One of the hottest topics in education is time. Does starting school later really motivate students to come to school and get better grades? Does sleeping later at home lead to more attentive students in class?
If you ask sleep scientists and officials at other school districts, the answer isn’t clear. But Florida is betting on it.
Starting in 2026, the school day will begin “no earlier than 8:00 a.m. for middle schools and 8:30 a.m. for high schools,” according to the new law. Florida joins only the state of California in making school start times a state mandate.
Science, Scholars and Teachers on Start Times
We asked students what they think about the new law – especially since Creek is the only high school in the Broward School Disrict to start at 6:55 and end at 1:35. As you might predict, the opinions were split. Some said that starting school later is better than starting earlier. Others we asked actually prefer to start school earlier in the day rather than later for a variety of reasons. First and foremost among them, they say starting school early allows them to have shorter afternoons, giving them more time to do extracurricular activities, or to clock in a few more hours at work.
Four-Day Weeks: Pompano Beach High School Had Success, Broward Could Expand It.
The Broward School District is considering making the same four-day school week that Pompano High School follows the norm for all other high schools. There is no word yet on whether this will happen, but if Popmpano High School is the model, it’s something the decision-makers should take seriously.
Pompano Beach High School started the four-day school week in 1997. It ranks in the top 300 schools in the country in U.S. News and World Report’s annual top high schools list, and is one of the top 25 in Florida. There, Fridays are used for internships, volunteering, mentoring students at other schools, taking optional courses such as SAT preparation or participating in extracurricular activities, according to a South Florida Sun-Seninel interview with Principal Lisa Spencer.
This month, Broward school officials released results of a survey of high school administrators, parents and students to see if there was wide interest in the four-day school week model. Two-thirds of teachers and administrators liked the idea, 80% of parents who responded did, too. But surprisingly, only a small majority of the 21,700 students who were surveyed thought the four-day week was their preference.
Besides Pompano Beach High, another Broward high school tried the four-day option (Blanche Ely) and it didn’t work out as well. After several attempts over the years, the school dropped the program last year when no major benefits could be determined.
Still, teachers are all for it, if the students do more than sleep the day away.
“As long as they (students) are doing something productive and beneficial with their time, then the four-day school week would be a good thing.” said Ms. Tynes.
Ms. Simmons, a job coach at Creek, points out another academic benefit to a four-day schedule.
“No school on Fridays will help with course recovery,” she said.
A later start time increases attendance rates, reduces tardiness, and improves academic performance among teenagers. Whether we go to school four days or five, ultimately, it boils down to finding a balance that considers students’ overall well-being and maximizes their learning potential – after all, isn’t that what education is really about?
