PTA Meeting: Community Feedback on Proposal to Eliminate 0 Period

What

PTA Meeting: Community Feedback on Proposal to Eliminate 0 Period

When

3/7/2013, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Where

AMS Library

The PTA is sponsoring a presentation from the AUSD Wellness Committee and the AUSD Mental Health Department. The focus will be on the research related to the benefits of sleep for adolescents. Please mark your calendars for more information and an opportunity to provide input.

The full text of the proposal is as follows:

Albany Middle School: Proposal to cancel zero period music classes and schedule them into the regular school day. --Background
by
Peter I. Parenti
Principal, Albany Middle School

Proposal
Albany Middle School is considering a change in the scheduling of the zero period music classes. Currently, there are two separate groups of music students who take classes every other day. The current start time is 7:00am. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the Symphonic Band meets. There are currently 44 students enrolled. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the Concert Band meets. There are currently 32 students enrolled. The proposal is to cancel these zero period classes and to reschedule these two groups so they meet every day within the regular school schedule.

Background
The AUSD Wellness Committee is comprised of parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community members from our schools. They have focussed their attention on topics directly related to sleep cycles and the effects of later start times for adolescent students. The Albany High School Instructional Improvement Council (AHS IIC) has been considering a change in their start times for high school from the current 7:40 am to a later start time. Both the Wellness Committee and the AHS IIC are continuing their efforts to engage the community and to facilitate an informed decision based on current research and the needs of our students. In many ways, the AHS and AMS proposals are similar. However, AMS will also be attentive to the different implications that these proposals have to each of their respective school communities.

Decision-Making Process
This document synthesizes the available research on the topic. It is designed to provide a knowledge-based for public input through the shared governance committees at AMS including School Site Council, PTA, Staff Leadership Team, General AMS Faculty Meeting, and the Associated Student Body. Each representative group will discuss the issue and provide feedback. The Principal will gather the input from all sources, and will make a recommendation about the proposal. The final proposal will be forwarded to the Superintendent and the Board for consideration.

Research Summary (Courtesy of Ted Barone, AHS Principal)
A large body of empirical research has found that the onset of puberty brings about a significant delay in individual sleep/wake cycles. This phenomenon is called Delayed Phase Preference (DPP). In other words, the natural circadian rhythm of teenagers is to go to sleep later and wake up later (Kirby, Maggi, & D’Angiulli, 2011; Owens, Belon, & Moss, 2010).
This DPP is a result of a melatonin hormone secretion that begins in puberty. The average adolescent in the U.S. has difficulty falling asleep before 11 pm and needs about 9 hours of sleep, so the ideal wake time is 8 am. However, 80% of adolescents get less than the recommended 9 hours. Therefore, with current school start times, the typical student is at risk of impairments in mood, attention, memory, behavioral control, quality of life, and academic performance (Owens et al., 2010).
It isn’t enough to simply catch up on weekends. Throughout the week, sleep debt, or cumulative sleep loss, decreases a students’ ability to concentrate, causes memory lapses and difficulties in accomplishing tasks that require planning or a complex sequence of actions, and decreases creative thought (Kirby et al., 2011).
A variety of studies examined the impact of later school start times on academic achievement and other indicators of student well-being. Data from a 6-year study of middle school students in North Carolina found a significant increase in standardized test scores that was correlated with a later start (Edwards, 2012). Both math and reading scores increased 2 percentile points and the effect was even greater for lower performing students. The magnitude of the effect was similar to the difference in scores for one additional year of parent education. It was also similar to the effect of smaller class sizes, although at a much lower cost. The researchers also found that the positive effect was persistent. In other words, the increases in scores that were present in 8th grade were also present at 10th grade. There was no fall off.
An oft-cited study of 7 Minneapolis high schools that changed their start times from 7:15 to 8:40 found similar results (Kirby et al., 2011). Interestingly they found that students used the extra time in the morning for actual sleep, attendance rates went up and there was a reduction in disciplinary problems.
In the Minneapolis study, concerns were raised about the impact of a later start on families where the high school sibling babysits younger siblings after school; impacts on employee schedules; on extracurricular and athletic activities; and on student part-time jobs. The study found that broad consultation of the community about the decision to change the schedule increased buy-in and mitigated the negative impact as families were better prepared to plan, and extracurricular activities were scheduled to start later.
While I was unable to find research that directly connected later school start times with athletic performance, there is a large body of research that illustrates the connection between sleep duration and quality with athletic performance. A particularly informative review of the literature concludes that the procedural memory required for athletic sports is weakened by lack of sleep, with detrimental effects on performance (Walker, Stickgold 2005).
An international study focused on high school programs in New Jersey and Wenzhou, China corroborated the previously described results. This study verified the claim that early start times correlated to poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness and napping, sleep duration of less than 7 hours, reduced school performance, increased irritability, alertness and health (Xue, 2012).
A multi-year study of Freshmen at the U.S. Air Force Academy found that a group of students randomly assigned to an 8:00 class performed significantly worse in classes throughout the day, as compared to students not assigned to the early class, not just the early morning class (Carrell, 2011).
The only study I found that had contradictory results focused on ACT data from the same Minneapolis study cited above and found no impact of school starting times on achievement (Hinrichs, 2011). The researchers noted that the ACT had participation rates around 60% among high school graduates in Minnesota, thus a large percentage of the student population was not represented, particularly the lower achieving students for whom the positive impact of a later start was found, in other studies, to be the greatest.

Conclusion
The positive implications of a later school start time are well-supported in the research. They include positive impacts on academic achievement, attendance rates, student discipline, health, and safety. While there may be some negative consequences, particularly for scheduling other elective courses, most of the issues can be mitigated through careful planning and scheduling.

Bibliography
Carrell, S. (2011). A’s from Zzzz’s? The Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 3, 62–81.

Edwards, F. (2012). Early to rise? The effect of daily start time on academic performance. Economics of Education Review, 31, 970–983.

Hinrichs, P. (2011). When the Bell Tolls: The Effects of School Starting Times on Academic Achievement. Ecucationan Finance and Policy, 6(4), 486–507.

Kirby, M., Maggi, S., & D’Angiulli, A. (2011). School start times and the sleep-wake cycle of adolescents: a review and critical evaluation of available evidence. Educational Researcher, 40(2), 56–61.

Owens, J., Belon, K., & Moss, P. (2010). Impact of delaying start time on adolescent sleep, mood, and behavior. Archive of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 164(7), 608–614.

Walker, M., & Stickgold, R. (2005). It's Practice, with Sleep, that Makes Perfect: Implications for Sleep-Dependent Learning and Plasticity for Skill Performance. Clinics in Sports Medicine 24, 301-317

Xue, M. (2012). Sleep Health Problems in Adolescents. Sleep Disorders and Therapy, 1(4), e111.