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Is homework beneficial?

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Should Corporal Punishment Be Used in K-12 Schools?

(Corporal punishment is defined as a “physical punishment” and a “punishment that involves hitting someone.)

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents Ask the Chatbot a Question

Con 1: Too much homework can be harmful.

A poll of California high-school students found that 59% thought they had too much homework. 82% of respondents said that they were "often or always stressed by schoolwork." High-achieving high-school students said too much homework leads to sleep deprivation and other health problems such as headaches, exhaustion, weight loss, and stomach problems.[24][28][29]

Alfie Kohn, an education and parenting expert, said, "Kids should have a chance to just be kids...it's absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow." [27]

Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, explained, "More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies."[48]

Excessive homework can also lead to cheating: 90% of middle-school students and 67% of high-school students admit to copying someone else's homework, and 43% of college students engaged in "unauthorized collaboration" on out-of-class assignments. Even parents take shortcuts on homework: 43% of those surveyed admitted to having completed a child's assignment for them.[30][31][32]

Con 2: Homework exacerbates the digital divide, or homework gap.

Kiara Taylor, a financial expert, defined the digital divide as "the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology and those that don't. Though the term now encompasses the technical and financial ability to utilize available technology-along with access (or a lack of access) to the Internet-the gap it refers to is constantly shifting with the development of technology." For students, this is often called the homework gap. [50][51]

30% (about 15 to 16 million) public school students either did not have an adequate internet connection or an appropriate device, or both, for distance learning. Completing homework for these students is more complicated (having to find a safe place with an internet connection, or borrowing a laptop, for example) or impossible.[51]

A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study found that 96.5% of students across the country needed to use the internet for homework, and nearly half reported they were sometimes unable to complete their homework due to lack of access to the internet or a computer, which often resulted in lower grades.[37][38]

One study concluded that homework increases social inequality because it "potentially serves as a mechanism to further advantage those students who already experience some privilege in the school system while further disadvantaging those who may already be in a marginalized position." [39]

Con 3: Homework does not help younger students and may not help high-school students.

We've known for a while that homework does not help elementary students. A 2006 study found that "homework had no association with achievement gains" when measured by standardized tests results or grades. [7]

Fourth-grade students who did no homework got roughly the same score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam as those who did 30 minutes of homework a night. Students who did 45 minutes or more of homework a night actually did worse. [41]

Temple University professor Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said that homework is not the most effective tool for young learners to apply new information: "They're learning way more important skills when they're not doing their homework." [42]

In fact, homework may not be helpful at the high-school level either. Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth, stated, "I interviewed high school teachers who completely stopped giving homework and there was no downside, it was all upside." He explains, "just because the same kids who get more homework do a little better on tests, doesn't mean the homework made that happen." [52]

Discussion Questions

1. Is homework beneficial? Consider the study data, your personal experience, and other types of information. Explain your answer(s).

2. If homework were banned, what other educational strategies would help students learn classroom lessons? Explain your answer(s).

3. How has homework been helpful to you personally? How has homework been unhelpful to you personally? Make carefully considered lists for both sides.

Take Action

Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the "other side of the issue" now helps you better argue your position.

Sources

1. Tom Loveless, "Homework in America: Part II of the 2014 Brown Center Report of American Education," brookings.edu, Mar. 18, 2014

2. Edward Bok, "A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents," The Ladies Home Journal, Jan. 1900

3. Tim Walker, "The Great Homework Debate: What's Getting Lost in the Hype," neatoday.org, Sep. 23, 2015

4. University of Phoenix College of Education, "Homework Anxiety: Survey Reveals How Much Homework K-12 Students Are Assigned and Why Teachers Deem It Beneficial," phoenix.edu, Feb. 24, 2014

5. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), "PISA in Focus No. 46: Does Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education?," oecd.org, Dec. 2014

6. Adam V. Maltese, Robert H. Tai, and Xitao Fan, "When is Homework Worth the Time?: Evaluating the Association between Homework and Achievement in High School Science and Math," The High School Journal, 2012

