Middle- and upper-class elementary school students in
Kentucky demonstrated worse academic performance when they were required to
start classes early, compared to peers whose school day started later,
according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
Researchers led by Peggy S. Keller, PhD, of the University
of Kentucky, theorized that earlier school start times would be associated with
lower standardized test scores, poorer attendance, more students being left
back, lower school rank and school underperformance. They also expected that
earlier start times would be especially risky for school performance standards
in more disadvantaged schools, including Appalachian schools and those with a
higher percentage of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunches.
"What we found, however, was early start times were
associated with worse performance in schools in more affluent districts - that
is, those with fewer kids getting free or reduced-cost lunches," Keller
said. "For schools with more disadvantaged students, later start times did
not seem to make a difference in performance, possibly because these children
already have so many other risk factors."
The researchers examined data from 718 public elementary
schools in Kentucky. Student performance was measured by looking at scores on a
statewide standardized test that assessed reading, math, science, social
studies and writing. They also looked at attendance rates, the number of students
who were required to repeat a grade (retention rates) and teacher-student
ratios. Results were published in APA's Journal of Educational Psychology.
"The relationship between earlier start times and
poorer academic performance may be explained by the physical, behavioral and
psychological ramifications of sleep deprivation," the researchers wrote.
"Students may therefore lose the ability to remain alert and focused in
the classroom." Getting less sleep might also increase the frequency and
severity of illness among students, which could also lead to lagging
performance, they said.
Another unexpected finding was higher rates of students
repeating grades in schools with later start times. Every additional minute
later a school started increased retention rates by 0.2 percent, the
researchers found.
"To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine
student retention in relation to school start times, and it is therefore
difficult to draw firm conclusions about this finding," Keller said.
"However, given that other indices of school performance were improved at
later school start times, one possible explanation is that once the average
students begin to improve, students with learning difficulties have an
especially hard time keeping up."
Most prior research on the effect of early school start
times has focused on middle and high school students, on the theory that
youngsters going through puberty need more sleep. The researchers in this study
concluded that research on school start times shouldn't focus exclusively on
adolescents.
They also suggested that delaying middle and high school
start times at the expense of making elementary school start times earlier
might be a bad idea. This is sometimes done to accommodate staggered bus
scheduling. "Our findings suggest that these policy changes may simply be
shifting the problem from adolescents to younger children, instead of
eliminating it altogether," they wrote.
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