Early Mornings, Despite Research
This article is part of the Ask the Principal series featuring real questions from PR students.
How come school starts at 7:25 despite the research against it?
A very high profile district, Stevenson High School, just made the switch. They are kind of breaking ground there. I don’t have an answer for you. It starts when it starts because it starts then. We are one of the earliest, if not the earliest district in the state. No one is starting as late as Stevenson is yet. But the brain research that we have on teenagers suggests that you don’t start that early. Other factors that could complicate it would be all the extracurriculars. We share transportation with our feeder districts. There are a lot of other pieces that we would have to look at and alter if we scooted the day later.
People like yourself with a lot of homework and such, I don’t know if you do some in the morning, but if school moves that much later, then your extracurriculars end that much later, then it is that much later by the time you get to start your homework. Then if you are up till 2 A.M. — it defeats the purpose of a later start time, anyways. I am not saying I wouldn’t be in support of it, it would seem to align with the research that’s out there. I am very interested to watch the Stevenson experiment and see how that goes.
Do you think our district would ever move back the start time?
Sure. That decision rests with the Board of Education. That is not anything that we could decide locally here. The Board governs our four buildings in the district: Central, South, Cary-Grove, and PR. They’re locally elected officials. The administration would make a recommendation to them, like the principals and our central office administration would make a recommendation. Ultimately it would be The Board that would decide if we were to move that or not. The Board has made changes in the best interest of students many times. Who knows what they would say?
Another question that came from a PR student asked whether three day weekends could be a possibility.
If we were to do something like three day weekends, it would lengthen the school year because we have to have a certain number of school days. I don’t know if folks are aware of that trade off. So, is it a possibility? I suppose so, as long as we are still getting in the school days that we need.
Testing doesn’t drive what we do at all, but it is important, especially with a lot of our students looking at competitive colleges. A concern that I would have is [whether you would] have enough schooling prior to your ACT test or your AP test. Would you be able to score as well as you want or need to get into those competitive colleges? So that would be an unfortunate reality we would have to look at if we wanted to do that.
jack • May 19, 2016 at 10:39 am
Our district –155– should make it so we don’t have to start school at 7:25. For Prairie Ridge –a high performing school– especially. Because there is a lot of research against starting that early. The research states that “Our brains aren’t fully awake that early.” If our brains aren’t awake that early then that means that we won’t do as well in school. We should start school at at least 8:00. Schools such as Stevenson and Barrington, high performing schools in Illinois, have already changed there start time from 7:25 to later than that. Schools, or school district offices, should always want there students to be the best they can, and the only way that they can do that they need to be awake to be able to do that. Everyone would be happy with school pushed back a hour or so.
brandon • May 19, 2016 at 10:29 am
I believe school should be pushed back to 8 am. Brain research has shown that a teenagers brain works better later in the day then earlier. PR, a high performing school, should push the normal school time to 8 am. Many students would appreciate the later school time. They would be able to sleep longer or do homework that they– forgot– to do; And then student would be able to study in the morning, if they had a test first period. I believe if this happens students would get high test scores. Teachers also would be able to sleep in longer. So everyone would be grateful if the school pushed it back.
Trevor Feucht • Mar 1, 2016 at 11:46 am
Students who attend PR, often come to school tired and unready to learn. A lot of students ride the bus in the morning; and because they ride the bus in the morning, they get to school over thirty minutes before classes start. This causes students who ride the bus to sit outside their classroom, if they aren’t meeting a teacher, and “fall back asleep”. I know a lot of students, including myself, would appreciate and take advantage of the later start time. If PR decides it would be better for the students, and their education, to administer a later start time, students might just start getting better grades, do better on standardized testing, or even just pay more attention in class.
Anonymous • Mar 1, 2016 at 9:58 am
The normal school day, starting at 7:25, should be changed. Since we start that early, our brains are not a full potential. In the voting part of the article most people chose to start school around 8. Waking up later will help me do better in school; this can help several people too. This can help athletes be more awake for practice or games. PR, a school of academics, should start school later.