7. Harris Cooper, Jorgianne Civey Robinson, and Erika A. Patall, "Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Research, 1987-2003," Review of Educational Research, 2006

8. Gökhan Bas, Cihad Sentürk, and Fatih Mehmet Cigerci, "Homework and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research," Issues in Educational Research, 2017

9. Huiyong Fan, Jianzhong Xu, Zhihui Cai, Jinbo He, and Xitao Fan, "Homework and Students' Achievement in Math and Science: A 30-Year Meta-Analysis, 1986-2015," Educational Research Review, 2017

10. Charlene Marie Kalenkoski and Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, "Does High School Homework Increase Academic Achievement?," iza.og, Apr. 2014

11. Ron Kurtus, "Purpose of Homework," school-for-champions.com, July 8, 2012

12. Harris Cooper, "Yes, Teachers Should Give Homework - The Benefits Are Many," newsobserver.com, Sep. 2, 2016

13. Tammi A. Minke, "Types of Homework and Their Effect on Student Achievement," repository.stcloudstate.edu, 2017

14. LakkshyaEducation.com, "How Does Homework Help Students: Suggestions From Experts," LakkshyaEducation.com (accessed Aug. 29, 2018)

15. University of Montreal, "Do Kids Benefit from Homework?," teaching.monster.com (accessed Aug. 30, 2018)

16. Glenda Faye Pryor-Johnson, "Why Homework Is Actually Good for Kids," memphisparent.com, Feb. 1, 2012

17. Joan M. Shepard, "Developing Responsibility for Completing and Handing in Daily Homework Assignments for Students in Grades Three, Four, and Five," eric.ed.gov, 1999

18. Darshanand Ramdass and Barry J. Zimmerman, "Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework," Journal of Advanced Academics, 2011

19. U.S. Department of Education, "Let's Do Homework!," ed.gov (accessed Aug. 29, 2018)

20. Loretta Waldman, "Sociologist Upends Notions about Parental Help with Homework," phys.org, Apr. 12, 2014

21. Frances L. Van Voorhis, "Reflecting on the Homework Ritual: Assignments and Designs," Theory Into Practice, June 2010

22. Roel J. F. J. Aries and Sofie J. Cabus, "Parental Homework Involvement Improves Test Scores? A Review of the Literature," Review of Education, June 2015

23. Jamie Ballard, "40% of People Say Elementary School Students Have Too Much Homework," yougov.com, July 31, 2018

24. Stanford University, "Stanford Survey of Adolescent School Experiences Report: Mira Costa High School, Winter 2017," stanford.edu, 2017

25. Cathy Vatterott, "Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs," ascd.org, 2009

26. End the Race, "Homework: You Can Make a Difference," racetonowhere.com (accessed Aug. 24, 2018)

27. Elissa Strauss, "Opinion: Your Kid Is Right, Homework Is Pointless. Here's What You Should Do Instead.," cnn.com, Jan. 28, 2020

28. Jeanne Fratello, "Survey: Homework Is Biggest Source of Stress for Mira Costa Students," digmb.com, Dec. 15, 2017

29. Clifton B. Parker, "Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework," stanford.edu, Mar. 10, 2014

30. AdCouncil, "Cheating Is a Personal Foul: Academic Cheating Background," glass-castle.com (accessed Aug. 16, 2018)

31. Jeffrey R. Young, "High-Tech Cheating Abounds, and Professors Bear Some Blame," chronicle.com, Mar. 28, 2010

32. Robin McClure, "Do You Do Your Child's Homework?," verywellfamily.com, Mar. 14, 2018

33. Robert M. Pressman et al., "Homework and Family Stress: With Consideration of Parents' Self Confidence, Educational Level, and Cultural Background," The American Journal of Family Therapy, 2015

