi, Könen, Mursin, & Roberts, Morningness-eveningness and educational outcomes: the lark has an advantage over the owl at high school (2011) British J. Education Psychology, pp. 1-21 [among 9th and 10th graders, larks (morningness chronotypes) outperform owls (eveningness chronotypes) on exams administered from 10 a.m. to noon].)

 

“A long-term solution to chronic sleep deprivation in adolescents that others conducting research on adolescent sleep behaviors support may mean that high school start times should be no earlier than 8:30 A.M. The change in high school start times will need to occur at the state level so that school sports and social events can be coordinated among schools.”—Heather Noland, M.Ed., James Price, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, University of Toledo, Joseph Dake, Associate Professor, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, University of Toledo, & Susan Telljohann, Professor, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, University of Toledo. (Noland, Price, Dake, & Telljohann, Adolescents’ Sleep Behaviors and Perceptions of Sleep (2009) 79 J. School Health 5, p. 230, fns. omitted.)

 

“The often serious impact of this chronic under-sleeping is now evident in both high school and middle school students. [¶] For all students one of the most salient—and correctable—social factors contributing to student sleep deprivation, is school start times. [¶] The circadian biology of sleep would predict that among individual children, those who are predisposed to be ‘night owls’ would be even more likely to suffer the consequences of sleepiness in a school system that imposes start times before 9 a.m. [¶] In brief, there are two features of the circadian rhythm especially important to understand regarding sleep in teenagers: (1) the drowsy signal that cues bedtime is dependent on the dampening of circadian-dependent alertness; and (2) the physiology of puberty causes a shift in the circadian rhythm which delays the timing of this biological bedtime by about an hour. These two biological factors underlie the main difficulties faced by adolescents attending school before 9:00 a.m.: the general problem that one cannot easily fall asleep before their biological bedtime, and the additional problem that puberty creates a tendency for even later bedtimes. [¶] Though research has not yet identified an ideal school schedule, the wealth of evidence reviewed in this chapter and elsewhere strongly suggests that students have a better opportunity to be rested and ready to learn by delaying school start time to 8:30 a.m. or later.”—Edward O’Malley, Ph.D., Mary O’Malley, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Developing Fellowship Program, Norwalk Hospital. (O’Malley & O’Malley, School Start Time and Its Impact on Learning and Behavior, publish. in, Sleep and Psychiatric Disorders in Children and Adolescents (Ivanenko edit., Informa Healthcare 2008) pp. 79, 83-84, 89.)

 

“Right now, high schools usually start earlier in the morning than elementary schools. But if school start times were based on sleep cycles, elementary schools should start at 7:30 and high schools at 8:30 or 8:45—right now it’s the reverse. School systems should be thinking about changing their start times. It would not be easy—they would have to change the busing system—but it would increase their student’s sleep time and likely improve their school performance.”—Richard Schwab, M.D., Associate Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Co-Director, Penn Sleep Center. (Start School Later in the Morning, Say Sleepy Teens (May 20, 2007) Am. Thoracic Society; cf. Epstein, Chillag, & Lavie, Starting times of school: effects on daytime functioning of fifth-grade children in Israel (May 1998) 21 Sleep 3, 250-256; see also, Scott, The Squeeze on Zs, Part 2: Teens Struggle with Sleep Time (Feb. 6, 2012) Maryland Heights Patch [“It really makes sense for elementary school students to go to school first.”—John Spivey, M.D., board certified specialist, pediatric sleep medicine, pediatric pulmonology].)

 

“Overall, many adolescents confront a major challenge if schools begin earlier than 8:30 a.m.; many schools start too early in the morning for adolescents to get adequate sleep, whether in the United States or in other countries such as Canada, Israel, Brazil, or Italy. [¶] [S]chool administrators are being urged to acknowledge the evidence and to adjust school schedules accordingly (e.g., delay high school start times).”—Amy Wolfson, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, Mary Carskadon, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Brown University School of Medicine, Director of Chronobiology and Sleep Research, Bradley Hospital. (Wolfson & Carskadon, A Survey of Factors Influencing High School Start Times (Mar. 2005) 89 Nat. Assn. Secondary School Principals Bull. 642, pp. 49, 50, citations omitted.)

