By beginning the school day a little later, sleepy adolescents can hit the snooze button a few more times and show up for first period feeling refreshed and focused. By extending the school day 20 to 30 minutes in the afternoon, students can log more instruction time.
The Cherry Creek School District board voted last week to make these changes beginning in the fall, citing studies that suggest middle-school students learn better later in the morning.
The plan has raised questions, but if it is successful it will provide new guideposts for school systems across the state.
Adding 26 minutes to each school day will add 76 hours of extra instruction each year – almost two weeks. For high-schoolers, the plan to add 20 minutes a day will equate to an extra 58 hours a year. The importance of more class time can’t be underscored enough, so the idea makes sense, especially considering the current school dates are based on an outdated agricultural calendar from our nation’s past. It’s not based on what’s best for student learning today.
But many Cherry Creek parents are worried that the benefits of the new calendar could be offset by some disadvantages, especially for children with working parents.
Most middle schools will end the day at 3:40 or 3:55 p.m. That will push back start times for after-school activities and could create a domino effect that pushes back dinner, homework and eventually bed time.
Going to bed later could undo the benefits of the later start.
The district lists “less ‘home alone’ time after school” as a positive aspect of the new schedule. But some students will inevitably be left alone in the mornings. Or will they simply be dropped off at school at the old time, because parents have to get to work?
School officials know that families and teachers will have to adjust their personal schedules, and many will need to change daycare plans. But they point to evidence that it may be best for students.
In 1997, Minneapolis school officials pushed back the starting time for their high schools from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40. Over the next few years, attendance figures grew, more kids stayed in the same schools or districts and there was even a slight improvement in overall grades, according to University of Minnesota research.
At the time, critics feared students would just stay up later and forgo the extra sleep. But the university found Minneapolis high schoolers were getting more sleep than neighboring students who still had earlier start times.
School boards are elected to do what they think is best for kids. On paper, the Cherry Creek plan appears to do that and it deserves a chance to succeed.