34. Heather Koball and Yang Jiang, "Basic Facts about Low-Income Children," nccp.org, Jan. 2018

35. Meagan McGovern, "Homework Is for Rich Kids," huffingtonpost.com, Sep. 2, 2016

36. H. Richard Milner IV, "Not All Students Have Access to Homework Help," nytimes.com, Nov. 13, 2014

37. Claire McLaughlin, "The Homework Gap: The 'Cruelest Part of the Digital Divide'," neatoday.org, Apr. 20, 2016

38. Doug Levin, "This Evening's Homework Requires the Use of the Internet," edtechstrategies.com, May 1, 2015

39. Amy Lutz and Lakshmi Jayaram, "Getting the Homework Done: Social Class and Parents' Relationship to Homework," International Journal of Education and Social Science, June 2015

40. Sandra L. Hofferth and John F. Sandberg, "How American Children Spend Their Time," psc.isr.umich.edu, Apr. 17, 2000

41. Alfie Kohn, "Does Homework Improve Learning?," alfiekohn.org, 2006

42. Patrick A. Coleman, "Elementary School Homework Probably Isn't Good for Kids," fatherly.com, Feb. 8, 2018

43. Valerie Strauss, "Why This Superintendent Is Banning Homework - and Asking Kids to Read Instead," washingtonpost.com, July 17, 2017

44. Pew Research Center, "The Way U.S. Teens Spend Their Time Is Changing, but Differences between Boys and Girls Persist," pewresearch.org, Feb. 20, 2019

45. ThroughEducation, "The History of Homework: Why Was It Invented and Who Was behind It?," througheducation.com, Feb. 14, 2020

46. History, "Why Homework Was Banned," history.com (accessed Feb. 24, 2022)

47. Valerie Strauss, "Does Homework Work When Kids Are Learning All Day at Home?," washingtonpost.com, Sep. 2, 2020

48. Sara M Moniuszko, "Is It Time to Get Rid of Homework? Mental Health Experts Weigh In," usatoday.com, Aug. 17, 2021

49. Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer, "The Worsening Homework Problem," theatlantic.com, Apr. 13, 2021

50. Kiara Taylor, "Digital Divide," investopedia.com, Feb. 12, 2022

51. Marguerite Reardon, "The Digital Divide Has Left Millions of School Kids Behind," cnet.com, May 5, 2021

52. Rachel Paula Abrahamson, "Why More and More Teachers Are Joining the Anti-Homework Movement," today.com, Sep. 10, 2021

53. Jay Mathews, "How false reports of homework overload in America have spread so far," washingtonpost.com, May 8, 2022

54. Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica, "How Much Homework Is Enough? Depends Who You Ask," EducationWeek, April 19, 2018

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Homework | Pros, Cons, Arguments, Debate, School, Education, & Students | Britannica

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Corporal Punishment | Pros, Cons, Debate, Arguments, Education, Schools, Abuse, & Spanking | Britannica

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Should corporal punishment be used in K-12 schools? Learn the pros and cons of the debate.

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As schools across the country continue to struggle with the academic and mental wellness fallout of the pandemic, many educators and district administrators are rethinking some of the mainstays that have defined public schools for decades, including homework, technology, and the length of the school day and week.

One potential change that generated momentum even before the pandemic is later school start times. According to the most recent federal data (2017-18), U.S. public high schools began their day at 8:00 a.m., on average. Forty-two percent of schools started earlier, including 10 percent-predominantly suburban schools-before 7:30 a.m.

These start times are too early, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Middle and high schools should start at 8:30 a.m. or later to give students the opportunity to get the sleep they need.

Over the past decade, a consensus formed among researchers that later school times would benefit student sleep patterns, which would enable them to walk into class more alert and more prepared for learning. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends teenagers, ages 13 to 18, should regularly sleep 8 to 10 hours per night for good health. Students without enough sleep are more likely to suffer from symptoms of depression, perform poorly in school, and not engage in daily physical activity.

Proponents believe the post-COVID school climate makes a shift to later school start times even more urgent. With stress and mental health challenges on the rise, later start times are seen as a relatively pain-free step in making schools healthier and happier places for students.

Still, later school start times can have ripple effects in school districts and the impact will not be felt equally by all students, families, and educators. Addressing these potential drawbacks and listening to all stakeholders is critical, experts say, before districts take this step.

