Dozens of school districts around the country have been looking at these studies and are considering ways to adjust their class schedules. Eric Peterson is head of St. George's School, a private boarding school for grades 9-12 in the northeastern state of Rhode Island. After looking at the medical research on adolescent sleep needs and observing students in his own school, Peterson consulted with Dr. Judy Owen, a famous pediatrician   and sleep expert. Armed with what he considered to be convincing data, Peterson decided to change his school's start time from 8:00 am to 8:30 am on a trial basis to see if a 30-minute change would make a difference. He was surprised by the results. "What was really astonishing was how many benefits and how significant the benefits were," he says. "In the research itself, we saw just over a 50 percent decrease in health-center admissions for fatigue, or fatigue-related illness, or rest requests. We saw almost a 35 percent decrease in first-period lateness. Students reported that they were more attentive. They were less sleepy during the day." And, according to Dr. Patricia Moss, assistant dean for Academic Affairs at St. George's School, students weren't the only ones reporting better results in the classroom. She says virtually all the teachers almost immediately noticed much more concentrated in the classroom, and there was definitely a more positive mood all around. "Kids were happier to be there at 8:30 than they were at 8:00," she says. "So our experience across the total spectrum was, universally, extremely positive and surprisingly so." Headmaster Peterson says there was another unexpected area of change when the school changed its start time. "We saw probably a greater than 30 percent increase in student attendance at breakfast, and of the food that they were eating. We ate more than doubled the amount of milk, eggs, fruit and cereal. So it was quality breakfast foods that the kids were eating. So they were better fueled as well as better rested." Ross and Peterson acknowledge that making schedule changes has been easier at a small, private boarding school than it might be for the larger U.S. public school system. But they are hopeful that others will find a way. "In the end," says Peterson, "schools ought to do what's the right thing for their students, first and foremost, and this element of the program is very clear--certain for us as a school--but I think as a general example to other schools, is pretty convincing, and so I would argue that it's worth doing." The research conducted by Eric Peterson mainly focused on   _  .
the later public school start time the change of class schedule adolescent sleep requirements the changes in school system