Teams of summer school teachers, principals, and curriculum administrators developed the curriculum guides. Children are assigned to classes based not only on their age and grade but also on their learning needs. Teachers, too, were more willing to take risks and try out new teaching strategies. For more than a century, research has revealed that our thinking and general functioning ebbs and flows with our circadian rhythms, or internal timing mechanisms. Research has also confirmed that some people reach their temperature peak before noon, some in the afternoon, and some in the evening.
Students understand material better and do better on tests at their preferred time of day.
The author asserts that, ideally, school districts set up parallel schools to accommodate student time preferences, with the majority of students attending classes in the late morning through afternoon. Other students received individualized instruction in small groups. The next day, these students would get their turn in the lab. Higher student achievement, better student behavior, and happier teachers. The flaw in these rankings, Goycochea argues, is that they are based on final outcomes rather than student growth.