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Is it a school night?

Nicole Fallert   Paste BN

"When does school start?"

I used to dread this question growing up (largely because of my late-summer birthday), but you may have heard (or said) it in the past week. It's that time of year when students switch bathing suits for backpacks and head back to the classroom — well, some students.

The first day of school is not consistent across the country. Paste BN's Kayla Jimenez took a look at why this is, and whether starting sooner or later has an impact on student success.

👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). This week, we're featuring Paste BN's coverage of the back-to-school season.

We'll dive into Jimenez's look at school start dates. But first, read more back-to-school coverage from Paste BN:

Summer night or school night?

This week, Paste BN's journalists are having their own school night of sorts, gearing up to cover the ins and outs of another school year. Covering education means getting curious about what factors shape students' lives and how these ideas and events are represented by policymakers and educators, Paste BN's Kayla Jimenez said.

"This year, Paste BN's education team is focusing our coverage on what will affect American students and families' daily lives in the new school year, including continued learning recovery from pandemic-related setbacks, reverberations from a looming funding cliff, threats of school gun violence and even bus routes cuts," Jimenez said.

While doing her own journalistic homework, Jimenez noticed something: Millions of students across the country are purchasing new supplies, meeting with teachers and classmates and adjusting to classroom procedures. Yet, elsewhere in the U.S., kids are flocking to camps, beaches and backyards, notebooks abandoned for a few more weeks. Why such a discrepancy?

Jimenez interviewed school districts and experts and found a key influencer of start dates is keeping kids cool in the hottest months of the year. This is an increasingly important factor as districts across the country adjust to higher annual temperatures.

"We found start dates largely depend on where you live," Jimenez said. "We decided to look into why and talked to parents from different parts of the country about what their assigned first day of school means for their families."

On one hand, schools provide necessary cooling resources for students who don't have air conditioning at home, Jimenez found. On another, some buildings don't have adequate air conditioning to keep kids cool enough to learn. This means that even when schools open up early, they are sent home due to hot temperatures.

School start dates are also historically contingent, she found.

"It was surprising to learn that the American school year used to revolve around agricultural patterns before a movement in the late 1980s and early 1920s that pushed for the current summer start times," she said. Perhaps norms around start dates have changed in our modern era. But the start of school remains a momentous occasion for young people and educators alike.

To close out your weekend, check out these must-reads made possible by your Paste BN subscription:

Thank you

It won't be back-to-school this year for me, but I'll be thinking of all the students in my life and sending them support. Thank you for making our journalism possible with your subscription. Our work wouldn't be possible without you. 

Best wishes, 

Nicole Fallert

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