Cited Works

Buckhalt, Joseph A., Ph.D., Earlier School Start Times for Elementary School Students, Psychology Today, posted Feb. 27, 2017.

In his discussion, Dr. Buckhalt referenced the Wayzata Public Schools, Minnesota. Available is a bank of archived information from the study undertaken by that district, including a recommended literature citation list.

In late 2017, Dr. Buckhalt posted a second article, “Debate Continues About Early Elementary School Start Times.” In that discussion, Dr. Buckhalt looked at a much larger urban district in Boston. In fact, Learning Curve reported in December, 2017, “Boston Public Schools Reverses Decision to Change Start Times.” A follow-up discussion by Arun Rath, “What Earlier School Start Times Mean for Young Brains,” was published in February of this year (2018).

CBS News Report, “Should Schools Start Later in the Morning?” online, video content.

Campbell, Ian G., Ph.D., and Irwin Feinberg, M.D., Special to the Enterprise, “Later school times? Not so fast,” Enterprise, online March 5, 2015.

Chervin, Ronald, M.D., M.S., and Haley Otman, “Despite Health and Learning Benefits, Half of Parents Against Later School Start Times,” online, Michigan Health, August 18, 2017.

Cline, John, Ph.D., “Do Later School Start Times Really help High School Students?” published online, Psychology Today, February 27, 2011.

Figlio, David, “Start high school later for better academic outcomes,” Brookings. Dr. Figlio is Dean, The School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Dr. Figlio cites these sources:

• Brian Jacob and Jonah Rockoff, “Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments,” Hamilton Project Discussion Paper 2011-08, September 2011.
• See, e.g., Josephine Arendt, “Melatonin, Circadian Rhythms, and Sleep,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2000.
• See, e.g., Mary Carskadon, Christine Acebo, and Oskar Jenni, “Regulation of Adolescent Sleep: Implications for Behavior,” Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 2004.
• American Academy of Pediatrics, Adolescent Sleep Working Group and Committee on Adolescence, “School Start Times for Adolescents,” Pediatrics, 2014.
• National Center for Education Statistics, “Average Start Time for Public High Schools and Percentage Distribution of Start Times in Public High Schools, by Selected School Characteristics,” 2012.
• Martha Hansen, Imke Janssen, Adam Schiff, Phyllis Zee, and Margarita Dubocovich, “The Impact of School Daily Schedule on Adolescent Sleep,” Pediatrics, 2005.
• Scott Carrell, Teny Maghakian, and James West, “A’s from Zzzz’s? The Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2011.
• Finley Edwards, “Early to Rise? The Effect of Daily Start Times on Academic Performance,” Economics of Education Review, 2012.
• For instance, Peter Hinrichs, “When the Bell Tolls: The Effects of School Starting Times on Academic Achievement,” Education Finance and Policy, 2011, found no benefits in terms of ACT scores. Kyla Wahlstrom, “Changing Times: Findings from the First Longitudinal Study of Later High School Start Times,” NASSP Bulletin, 2002, found improvements in other student outcomes.
• Jennifer Heissel and Samuel Norris, “Rise and Shine: The Effect of School Start Times on Academic Performance from Childhood through Puberty,” Journal of Human Resources, published online before print, April 19, 2017. (In the interest of full disclosure, I was Heissel’s Ph.D. dissertation adviser and I am also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Human Resources, where this paper was published. However, the paper was handled from start to finish by a different Coeditor, and I had no influence over the publication process.)
• Nolan Pope, “How the Time of Day Affects Productivity: Evidence from School Schedules,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2016.

Keller, Peggy S., “Early Elementary School Start Times Tougher on Economically Advantaged Children, Study Finds,” American Psychological Association, June 14, 2014.

• Gail Hairston cited Dr. Keller’s work, in “Are elementary school start times too early for young children?” University of Kentucky, online August 26, 2014.

“Schools Start Too Early” published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighting these referenced studies:

• Crowley SJ, Acebo C, Carskadon MA. Sleep, circadian rhythms, and delayed phase in adolescence. Sleep Med. 2007;8:602–12.
• Bartel KA, Gradisar M, Williamson P. Protective and risk factors for adolescent sleep: a meta-analytic review. Sleep Med Rev. 2014;21:72–85.
• Knutson KL, Lauderdale DS. Sociodemographic and behavioral predictors of bed time and wake time among US adolescents aged 15 to 17 years. J Pediatr. 2009;154:426–30, 30 e1.

