01/21/2026
Did CCSD need to change school start times?
Yesterday, after their announcement, social media weighed in, and today, it's all the buzz at the workplace, particularly in schools.
Let's look at it:
I've seen the comments, and so have you. Some of them are ridiculous, others make valid points that would annoy others.
Personally, I think starting high school later is a good idea, but you can't just DO that, it upsets the whole apple cart. It's OFTEN pointed out that school buses can't be at 2 stops at once.
Sometimes, it's mentioned that high school kids often arrive on city busses. If CCSD used the city bus to move HS kids does that solve a problem or cause a new and more dangerous one?
The survey- I'll include a link so you can see the results yourself.
But- real quick, we chose the second most popular option.
Of the 4 options, neither of them really stood head and shoulders above.
53.8%, 53.6%, 55.3%, 57.4%. We're running with the 55.3% option.
The last time they set times like this, whenever that was, it must've been a serious decision. Balancing sports practice times, bus schedules, after-school work/doctor accessibility, traffic considerations... it's extremely convoluted!
Does Ebert's presentation seem to have considered enough of everything? True, that you can't make everyone happy, but before making a switch like this you have to be sure enough people will be happy. Does 55% float that boat?
In her speech, she says that 60% of the respondents were students.
🚩🚩🚩
She also says there were 48,000 total respondents.
This means that about 29,000 students and 19,000 others provided the data that influenced this change which will effect hundreds of thousands of homes.
I don't know, and neither do you, that the students who completed this survey weren't encouraged, or incentivized to do it. Some of these surveys could have been a substitute for a missing assignment, and we'd never know.
That's the problem with student data, especially student data where there is no consequence for choosing random answers.
Further, most of the students completing this were likely in high school. They're now laughing their heads off because they just convinced the superintendent to make their younger siblings get up early. Talk about a senior prank!
In the one-page summary, the following statement made me stop and read it three times over:
"moving start times one hour later increased adolescent students’ math scores by 8% of a standard deviation"
For those that didn't take statistics, one FULL standard deviation is significant. 8% of significant, is not significant. It's the very definition of trivial, but it looks good!
An unconvincing 55% option, from a small sample size, with a majority of under 18 input, was chosen over a 57% option with the same flaws. Seems the superintendent's vote counts more than 2%, which, in this case is around 1000 responses from the people who pay her.
Just a thought.
Links to sources:
Survey:https://newsroom.ccsd.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/School-Start-Time-Scenario-Results.pdf
The one-pager: https://tinyurl.com/3b6urcc4
The Science of School Start Times New schedules will maximize student learning Research shows that later start times for high school students lead to more sleep, reduced anxiety, and greater alertness, which in turn improve attendance, standardized test scores, and graduation rates. Later ...
