ERIC Number: EJ945527
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1557-3060
EISSN: N/A
When the Bell Tolls: The Effects of School Starting Times on Academic Achievement
Hinrichs, Peter
Education Finance and Policy, v6 n4 p486-507 Fall 2011
A number of high schools across the United States have moved to later bell times on the belief that their previous bell times were too early for the "biological clocks" of adolescents. In this article I study whether doing so improves academic performance. I first focus on the Twin Cities metropolitan area, where Minneapolis and several suburban districts have made large policy changes but St. Paul and other suburban districts have maintained early schedules. I use individual-level ACT data on all individuals from public high schools in this region who took the ACT between 1993 and 2002 to estimate the effects of school starting times on ACT scores. I then employ school-level data on schedules and test scores on statewide standardized tests from Kansas and Virginia to estimate the effects of bell times on achievement for a broader sample. The results do not suggest an effect of school starting times on achievement.
Descriptors: High Schools, Standardized Tests, Academic Achievement, Metropolitan Areas, High School Students, School Schedules, Student Improvement, Educational Policy, Policy Analysis, Public Schools, Scores, Correlation, Comparative Analysis, Time Factors (Learning), Scheduling
MIT Press. 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. Tel: 617-253-2889; Fax: 617-253-1709; e-mail: journals-rights@mit.edu; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2329/loi/edfp
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Kansas; Minnesota; Virginia
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: ACT Assessment
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A