Riley 1

Lexie Riley

Comp 1

Mrs.Cramer

March 17, 2017

Delay School by One Hour

i
Does school start too early for pre-teens, and teens? There's a lot of parents that believe

school does start to early for them. Also, there are parents and school board officers that believe

school times are fine. Not all of them understand the good and bad of the school times. Students

will do better in school if they have time to eat breakfast. Test scores will improve with later start

times, and later ending times because parents will be home to help children study and do

homework. "Experts say adolescents need 8 to 9 1/2 hours of sleep a night but find it hard to

fall asleep before 11 because their natural sleep cycle."(George 3). School should start later to

improve students' brain function and impact better grades.

If school did not start so early teens would not feel rushed in the mornings. "With the

change in bell times, students participation has dropped 30 percent." (George 2). Children would

be able to eat breakfast in the morning, which breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Children should eat breakfast to improve their focus, and their brain function. With the

improvement of brain function comes better grades, and test scores. "The later the start time, the

greater the academic benefits." (Wahlstrom 1). "A 2.2-percentile-point improvement in math

scores and a 1.5-point improvement in reading scores associated with one-hour change in start
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time."(Edwards 3). Elementary students are not affected by the start time as much as teenagers

are. There are three different start times for most school districts. One, which is high school, start

at 7:30. Two, middle schoolers, start school at 8:15, and three which is elementary students, start

at 9:15. All students should start school at 9:15, and ride the same buses together.

Although, school boards believe that, as of right now, the buses are balanced they can be

changed. Anytime anyone wanted they could change how the buses run where they go, what time

they run, and what children they have on them. If school boards had only two bus runs to do, one

in the morning and one at night, the districts would not have to pay the drivers so much money.

As of now, the district pays for the drivers to do two morning runs, and two sometimes three

night runs. With all children going to school at one time it would cut down on pay for bus

drivers. This would result in the most cost-effective method for districts. Most children ride

buses, or have older siblings to take them to school. Rides would not and should not be a

problem with school start times. "Sleep deprivation is linked with car crashes for all drivers and

is particular problem for teenagers"(Wahlstrom 6). Less sleep makes reaction times slower for

anyone. "Lack of rest is linked to increased risks of depression, car accidents, and other serious

problems" (George 1). Teens, and younger kids are walking out into the road to get on the bus, or

drive out on the road to get to school. Children that are not getting enough sleep aren't just a

danger to themselves, but other people around them.

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Furthermore, teens are getting themselves into serious trouble lately. All people see in

the news is how teens are dying from drugs, robbing stores, or even killing people! Most of this

could be avoided if they were to get more sleep at night. The teens would not feel the need to

take drugs to keep them awake or focused. They would not feel the need to take things, or be
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violent towards others because of the sleep deprivation. More teens and children would be less

crazy, and do bad things. Also, with having later start times, there would be "a significant

decrease in absences and tardiness"(Wahlstrom 1). With less absences the children will know

what is going on in classes. There would not be as many failing, or not knowing what to do in a

class. "Hughes teenage son has long struggles to wake up and was often a few minutes tardy for

school, she said. She says his mornings are markedly better and he gets to school on

time."(George 3). If there is less tardiness there would be less children in detention, and also

more kids being able to do after school activities without having to worry about going to

detention. With the children coming home a little later the school can know that the parents will

be home and able to get them off the bus. Also, with parents being home during the time their

children are, more homework and studying would get done. Most parents are not at home when

their kids first get home so they cannot be there to help do homework, or to help and make sure

they study. When kids come home they don't do their homework and then they do not know what

is going on because they dont have help. iiiBetter grades mean more funding for the school, why

would the school not want to get more funds?

Right now, schools are not doing so great on standardized test. Better grades on the tests

would mean the school district gets more funds from the government to provide for things, like

more buses. The school boards say that the cost of buses, and more drivers would be to much for

the schools to pay for. If students did not have to come in till 9:15 the attendance would

skyrocket. With more students coming to school that means they will have more knowledge and

be able to get amazing grades on standardized test. Schools use the funds from the standardized

test grades to pay for important, more needy things that schools need. "Delaying the start times

of middle schools that currently open at 7:30 by one hour would increase math and reading
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scores by 2 to 3 percentile points"( Edwards 5). With just that little of time, students have

improved greatly! Only imagine if schools started at 9:15 what the math and reading scores

would be! Students prove that they perform better later in the morning than they do right at 8:00

am. "Students who start school one hour later watch 12 fewer minutes of television per day and

spend 9 minutes more on homework per week"(Edwards 5).

In conclusion, school should start later to improve students' brain function and impact

better grades. There is a bunch of reasons why later school start times are amazing! Students

school attendance would be better, and also the tardiness would go down. Children would not

feel so rushed in the mornings and would be able to actually eat breakfast, and get to school on

time. Teens would not get themselves into as much trouble if they got their 8 hours of sleep each

night. There could also be less buses, and less money to pay to the drivers if all schools started at

the same time, 9:15. The results on many tests have suggested that having later start times would

increase test scores, and be the most cost- effective method for student performance. Everyone

would be happier with later start times including teachers, students and parents.
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Works Cited

Edwards, Finley. "Do Schools Begin Too Early?" Education Next. President & Fellows of

Harvard College, 25 Dec. 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

George, Donna St. "Debate over School Start times Flares Anew." The Washington Post. WP

Company, 01 Jan. 2017. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

Wahlstrom, Kyla L. "Later Start Time for Teens Improves Grades, Mood, and Safety."

Kappanonline.org. Phi Delta Kappan, 28 Nov. 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

i Rhetorical Question- the question was answered in the sentences after

ii Climax- sentences get more intense as the paragraph goes on.

iii Hypophora- posed a question