Delayed High School Start Times of 8:30 A.m. Or Later and Impact on Graduation Completion and Attendance Rates

Download or read book Delayed High School Start Times of 8:30 A.m. Or Later and Impact on Graduation Completion and Attendance Rates written by Pamela Malaspina McKeever and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insufficient sleep is a significant health issue that can impact quality of life. Biological mechanisms drive adolescent sleep to shift, resulting in a delay in falling asleep and causing students to wake up later. The current study used a brain-based learning paradigm and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a framework for investigating the impact of a school start time of 8:30 a.m. or later on adolescent performance. Specifically, student outcomes from a convenience sample of districts that delayed start times at or beyond 8:30 a.m. were used to measure the impact of delaying start times. Schools were identified from the Children's National Medical Center's (CNMC) Division of Sleep Medicine and included eight school districts (n = 29 high schools) located throughout seven different states with a total membership of over 30,000 students (Owens et al., 2014). Data were analyzed using a repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine the significance of the change over time in the mean attendance rates and graduation rates one year before the delayed start and two years after the delayed start. The model of the study was set up to control for free and reduced lunch status to determine the influence on attendance rates and graduation rates over time however sparse data lead to the exclusion of the covariate. Findings from this study linked a start time of 8:30 a.m. or later to improved attendance rates and graduation completion. This is an important finding because there are continued calls for empirical evidence to support the need for delaying start times. With results supporting the connection between improved student performance and start time, educational leaders and policy makers have a mechanism to contribute to the quality of a student's future life, through increase earning and opportunities for further education. It is the hope that by providing objective research that suggests positive changes in graduation rates and attendance rates after the implementation of a delayed school start time of 8:30 a.m. or later, decision-makers could shift thinking and consider later high school start times. School officials, politicians and educators need to take special notice that this investigation also raises questions about whether later start times are a mechanism for closing the achievement gap due to improved graduation rates.