The attempt to make significant changes in education systems is often likened to trying to change the course of a supertanker ship – with the inertia for the present course being extraordinarily powerful and with changes often occurring only in small degrees. Such is the case for attempting to change the current start time for high schools. The path toward making that change is replete with real and presumed obstacles in the form of facts and misperceptions.

The School Start Time Study, presented here, was initiated at the request of several school superintendents and was completed with the administrative and financial support of seventeen school superintendents in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. Information was gathered from participating school districts about the issues and impact of a potential change in the starting time for their high schools. The perspectives of key stakeholder groups, including students, teachers, parents, school administrators, and community members, were sought. They responded to concerns in the areas of transportation, athletics and other school activities, community education, food service, human resources and contractual agreements, elementary school start time, and crime statistics.

In particular, one suburban school district (Edina) in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area shifted its high schools to a later start time for the 1996–1997 school year. Its experiences provide vital information because the residents are living with a school start time change. Included in this report is a brief case study of the Edina school district.