 

“Schools with start times before 8:30 a.m. place students at a disadvantage in terms of arousal and alertness, not only for early morning classes but also throughout the day because adolescents’ biological rhythms are out of sync with typical school routines.”—Peg Dawson, Ed.D., N.C.S.P., Staff Psychologist, Center for Learning and Attention Disorders, Seacoast Mental Health Center, past president of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the International School Psychology Association. (Dawson, Sleep and Adolescents (Jan. 2005) Counseling 101, p. 12; see also, Sleep and Sleep Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Information for Parents and Educators (2004) Nat. Assn. School Psychologists Resources.)

 

“Although providing a home environment to promote healthy sleep is the first step to eliminating sleep deprivation in adolescents, increased public awareness of the impact of sleep on learning and behavior is important. For this to occur legislation to ensure that high school start times not begin before 9:00 a.m. may help in reducing sleep deprivation leading to improved academic performance and behavior[.]”—Georgios Mitru, M.Ed., Daniel Millrood, M.Ed., M.S.P.T., New York Medical College faculty, Jason H. Mateika, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, Wayne State University. (Mitru, Millrood, & Mateika, The Impact of Sleep on Learning and Behavior in Adolescents (Jun. 2002) 104 Teachers College Record 4, p. 721.)

 

“In 1913, Terman and Hocking (1913) reported that sleep in adolescents in the western U.S. was longer than that previously reported in studies of English (n=6180) (Ravenhill 1910) or German (Bernhard 1908) children and adolescents. One of the factors that they felt explained this difference was that school start times were an hour later (9:00 AM) in the U.S. than those in Germany and England (7:00–8:00 AM). They go so far as to state, ‘The American practice of beginning at 9 o’clock is far wiser, and should never be changed unless for very special reasons.’ ” (Colrain & Baker, Changes in Sleep as a Function of Adolescent Development (2011) 21 Neuropsychology Rev., p. 13, quoting Terman & Hocking, The sleep of school children; its distribution according to age, and its relation to physical and mental efficiency (1913) J. Educational Psychology, p. 271.)

 

Less Specific Recommendations

 

The single most profound difference we could make [i]n education … would be to let teens sleep on nature’s schedule (midnight to 9 a.m. or later).—JoAnn Deak, Ph.D., Educator and Psychologist. (Large, Shedding light on the teen brain (Jun. 8, 2009) The Seattle Times.)

 

Russell Foster, Ph.D., F.R.S., Chair of Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University, says teenagers are biologically wired to stay up late and wake late, making a 9 a.m. start too early. (Critchley, Sleepy teens want later start (May 4, 2007) Herald Sun.) Professor Foster suggests classes not begin until the afternoon because teens’ body clocks can be delayed between two and four hours. (Making teens start school in the morning is ‘cruel,’ brain doctor claims (Dec. 1, 2007) London Evening Standard; see also, Hansen, Janssen, Schiff, Zee, & DubocovichThe Impact of Daily Schedule on Adolescent Sleep (Jun. 2005) 115 Pediatrics 6, pp. 1555-1561 [high school seniors perform better in the afternoon than in the morning on vigilance tests, symbol copying, visual search tasks, and logical reasoning].)

 

Implicit Recommendations

 

On January 26, 2012, Brown University Professor of Medicine Richard Millman encouraged a one hour delay in morning classes at Barrington High School. (Rupp, Barrington Studies Later School Start Time For Teens (Jan. 27, 2012) East Greenwich Patch.) The present start time is 7:40 a.m. (Rupp, Moving School Start Time Gets Push (Oct. 21, 2011) Barrington Patch). The district has posted a video of Professor Millman‘s presentation; the professor notes the value of a one hour delay at approximately 1:18:20, 1:23:00, and 1:53:00.

 

In 2008, following a presentation by Cornell University Professor of Psychology James Maas concerning the “conflict” between “academic clocks” and “teenagers’ body clocks,” Deerfield Academy delayed start times from 7:55 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (Lim, Maas Pushes for Later Start Time at Schools, supra, Cornell Daily Sun.)

 

“Of all the arguments I’ve heard over school start-times, not one person has argued that children learn more at 7:15 a.m. than at 8:30.”—Mark Mahowald, M.D., University of Minnesota, Neurology Department, Professor and Chair, Hennepin County Medical Center, Director, Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. (Bronson, Snooze or Lose (Oct. 7, 2007) N.Y. Magazine, web p. 3.)