What the Research Says

The existing research makes a compelling case that changing school start times can encourage healthier sleep. A 2018 study that looked at two public schools in Seattle found that students' sleep increased an average of 34 minutes each night after start times were moved nearly an hour later.

Students' academic performance, at least in the biology course that was the focus of the study, also improved. Among students whose start times were delayed, final grades were 4.5 percent higher, compared with students who took the class when school started earlier.

"School start time has serious implications for how students learn and perform in their education....To ask a teen to be up and alert at 7:30 a.m. is like asking an adult to be active and alert at 5:30 a.m.," said Horacio de la Iglesia, who co-authored the study. "Adolescents are on one schedule. The question is: What schedule will their schools be on?"

Another recent study painted a more modest picture of the academic benefits. In 2021, researchers at the University of Minnesota looked at 18,000 students in grades 5 through 11 after four school districts postponed the start of their school day by 20 to 65 minutes. Students' grade point averages increased by a modest 0.1 points, on average. While the researchers categorized the sleep benefits as "large," the academic improvements were considered "small."

But what do we know about the effect of later start times on educators? In 2022, researchers found that middle and high school teachers at a suburban school district in Colorado felt less stressed and more rested three years after the high schools started 70 minutes later and the middle school began 40-60 minutes later.

"Later secondary school start times is a significant policy shift that not only improves the health and well-being of adolescents, but can also equalize healthy sleep duration for all K-12 teachers," the researchers concluded.

Early Starts Show No Impact on Elementary Students

Like the Colorado district evaluated by this study, districts may need to move elementary school start times earlier to accommodate later times among middle and especially high schools. Staggering these start times can alleviate the potential logistical complications of this transition-particularly in areas where the number of school buses is limited.

Later start time initiatives focus on middle and high school students because that is the age group more susceptible to the ill effects of inadequate sleep. A study released in October by the American Educational Research Association found that early school start times do not have a discernible negative impact on elementary school students.

"We found earlier start times for elementary schoolers do not have the same negative effects as they do for middle and high schoolers," said study co-author Sarah Crittenden Fuller, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Moving elementary schools to earlier start times is unlikely to harm the educational outcomes of these younger students." (Similarly, the study in Colorado on teacher impact reported no ill effects on elementary educators after their schools implemented an earlier start time.)

Fuller and her colleagues also noted that school start times have the largest impact on traditionally disadvantaged groups and that those groups are most likely to be affected by the disruption of a later start time.

"To the extent that districts can change start times to bring middle and high school start times in line with the science on adolescent sleep, this may help close achievement gaps," said Fuller. "In addition, traditionally disadvantaged groups may benefit most from supports that schools and districts can provide to address disruptions in childcare and transportation created by a change in start times."

Not for Every Student and Family

Those potential disruptions will be monitored in California, where in 2019 lawmakers passed a law mandating districts not begin public high school any earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle school earlier than 8 a.m. The law went into effect in September, affecting roughly 3 million students.

Later start time advocates praised the law as a huge step forward for students and predicted it would motivate other states to follow suit.

Indeed, other large states have proposals that duplicate, even exceed, the reach of the California law, including Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. New York's bill, for example, would mandate that no school can start earlier than 8:30 am.

Despite the widespread popularity of the idea of later school start times, the California law is controversial.

Many educators, district leaders, and parents believe the shift will present significant operational and logistical challenges, complicate the scheduling of after-school extra-curricular activities, and disrupt the schedules of working parents. Both the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the California Schools Board Association opposed the measure on these grounds, also citing the erosion of local control and a failure to respect parental decisions and community input.

When the bill was being debated in 2019, CTA called attention to the challenges facing low-income families with less workplace flexibility. "We know from experience that many of these parents will drop their children off at school at the same time they do now, regardless of whether there is supervision, and there is not enough funding from the state for before school programs to ensure the safety of students who will be dropped off early," CTA spokeswoman Claudia Briggs told the Los Angeles Times.

"Traditionally disadvantaged groups may benefit most from supports that schools and districts can provide to address disruptions in childcare and transportation created by a change in start times."

