PRiME in the NEWS: Courtney Vahle “We need to rethink school start times in Missouri'“

Written By SLU PRiME

In the fall of 2024, PRiME’s Director of Operations, Dr. Courtney Vahle (With co-author, Paul Wunnenberg) took a deep dive into high school start times across Missouri.  After compiling a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive dataset of Missouri high school start times, containing 295 high schools from 230 school districts across the state, the authors found that the Missouri statewide average start time, 7:48 AM, is a full 42 minutes earlier than the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends.

Dr. Vahle in her op ed for St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 

“An 11 p.m. bedtime is more in line with adolescent circadian rhythms and still reasonable with the onslaught of after school activities. Pair that with an 8:30 a.m. start time, and Missouri would enable students to get 8.5 hours of sleep with a 7:30 a.m. wake up and still have an hour to get to school on time. Maintaining precedent is costing our kids sleep. There is a misalignment between current Missouri high school start times and the prioritization of the rest time our students need.”

Link to Original Article

MORE FROM THE PRiME NEWS

Featured
Growth Data Summit News Coverage
Growth Data Summit News Coverage

Last week, the PRiME Center hosted a data summit series to discuss The Missouri Growth Score Model and how it is being used to highlight school and instructional achievement. 

Read More →
Reflections from a Charter School Trailblazer: Collin Hitt and Kelly Garrett sit down to discuss Garrett’s 14 years of leadership at KIPP St. Louis
Reflections from a Charter School Trailblazer: Collin Hitt and Kelly Garrett sit down to discuss Garrett’s 14 years of leadership at KIPP St. Louis

Reflections from a Charter School Trailblazer: Collin Hitt and Kelly Garrett sit down to discuss Garrett’s 14 years of leadership at KIPP St. Louis

Read More →
PRiME In the News: PRiME’s Dr. Courtney Vahle discusses Missouri absenteeism
PRiME In the News: PRiME’s Dr. Courtney Vahle discusses Missouri absenteeism

In April, PRiME’s Director of Operations, Dr. Courtney Vahle, sat down with KOMU 8 and Fox23 NOW to discuss chronic absenteeism and her corresponding co-authored report, Empty Desks: An Analysis of Chronic Absenteeism in Missouri Schools (co-authored with PRiME affiliate researcher, Dr. Margaret Powers).

Read More →
SLU PRiME
Previous

PRiME In the News: Collin Hitt on Homeschooling in Missouri
Next

PRiME in the News: PRiME Growth Scores Featured in STL Magazine