Early School Start Times May Negatively Impact Students' Ability to Learn

The early bird may get the worm, but starting the day early may not always be in your child's best interests. Scientists have found that middle- and upper-class elementary school students display poorer academic performance when they were required to start classes early compared to peers whose school day started later.

In order to better understand how scheduling might impact a student's performance in school, the researchers examined data from 718 public elementary schools in Kentucky. Student performance was measured by looking at scores on standardized tests that assessed reading, math, science, social studies and writing. The researchers also took attendance rates into account.

"What we found, however, was early start times were associated with worse performance in schools in more affluent districts--that is, those with fewer kids getting free or reduced-cost lunches," said Peggy Keller, one of the researchers, in a news release. "For schools with more disadvantaged studients, later start times did not seem to make a difference in performance, possibly because these children already have so many other risk factors."

The researchers believe the poor academic performance could be due to the ramifications of sleep deprivation. Students may lose the ability to remain alert and focused, which means that they may not absorb classroom material as effectively as those who have had enough sleep during the night before.

Yet the scientists made an unexpected finding. They discovered that there were higher rates of students repeating grades in schools with later start times. That said, every additional minute later a school started increased retention rates by .2 percent. Keller had an explanation.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine student retention in relation to school start times, and it is therefore difficult to draw firm conclusions about this finding," said Keller in a news release. "However, given that other indices of school performance were improved at later school start times, one possible explanation is that once the average students begin to improve, students with learning difficulties have an especially hard time keeping up."

The findings reveal a bit more about how school start times impact student performance. These findings could be crucial when it comes to determining when schools should start in the morning in order to make sure that students have the best possible experience.

The findings are published in the Journal of Educational Psychology.