Sarah Crittenden Fuller, University of North Carolina

Adriana Aguilar, a parent of two and a resource teacher in the San Ysidro school district near San Diego, has had to adjust her morning and afternoon schedule but, thanks to the support of her husband and family, is managing. She worries that many other parents may not have the same flexibility.

"This new time may benefit teenagers, but it does not accommodate the lifestyles of single-parent families, families with multiple children who attend different schools, and families where both parents work," she told the San Diego Tribune in August. At her school, Aguilar says the later dismissal times also affects students who participate in sports and other after-school activities.

Overall, she says the move to later start times is well-intentioned but, in her experience, student schedules/activities, and lack of proper nutrition play just a big a role in inadequate sleep.

"Until these topics are addressed, teens will continue to be unfocused and fatigued regardless of school start time."

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Later School Start Times More Popular, But What Are the Drawbacks? | NEA

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Middle and high school students need more sleep to be prepared for school. Although later school start times can help, districts should be careful in how they implement this major change to student and family schedules.

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CommonLit is a nonprofit that has everything teachers and schools need for top-notch literacy instruction: a full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and formative data.

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CommonLit | Should Your School Day Start Later? by Steph Smith | CommonLit

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For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser. CommonLit is a nonprofit that has everything teachers and schools need for top-notch literacy instruction: a full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and formative data.

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A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

"Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education.

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

"The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.

"This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

"Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations - some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" - it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

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A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study.

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Key Lessons: What Research Says About the Value of Homework

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How much homework is too much? Not enough? Who should get it? These are just a few of the questions that have been debated over the years. While the research produces mixed results, there are some findings that can help inform decisions about homework.

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Corporal Punishment in Schools Still Legal in Many States | NEA

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The practice has been prohibited in most states, but corporal punishment is still being used to discipline students. The calls to ban it nationwide are growing louder.

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Corporal or physical punishment is highly prevalent globally, both in homes and schools. Evidence shows that it is linked to a range of both short- and long-term negative outcomes for children across countries and cultures. Rather than being an effective method to improve child behaviour, corporal punishment is linked to increases children’s behavioural problems over time and is shown to have no positive outcomes. Corporal punishment and the associated harms are preventable through multisectoral and multifaceted approaches, including law reform, changing harmful norms around child rearing and punishment, parent and caregiver support, and school-based programming.

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School corporal punishment in global perspective: prevalence, outcomes, and efforts at intervention

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School corporal punishment continues to be a legal means of disciplining children in a third of the world’s countries. Although much is known about parents’ use of corporal punishment, there is les…

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Cherry Hill Public Schools - Start Time PSA

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Why Do American Schools Have Such Long Hours?

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Finding the Best Evidence with "Do Kids Need Homework?" (click "next" once you open) 

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Finding the Best Evidence with "Do Kids Need Homework?" (click "next" once you open) 

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As a career student, there have been many instances where I’ve been forced to question the value of seemingly asinine academic tasks. In order to coerce headstrong scholars such as myself into doing things they see no merit in doing, teachers will frequently use the excuse, “You’ll need to be able to do this in the future.” However, this rarely proves to be true.

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The debate over school start times often focuses on the many reasons school should start later. However, there are plenty of debate arguments for why school should actually start earlier.
Here are 10 possible reasons why schools should stick with an earlier start time.

1. Cuts transportation costs

2. Gets students to school faster

3. Has benefits for work schedules

4. Lets districts pool resources more effectively

5. Allows more free time

6. Creates academic advantages

7. Is safer for travel

8. Allows for afterschool jobs

9. Establishes a routine

10. Prompts a healthy lifestyle

11. There are no clear benefits of starting later

12. Students don't see their parents as much

13. Allows time for after-school sports

14. Negates the need for daylight savings time

15. Allows teachers to do more with their day

Starting earlier has benefits for kids of all ages and serves the additional purpose of saving the school district a good amount of money. The rest of this article will discuss the benefits of starting school early.