 

In 2009, scientists writing in the journal Developmental Neuroscience succinctly stated the uniformly held position of sleep experts on school start times: “For policy makers, teachers and parents, these results provide a clear mandate. The effects of sleep deprivation on grades, car accident risk, and mood are indisputable. A number of school districts have moved middle and high school start times later with the goal of decreasing teenage sleep deprivation. We support this approach, as results indicate that later school start times lead to decreased truancy and drop-out rates.” (Hagenauer, Perryman, Lee, & CarskadonAdolescent Changes in the Homeostatic and Circadian Regulation of Sleep, supra, 31 Developmental Neuroscience 4, p. 282.)

 

Yours truly,

Dennis Nolan, J.D.

Certified specialist, juvenile law (child welfare)

http://schoolstarttime.org/

One thought on “http://schoolstarttime.org/

  1. In response to the e-mail sent to the school board and posted here on this blog regarding start time changes. As a member of the committee, I have spent numerous hours reading the various studies mentioned, especially the study performed by Carrell, Maghakian & West. I have read this study and find many contradictions with regard to changing the start time for school.

    As stated in the study, one of the primary arguments against changing school start times is a lack of causal evidence on how start time affects student achievement, as most existing studies are correlational in nature. For instance, research has shown that early start times in high school lead to sleep deprivation among students (AmyWolfson & Mary Carskadon 2003, Martha Hansen, Imke Janssen, Adam Schiff, Phyllis Zee & Margarita Dubocovich 2005, Donn Dexter, Jagdeep Bijwadia, Dana Schilling & Gwendolyn Applebaugh 2003). Additionally, the number of hours of sleep is positively correlated with measures of academic achievement (Amy Wolfson & Mary Carskadon 1998, James Pagel, Natalie Forister & Carol Kwiatkowki 2007, Howard Taras & William Potts-Datema 2005, Katia Fredriksen, Jean Rhodes, Ranjini Reddy & Niobe Way 2004, Giuseppe Curcio, Michele Ferrara & Luigi De Gennaro 2006, Arne Eliasson, Anders Eliasson, Joseph King, Ben Gould & Arn Eliasson 2002).

    However, in these studies, grades are not a consistent measure of student academic achievement due to heterogeneity of assignments and exams as well as the subjectivity of assigning grades to assessments across instructors. Additionally, existing studies have been unable to take into account confounding factors, which likely bias the results. For instance, self-selection of coursework, schedules, and instructors, make it difficult to distinguish the effect of school start time from peer and teacher effects.

    A recent study at an American high school found that a 30 minute delay in start time led to significant decreases in daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and depressed mood (Judith Owens, Katherine Belon & Patricia Moss 2010). However, there are several acknowledged methodological weaknesses in this literature. Although studies find a correlation between sleep and grades, they cannot establish a causal relationship. Additionally, much of the existing literature relies on surveys and self-reports, which are both retrospective and subjective. Differences in academic achievement measures across studies make cross-study comparisons difficult and many suffer from small sample size.

    Only a handful of studies have investigated how the school schedule affects academic achievement, and all of these studies face identification challenges stemming from students’ ability to choose their courses and schedule. Minneapolis Public School District was one of the first school districts to change the start times of their high schools. In 1997, start times changed from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. Wahlstrom (2002) examines this policy change and finds that the later start time had a positive effect on attendance and an insignificant improvement on grades. However, because of record-keeping issues, subjectivity of grading, and differences in courses across teachers and schools, Wahlstrom (2002) questioned the strength of her own findings.

    Peter Hinrichs (2009) also studies the effect of start time using data from Minneapolis Public School District. While high schools in Minneapolis moved back their start time, schools in St. Paul (Minneapolis’ twin city) did not. He used ACT test score data on all individuals from public high schools in the Twin Cities metropolitan area who took the ACT between 1993 and 2002 to estimate the effects of school starting times on ACT scores. His results suggest no effect of school start time on academic achievement.

    Carrell, Maghakian & West concluded that while sleep researchers find that later start times are beneficial for adolescent learning, many argue there is not enough evidence on the benefits of later start time to warrant making such a change. Researchers have attempted to answer the question of how start time affects student achievement; however, to this point determining the causal effects of start time on student achievement has been difficult due to issues related to self-selection and measurement error. Later start times may be a cost-effective way to improve student outcomes for adolescents.

    Nothing in any of these studies is concrete enough to convince me to change the start times of our schools. Given the input that I have had from families many are not in favor of this transition. They feel that if school started any later their children would never get the work completed and might have to give up their extracurricular activities, things that they like doing and is part of school, due to the understandable lack of time. Middle school parents have informed me to leave their kids schedules alone! Many who are in clubs are getting home at 4:30 now and then start their two to three hours of homework, dinner, projects, etc.