I believe that school start times can have a drastic effect of students learning abilities. I find that during a typical school day it is harder to stay focused in my classes before lunch versus the classes after lunch. It seems as if I am spending all morning trying to wake up. Also I find that when we have two hour early release days I find it much easier to stay focused than on a typical day. However I believe that is due to the fact that I do not have to have as great of an attention span on those days and I get more sleep that night.
I found an Interesting article on The National Sleep foundation's website talking about how sleep deprived teens are. It also mentions how earlier school start times can have a negative effect on academic achievement, social behavior and health of students. However with a later start time other problems arise like sporting event scheduling and parent drop off / pick up schedules. parents and other schools can not change their schedule just to benefit one school. Everyone would have to start later, which could be a disaster. Society needs to decide what is more important, sleep or the same routine. What do you think?