School Start Times

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In the paper "Early to rise? The effect of daily start times on academic performance", Finely Edwards argues that evidence supports increased sleep as a mechanism through which start times can affect test scores. The introduction begins with Edwards explaining the lack of consensus on what time the school day should begin, both across the nation and individual communities. Districts often stagger the start times of different schools in order to reduce the number of buses used to reduce transportation costs. If early start times have a negative impact on academic performance, Edwards notes, staggering start times may not be justified on a cost-benefit basis. The remainder of the opening paragraph acknowledges the attention that the issue of …show more content…
Edwards then references a school start time dataset from the 2001 Before-and After-School Programs and Activities section of the National Household Education Survey to establish how start times vary across the nation. Nationally, the median start time for middle school students Is 8:00 AM, while the median start time in Wake County is 7:30. Also, Wake County students begin school earlier than over 90% of students nationwide. Next, a study is referenced that found that large schools(>1000) students begin on average 15 minutes earlier than small schools, Also, schools using a tiered busing system tend to start earlier than those that do not. Edwards then summarizes the state of the literature related to how start times affects the academic performance of adolescents, and then argues why his paper complements these existing …show more content…
The first source is administrative data for every student in North Carolina between 1999 and 2006, containing demographic variables as well as end of grade test scores in both reading and math. The second source of data is the start time for each school in the Wake County County Public School System(WCPSS) by year. Since 1995, WCPSS has operated under a three-tiered busing system, with some variation in exact start times. Most Tier I schools begin at 7:30, Tier II at 8:15 and Tier III at 9:15, with most Tiers I and II composed primarily of middle and high schools. Edwards then details his findings form the dataset. A table providing summary statistics detailing academic achievements for students in schools which change start times is highlighted. Students in schools changing to an earlier start time saw both their reading and math test scores decrease by about one point on average, while students

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