Get a Pdf of this article for class

Reasons Why School should Start Earlier

1. Early Start Times Cost Less for Schools
One of the main reasons schools haven't instituted later start times is the associated costs.
For example, Greenwich school district conducted studies into pushing back start times after reading the evidence supporting later start times. However, they found that any scenario would lead to increased costs. Here was one key finding:

"Pushing every school's start back by 30 minutes to 90 minutes would involve between 10 and 19 extra buses, requiring an additional outlay each year from approximately $760,000 to some $1.5 million."

Similarly, staggered bus routes - where high schools start earlier and elementary schools stay the same - would lead to more time for the busses to complete their routes, but would increase costs for insurance, fuel, and wages for drivers.

2. Students can Skip the Traffic
As well as saving the school money on fuel, early morning start times help to avoid the traffic.
Avoiding traffic has abundant benefits. For one thing, it will mean there is less of a chance that the busses and cars will get caught in traffic jams, meaning students will theoretically turn up to class on time more often.

This does, of course, assume that students will make it to the earlier bus and not accidentally sleep in.

However, keep in mind that if everyone starts driving on the roads earlier to get their kids to school, the traffic may shift with the changes in school times, negating this benefit.

3. Has Benefits for Work Schedules
Another good benefit of starting school earlier is that it can blend more effectively with parents work schedules.
For students who can't be left unattended, parents have to pay out of pocket for daycare or babysitting services if they leave the house well before their child is picked up for school.

An earlier start could mean that parents can get the students to school and then get on with their days - going to work, doing early shopping, and so forth.

Of course, the downside here is that an early start time may lead to an early ending time, which just pushes back the scheduling clashes into the afternoon.

4. It Lets Districts Pool Resources More Effectively
There's always a need for good bus drivers, and sharing buses is common practice in a school district.
Unfortunately, buses are expensive to run and can only be used for one route at a time. Starting earlier in the morning, particularly for grade students, allows busses to be available for picking up students who have later start times.

If all students began at the same time, the district would need to have buses and drivers available to meet the demand for all those students at the same time.

By giving grade school students an earlier start, the rest of the district has transportation resources available for students.

However, as noted earlier, this would also be associated with higher costs for transit.

5. Allows More Free Time
Between school, jobs, and team practices, students today are swamped with work. This leads to the concept of the over-scheduled child.
While starting early might be a bit of a bummer for them, doing so ensures that they finish earlier, too, allowing them to pursue afterschool activities, manage homework, and still enjoy their free time without feeling like they have no personal time.

By giving children more free time, they may in fact get time to play, be creative, and potentially even get more sleep (Glauser, 2018).

6. You Get More into the Day
Starting early means you can fit more into your day. And while adults often burn out part-way through the day, adolescents can power through well into the afternoon.
As a result, by sending children to school early, we can get them to fit more into their days, and even potentially open up debates about having 4-day school weeks.

This reasoning is likely why schools do start so early, with 93% of high schools and over 80% of middle schools starting prior to 8:30a.m.

(Note: For a counterargument, consider the abundance of evidence showing school-age children's brainpower is best around mid-morning - see: Dikker et al., 2020).

7. Is Safer for Travel
People advocating for later school starts often point out that sleep deprivation makes early morning driving dangerous for teenagers (Taheri & Arabameri, 2012).
While this evaluation is correct, it doesn't consider the other side of the proverbial coin: later commutes home from work are also dangerous, especially in urban environments.

Starting school earlier may be able to give students space to drive to and from school with less traffic which could make the streets safer.

8. Allows for Afterschool Jobs
For high school students preparing for the future, an afterschool job is a major part of growing their savings early.
Schools that start earlier are usually finished in time for high school students to pick up a part time job in their local area.

Not only does a job earn them valuable money for college, but it also teaches them discipline and responsibility in a work environment.

9. Establishes a Routine
Establishing a routine is difficult as an adult, much less as a child, but for students of all ages, establishing an "early to bed, early to rise" mentality has numerous health benefits.
It enables students to mentally prepare themselves for the day and set up a routine to transition into adulthood.

Getting up early ensures that students are ready for a bed at a decent time, avoiding some risky situations often associated with detrimental behavior.

