User:Steven Jenkinss/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start_school_later_movement

(Provide a link to the article here.)

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I have chosen this article out of interest for the debate around the delayed school start times. I have always what research is surrounding these ideas. Essentially I hoped this article would give more insight into aspects of the movement itself like its structure or founding. I always wanted to know if it was actually a unified movement of sorts or more individuals trying to change their districts start time at the local level. I also wanted to see the research and findings of studies that either support or refute the school later movements desire to delay school start times. I do (Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The article is fairly strong, however there are issues of repetition within the article with many findings presented more than once in the article. The article does give an overview of the topic but it does not necessarily acknowledge detractors of the school later movement. The lead section does provide a general overview of the people involved in the movement, specifically researchers, teachers, sleep psychologists and many other experts assertion that schools should start after 8:30 AM. This the clear statement of the subject and topic of the article. The lead provides some major points of the article itself that are included in the body of the article. These points are the major sections of the article like the origins of the start later idea, the biological data that supports this idea and the impact current start times have on students. However the lead does not contain anything about the last section of the article which is a school with flexible start times. This section of the article does not seem fully fleshed out in general. It is very short and tangentially related to the article, however connections to the school later movement are not expanded on in this section. The content of the article is strong, there are lots of studies mentioned within the article itself that pint to the benefits of later start times. The content itself is recent as the idea of the delayed school start times is a fairly new line of research. The spots or holes in the article that may need more explanation that I noticed were few but definitely leave the reader to believe there could be much more information that would be beneficial when reading about this topic. For one there is mention of schools in the early 20th century having later start times, the start times are not stated nor why this changed. Another hole is in the equity section. The equity section has very little besides one study that seems to link truancy with start times. It explains why the current start time could impact economically disadvantaged students but is not very detailed. The content is strong however it leaves many important sections unfinished or unexplained that would, if explained further, provide a stronger presentation of the topic.

The tone of the article is neutral. It does not attempt to lament detractors however the other side is barely addressed. Since there is not a similar Keep school start times the same movement, not including any information on this argument could be considered bias. This creates an overrepresentation of this side as correct. I would not say that this is done to persuade the reader as most of the article is heavily grounded in facts and data based assertions. But from hollistic perspective of the article, it is one sided.

The sources of the article are somewhat strong. The main body of the sources are sleep studies or research based findings. They use sources from accredited medical organizations and educational research studies. However they also use sources from the School later movement website which is definitely not an unbiased source of information. Once again, because the article hardly acknowledges the other side of the arguement, it is hard to completely state that the sourcing is great as there is no sourcing in general for information that would assert that school start times should remain the same. While there is not a huge body of literature in regards to the benefits of early start times, other channels and forms of information could be used to at least present the other sides argument in the article.

As for images and media, there is no images or media in the article. The article does not contain any visual media about the topic. There is no Rea search study images or images of some of the mentioned politicians surrounding the issue. This leaves more to be desired by the reader especially in the policy and reform section which mentions many politicians that even a picture could help the reader associate the content of this section with some important figures.

the overall quality of the article is good however. It maintains a consistent tone, is clear in its verbiage and style. It explains topics well and fully, it does not stray or go on tangents in the article. This is excluding the last section about a flexible schedule school that seems like a completely different topic and is a tangent in itself. The article could be expanded on in the subtopics of equity as well as the history of school start times. It could also present the other sides view and ideas behind that assertions. All of these would provide a better overview of the topic. Also it needs pictures. The absence of pictures leaves a lot to be desired and would break up the reading a little bit. If these areas were developed further or at all the article would be much stronger.