The $0 intervention that beats every program you've ever bought

True story:

It was 3:00 PM on a Tuesday, and I was about to record another episode of Adorable Red Hats with Mitch Weathers.

I hadn't combed my hair yet.

So I threw on a hat and hit record.

Mitch noticed immediately. But instead of judging, we ended up diving into something way more interesting than my appearance…

We started talking about sleep.

Specifically, how eight hours of sleep on school nights is most strongly associated with better test performance — especially in math and science — for lower achieving students.

And here's the kicker: We're spending millions on new programs, interventions, and initiatives …

While one of the most powerful performance enhancers is completely free and totally outside school walls.

Sometimes the most impactful changes aren't the ones that require more budget, more programs, or more meetings.

They're the ones that require us to rethink the fundamentals we've accepted as "just the way things are."

Like school start times.

Or how we respond to parents who email at 2:00 AM and rage-follow-up at 7:30 AM because you haven't responded yet.

Or whether we need students sitting in classrooms from 8:05 AM to 3:00 PM every single day.

Look, I get it.

You can't control whether students get eight hours of sleep.

You can't always change district-wide start times.

And you definitely can't stop parents from sending unhinged emails in the middle of the night.

But what you can do is question the premise.

Ask yourself: "What if the most disruptive thing I could do as a school leader isn't another program, but rethinking something as fundamental as how we spend the time we have?"

In this episode of Adorable Red Hats, Mitch and I explore:

• Why high school should probably start at 9 AM

• How to handle parents who expect instant responses at all hours

• The surprising connection between sleep deprivation and student performance

• Why protecting sleep might actually be protecting learning

• And what happens when we stop accepting "but we've always done it this way"

Plus, we get into some pretty ridiculous territory about ACT scores, college applications, and whether my hair situation was really that bad.

(Spoiler: It was fine.)

If you're tired of playing whack-a-mole with school challenges and want to hear a conversation that'll make you rethink some fundamental assumptions about leadership, then tap here to listen to the full episode:

We recorded this at 3 PM. With messy hair. And somehow stumbled into some legitimately useful leadership insights.

Go figure.

Danny

PS ... Want to join us for a future episode? We're always looking for ruckus makers who want to explore trends in education. Just hit reply and let me know what's on your mind.