Jered Marrs • Mar 1, 2016 at 8:59 am
I believe that PR should have early start days at 7:25. Despite the true information about the text, having school earlier in the morning can be a good thing. For example: if we start early we can have more time after school to do extra activities and we can also go home and see our family longer. I believe that the later we start, the longer the day we will go into. I think that it is more important than sleeping in, but in the text above they have a good reason why we should get up later.
Brennen • Mar 1, 2016 at 8:59 am
PR should have the start of school at 7:30, so the school days end at three. If the day were to be started later, the day would end later. Therefore cutting into other peoples activities, such as going to the movies at a certain time, or a job. So people would have to change there schedules. This could be a problem for jobs, So we need to keep the beginning time around 7:30. In all we should keep times early.
Lauren Knowles • Mar 1, 2016 at 8:58 am
I think that school should be pushed back at least an hour. If kids feel like they can get extra sleep, they might be more energetic and be ready for the school day. So many people I know go home and either go straight to sleep and don’t get their homework done until either late at night or the next day if they have study hall, or they don’t do their homework at all. This is bad. i know that most days when I get home all I want to do is sleep, but if people get that extra hour they might focus more and be able to understand the subject you are learning in your class instead of thinking about their bed and how comfortable it is. Also, when people wake up in the morning and the sun is out people might feel more happy and not down.A happy student is a better student. Everyone needs at least 6-8 hours of sleep, but not everyone gets that which could be affecting their grades. I get around 5 hours of sleep which is better than getting none at all. But I always find myself so droopy in the morning. Some people also have to get up a little bit earlier than others because they have to take the bus, which come around 6:30. So yes, I believe that us students should get school pushed back.
Angie Thrasher • Mar 1, 2016 at 8:58 am
I think that school should start at 7:25,I personally would have to wake up early no matter what time school starts.If school starts later it will end later.
Amanda Grimes • Mar 1, 2016 at 8:57 am
I believe that PR should start at a later time in the day. Many students wake up at a time between 5:00 and so on depending on when the bus comes or when you get a ride before the bell. Everyone needs time to get ready and eat in the morning. I do not have time to eat in the morning, yet breakfast is very important to get you started for the day. Also, waking up so early every Monday through Friday makes you tired. I have a hard time waking up from not sleeping at night, then working most of the day, go home and end up sleeping, waking up to not being able to sleep at night. That is NOT a healthy sleeping arrangement.
Consciousness • Feb 29, 2016 at 10:22 pm
I have a great idea. If people are really serious about this issue, and if other high-achieving schools are adopting earlier start times, why don’t we take a district-wide student and teacher vote on this issue? 😉
Kyle U. • Feb 29, 2016 at 9:37 pm
Because most students aren’t fully awake at 7:25 am, school should start at a later time. Although the athletes, most students in PR, would have to start practice later at night than usual, I think it’s best to start the extracurricular activities in the morning. Students are more likely to do well at school after doing some type of physical activity before taking their tests/quizzes; their brains are more awake and ready to take on the day.
Tommy Witkowski • Feb 29, 2016 at 2:04 pm
PR should push the time back. Studies show that your brain doesn’t fully work until about 9 or 10 AM; if schools are started later then your kids will show up on time and not be late to class. If other schools can do it like Stevenson High School, one of the best schools in Illinois, then I think that PR should do it. I mean whats the worse that can happen. If school starts later then kids will get better grades; if its not then kids are not gonna do so good in school.
Hannah Rider • Feb 29, 2016 at 2:04 pm
I believe Prairie Ridge should start at a later time. Many schools, as Nicolette said, have changed their starting times to later. Scientific experiments and tests have proven that the brain is not fully awake until later in the day. During first period, your brain isn’t fully awake yet. As absurd as it seems, I personally wouldn’t enjoy having a three day weekend. If we cut off Friday completely, we would then have to add more time to Monday through Thursday. I personally would find it a struggle to have the alertness to go through the longer school days. Great Job Nicolette!!