10. Prompts a Healthy Lifestyle
Schools starting earlier not only helps students establish a morning routine, but it also benefits their lifestyle as whole.
Students who adapt to getting up early, preparing for the day, and balancing their daily schedule are more prepared for adulthood.

Creating a healthy school-life balance by understanding what's expected of them, tackling homework, and participating in extra-curricular activities translates to a healthy work-life balance in the future.

11. There's no Clear Benefit to Starting Later
While there is some scattered evidence of making school start times later, the most extensive systematic review on this topic found there isn't enough evidence to make start times later.
In other words, if you're debating the topic of school start times and you're on the side of earlier start times, make sure you argue at least the point that there's no need to make start times later.

As Marx et al. (2017, p. 10) argue in their systematic review:

"We cannot be confident about the effects of later school start times."

Therefore, there needs to be much clearer and far less biased studies on school start times before making school start times later.

12. Students may see their parents more
A study (Hinrichs, 2011) of schools that start later found that late start times lead to less interaction between children and their parents.
The study found:

"...later school start times may be associated with decreased morning interactions between parents and children." (Marx et al., 2017, p. 43)

An earlier start time, on the other hand, may lead to more interaction because the parents and children will have more evening and afternoon time to spend together.

Here, the assumption is that late start times just mean the children sleep in; while early start times mean the children get up, get their day done, and then can spend some time with their families.

13. Allows time for after-school developmental activities
If school starts earlier and ends earlier, then society can start structuring after-school activities for children that allow for holistic development of children.
This may include structuring mid-afternoon sessions for children's development in sporting, play, creative, artistic, and musical pursuits.

We could envisage a world where formal schooling ends and students go on to structured activities of their choice associated with pursuing their creative or sporting interests. This may help to raise a society that's not just focused on academic standards, but also a more holistic experience of the diverse range of human pursuits.

14. Negates the need for daylight savings time
The rationale for daylight savings time is to allow people to have one extra hour of light in the evening during summer.
There is ample debate about the value of daylight savings time. But if students started and ended school earlier, then there wouldn't be a need to squeeze an extra hour of sunlight into the day for children's activities.

As a result, we can reduce one more argument about the benefits of daylight savings time.

15. Allows teachers to do more with their day
If teachers can finish their day of work by 2pm, they could schedule extra things into their afternoons.
At the moment, teachers spend their nights preparing classes for the next day. This can make their work-life balance very poor.

But if teachers finish their school day by 2pm, they can spend the next 3 hours preparing their next day's classes and not bring school work home with them. This will increase their time with their families in the evenings.

Furthermore, as a teacher, I get frustrated that I can never book appointments at the bank or with the dentist because I am always working when they were open. But if I can get off work at 2pm, I can finally get to those appointments.

Conclusion

Transitioning to an early schedule can be challenging for many students, but at the end of the day, it's often a decision made to benefit the school district as a whole.

Cutting back on transportation costs, pooling resources, and staggering busloads to and from school are some of the main reasons that schools, particularly grade schools, start so early in the morning.

References

Dikker, S., Haegens, S., Bevilacqua, D., Davidesco, I., Wan, L., Kaggen, L., ... & Poeppel, D. (2020). Morning brain: real-world neural evidence that high school class times matter. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 15(11), 1193-1202.

Glauser, W. (2018). Overscheduled and glued to screens-children are sleeping less than ever before. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 190(48). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-5676

Hinrichs, P. (2011). When the bell tolls: The effects of school starting times on academic achievement. Education Finance and Policy, 6(4), 486-507.

Marx, R., Tanner‐Smith, E. E., Davison, C. M., Ufholz, L. A., Freeman, J., Shankar, R., ... & Hendrikx, S. (2017). Later school start times for supporting the education, health, and well‐being of high school students: a systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 13(1), 1-99.

Taheri, M., & Arabameri, E. (2012). The effect of sleep deprivation on choice reaction time and anaerobic power of college student athletes. Asian journal of sports medicine, 3(1), 15.

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15 Reasons Why School Should Start Earlier (Top Benefits!) (2023)

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The debate over school start times often focuses on the many reasons school should start later. However, there are plenty of debate arguments for why school