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High school start times and student achievement: Looking beyond test scores

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  • Lenard, Matthew
  • Morrill, Melinda Sandler
  • Westall, John

Abstract

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that U.S. secondary schools begin after 8:30 a.m. to better align with the circadian rhythms of adolescents. Yet due to economic and logistic considerations, the vast majority of high schools begin the school day considerably earlier. We leverage a quasi-natural experiment in which five comprehensive high schools in one of the nation’s largest school systems moved start times forty minutes earlier to better coordinate with earlier-start high schools. Here, disruption effects should exacerbate any harmful consequences. We report on the effect of earlier start times on a broad range of outcomes, including mandatory ACT test scores, absenteeism, on-time progress in high school, and college-going. While we fail to find evidence of harmful effects on test scores, we do see a rise in absenteeism and tardiness rates, as well as higher rates of dropping out of high school. These results suggest that the harmful effects of early start times may not be well captured by considering test scores alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Lenard, Matthew & Morrill, Melinda Sandler & Westall, John, 2020. "High school start times and student achievement: Looking beyond test scores," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:76:y:2020:i:c:s0272775719304832
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.101975
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    School start times; High school; ACT test; Non-cognitive skills; Absenteeism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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