Lexy Dalzell • Feb 29, 2016 at 2:03 pm
If schools start later, then students will be more awake and alert, and we will learn easier if we are awake. If we do this, then maybe our standardized testing scores will go up. I know that I feel like a zombie when I get to school in the mornings, because I know that I probably should’ve gotten more sleep, but I was busy doing school work. I think that school should start at 8:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then on Monday, it would still be late-start Monday, we could start at 8:30. Then it would still be a later start, but not by much.
Camille Drain • Mar 1, 2016 at 8:43 am
Lexy, I completely agree with you I know that waking up early in the morning sucks because you take the bus every day and also our brains are more awake when we wake up earlier. I like the idea of school starting at 8:00 AM and then starting at 8:30 on Mondays. Even though I always feel refreshed after waking up at 11 but 8 is so much better than 7:25 because I am always late on Tuesdays-Thursdays and on Mondays i’m never late.
michaela • Feb 29, 2016 at 1:47 pm
We should push start times later at Prairie Ridge. Studies done by the National Sleep Foundation, a group of highly skilled doctors who are dedicated to improving health and well-being with sleep education, state that teens brains aren’t fully active at 7:25; if schools started later students would arrive on time, ready to learn because their brains are fully active. If Stevenson High School, one the best high schools in the state of Illinois, it can’t be a bad idea. I think before the board makes the decision to adapt to a later start we should about how it affects all the students.
Ian Priester • Feb 29, 2016 at 11:04 am
I absolutely believe that the time we start school should be pushed back. Studies show that our brains aren’t fully active that early in the morning; if school is starting as early as 7:25 then it is putting district 155 students a disadvantage. Stevenson high school, a superior Illinois school, has already adopted a later start time. The fact that Stevenson has already made the switch implies that it can’t be a terrible idea. Before Prairie Ridge switches to a later start, it would be important to gather a little more information on how it will affect all the students.
brandon • Feb 29, 2016 at 11:03 am
I think Praire Ridge, or d155, should apply a later start time. All the research has shown that students work better at later starts. Students would feel more energized and most likely want to participate more because they would be more awake. Students and teachers would appreciant if they would be able to sleep in. I believe in the near future that schools all over the country will implement that in some way, whether they would push it back 30 minutes or an hour.
Sophia Sassine • Feb 29, 2016 at 10:55 am
PR should inherit a later start time. Stevenson high school has a later start, than why don’t we have a later start time? research shows that our brains don’t function until later in the morning. 7:25 is too early. If we keep getting to school early, eventually students are going to become lazy. Students need at least 9 hours of sleep; getting up around 5:30 prevents us from getting the sleep we require to function. Homework also has a large role in this discussion. Students that participate in extracurricular activities get home later than others. The student than has to stay up late trying to finish homework, overall messing up the students sleep pattern.
Mr. Boldwyn • Feb 29, 2016 at 10:52 am
We should adopt a later start time. Prairie Ridge, a high-performing school, would benefit because our student would likely perform better academically. Forward-leaning schools such as Stevenson and Barrington (strongly considering a later start) know what the research on learning has proven: 7:30 is too early. Schools should always incorporate best-practices that lead to greater student achievement; allowing students to be better rested would have a positive impact on achievement. Although many may argue that starting later would disrupt athletic schedules, academics will always trump athletics.
Mr. Boldwyn • Feb 29, 2016 at 10:54 am
should be “students” NOT “student”
Analisa Grandolfo • Feb 29, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Mr. Boldwyn, I appreciate your courageous decision to speak your mind, publicly, but I completely disagree, if anything we should start earlier. Let me explain: the information that follows the evidence you provided is based on a “normal” sleeping schedule. It does not support the majority of the class in which doesn’t get an average of 6-8 hours of sleep. I, myself get around an hour of sleep every night, and i still think we should begin before the sun is awake. Judging by the fact that you do not have any other information supporting your claim, i don’t think you’d have any issue with accepting mine.