Keller, PS, et al, Earlier school start times are associated with higher rates of behavioral problems in elementary schools, Sleep Health (2017).

Long, Cindy, “The Pros and Cons of Later School Start Times: Will Extra Zzz’s Bring Teens More A’s?” neaToday, online, March 20, 2014.

5 Pros and Cons of Later School Start Times, published online in Master of Arts in Teaching Guide, 2018.

Moore, Linda A., and Jennifer Pignolet, “If later school start times are better, why aren’t they more popular?” USA Today Network, online August 17, 2017.

Morin, Amy, LCSW, “The Pros and Cons of Starting School Later,” online at verywellfamily.com, February 20, 2018.

Related Posts:

Malatesta, Elizabeth, “Let Them Sleep? Later School Start Times Improve Graduation and Attendance Rates,” online April 13, 2017.

Walker, Tim, “Despite Proven Benefits, Starting School Later Remains a ‘Tough Sell,’” online September 20, 2015.

Oxford University Press USA. "Later school start times really do improve sleep time." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 April 2018. 

Richmond, Emily, “Why School Should Start Later in the Morning,” The Atlantic, online August 17, 2015.

Rubin, Rita, “Studies About Later School Start Times May Be ‘Weak,’ But Move Likely Would Help Teens Sleep Better,” Forbes, online Dec. 27, 2016.

St. George, Donna, “Debate over school start times flares anew,” The Washington Post, online January 1, 2017.

Trafford, Bernard, an opinion piece “Letting teenagers start late? Routine is something they have to learn—deal with it,” online TES, April 2, 2017.

University of Surrey. "Mathematicians predict delaying school start times won't help sleep deprived teenagers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 March 2017. 

Wahlstrom, Kyla L., “Later start time for teens improves grades, mood, and safety, “Phi Delta Kappan 98(4), 8-14, kappanonline.org, originally published in December 2016/January 2017.

Dr. Wahlstrom is a senior research fellow and lecturer in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Dr. Wahlstrom’s cited references include: Carskadon, M.A., Acebo, C., & Jenni, O. (2004). Regulation of adolescent sleep: Implications for behavior. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 276-291.

• Jenni O., Achermann P., & Carskadon M. (2005). Homeostatic sleep regulation in adolescents. Sleep, 28(11), 1446-1454.
• McKnight-Eily, L.R., Eaton, D.K., Lowry, R., Croft, J.B., Presley-Cantrell, L., & Perry, G.S. (2011). Relationships between hours of sleep and health-risk behaviors in U.S. adolescent students. Preventive Medicine, 53,271-273.
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (n.d.). Teen drivers: Additional resources. Washington, DC: Author. nhtsa.org.
• Wahlstrom, K. (1999, January). The prickly politics of school starting times. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(5), 344-347.
• Wahlstrom, K. (2002, December). Changing times: Findings from the first longitudinal study of later high school start times. NASSP Bulletin, 86(633), 3-21.
• Wahlstrom, K., Dretzke, B., Gordon, M., Peterson, K., Edwards, K., & Gdula, J. (2014). Examining the impact of later school start times on the health and academic performance of high school students: A multisite study.St Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/162769.

Watson, Nathaniel F., “AASM: Delaying school start time benefits student health,” published online, Healio, April 21, 2017.

See also:

“Later school start times allow teens to get 8 hours of sleep.”

Weller, Chris, “Schools around the US are finally pushing back their start times—and it’s working, Business Insider, online October 16, 2016.

Weller, Chris, “Pushing school start times to 8:30 a.m. could add $9 billion a year to the US economy, Business Insider, online September 5, 2017.

• Weller’s sources included:
  1. The Rand Corporation’s study, “Later school start times in the U.S.”
  2. Hafner, Marco and Martin Stepanek, et al, “Why sleep matters—the economic costs of insufficient sleep: A cross-country comparative analysis,” Nov. 30, 2016.

Marco Hafner is a senior economic and research leader at RAND Europe working on employment, education, and social policy research, reporting “The Economic Benefits of Later School Start Times in the U.S.,” online August 2017.

Marco Hafner, et al, “The Economic Implications of Later School Start Times in the United States,” online October 31, 2017.