The Wall Street Journal: “With growing evidence that students are suffering from the intense competition for college admission, schools around the country are rethinking everything from tests to classes to start times.” For example, superintendent David Aderhold of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in central New Jersey “abolished midterms and final exams and instituted a no-homework policy during breaks and some weekends.”
As Mr. Aderhold put it: “We’re not producing widgets. We’re producing citizens of the world.”
“To deal with the problem of sleep deprivation, some schools have adopted later start times. In 2014, researchers at the University of Minnesota examined data collected from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming that had made this shift. The study found that when schools started at 8:30 a.m. or later, teenagers reported lower rates of depression and substance use, fewer car crashes, less absenteeism and tardiness, and higher test scores.”
