The average start of high school in Utah is 7:56 and our school district (Canyons School District) starts school at 7:45 for 9th-12th graders. Now is this a good time to start school? Most of the students at Alta say no. After doing an online poll, 81% of students say school should start later in the day. The website, AAA State of Play, gives a chart of average start time of schools in every state in the categories of elementary, middle, and high school. In Maryland, the District of Columbia has the latest start time for high school at 8:41. Utah has an average of 7:56, and the earliest start time in the country is in Louisiana with the time of 7:30.
According to the USN they Ranked Utah as the 4th best state for education out of all 50 states. Maryland is ranked 21st and Louisiana 46th. So does the time school starts matter or are different states just better at teaching? To find the amount of passing scores each state has is used by combining all of the results of the mandatory tests. The percentage is looked at to help understand what kids are failing at and what teachers, schools, and the state can do better to help increase these test scores. So does Utah just have faster ways to improve testing scores, or does start time still affect this?
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that school time does affect the students. In their article it shows crucial evidence that teen girls get more sleep and up the reading averages by 0.12. Teen boys didn’t really show a data difference. Even though the boys did not show improvement, data shows that there was some sort of improvement in the time changing.
Although in the article 15 Reasons Why School Should Start Earlier (Top Benefits!) It gives multiple reasons why starting school earlier is a good thing. The reasons stated were, “1.Cuts transportation costs.2.Gets students to school faster.3.Has benefits for work schedules.4.Lets districts pool resources more effectively.5.Allows more free time.6.Creates academic advantages.7.Is safer for travel.8. Allows for after school jobs.9. Establishes a routine.10.Prompts a healthy lifestyle.11.There are no clear benefits of starting later.12.Students don’t see their parents as much.13.Allows time for after-school sports.14.Negates the need for daylight savings time .15.Allows teachers to do more with their day.” Although the things stated were good reasons some of them go both ways. How is it safer to travel because it’s harder when sleepy drivers are on the dark early morning road when it’s rush hour to get to work. How does it create academic advantages? How would transportation costs be more in a later start of day? Often parents go to work at the same time every day which is before school starts so not seeing your parents wouldn’t matter. Many things I find a bit iffy about the reasons on why school should not be changed.
I personally agree with my peers, with changing the school time to start later. I no longer have a 1st period and I’ve had way more energy during the rest of the day. I get nice sleep and I feel more aware and awake when walking into my next classes for the day. I feel more confident, and have a better mindset. I count as one person and everyone is different so many people may disagree with my statement. This is what works with me and what works with some of my friends when they sleep in and skip 1st or 5th period. I don’t have much evidence about how my grades have improved because I had a 4.0 with a first period but I do feel better about school and have better grades right now on A days.
What do you think?
AAA State of Play
USN
