In classrooms across America, educators face a daily dilemma that didn’t exist when I was a teacher: what to do about student cellphones. Should phones be collected at the classroom door? Stored in lockers? Allowed during lunch but not during class? Or perhaps banned from school buildings entirely?
The debate rages on—with strong opinions on all sides—but in my view, we’re missing something critical: the first-hand observations of educators. Why? Because it is educators who see when and how phone policies influence students’ ability to engage in class activities, concentrate on challenging material, and interact positively with their classmates.
At present, the research on cellphone policies in schools in the United States is surprisingly limited. Existing studies typically rely on cross-sectional snapshots of a small number of schools and employ different definitions of mobile phone bans. A handful of quasi-experimental studies have yielded equivocal findings, making our ability to fully grasp the implications of cellphones that much further out of reach.
Meanwhile, the pressure to “do something” about cellphones in schools has intensified. State legislatures across the country are increasingly mandating restrictions, with some requiring complete bans. In a recent poll conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, the majority of school leaders reported that cellphones have undermined academic performance, mental health, and attention span. An overwhelming majority of members surveyed by the National Education Association favor prohibiting cellphone use for the entire school day, with school-approved exceptions.
Parents and students I’ve interviewed, on the other hand, have expressed mixed feelings. Many wish school policies were stricter than they are now, while others say they want to be able to communicate directly in case of emergencies.
But the common refrain in my conversations with stakeholders is this: “Nobody really knows what’s working and what isn’t—and, yet, we need to make decisions about what to do.”
The public debate often frames the issue as a simple either-or choice: ban cellphones or allow them. But the reality is far more nuanced. Schools are implementing vastly different approaches, including but not limited to bell-to-bell bans with cellphones stored in the main office, partial bans permitting use during lunch and between classes, classroom management where teachers set individual rules, “away for the day” rules requiring cellphones remain out of sight at all times, and technology pouches that lock cellphones during school hours.
Of course, identical policies on paper can yield dramatically different results depending on how consistently they’re enforced. I have yet to meet a state or district leader who has satisfying visibility into how educators and students are responding to their schools’ cellphone policies.
With such diversity in policies and their implementation, we desperately need systematic data on effectiveness.
In order to help schools craft and implement optimal cellphone policies, I am fielding a survey to educators across the country. The Phones In Focus survey is the first national survey of school cellphone policies that aims to include the voice of every public school educator—not just a select sample. The survey takes less than five minutes to complete, and on the last page, you’ll receive a real-time snapshot of how other educators across the country are answering the same questions.
Ultimately, my collaborators and I will use this data along with existing datasets on outcomes like attendance, academic performance, and student and teacher engagement. This will enable us to identify which policies work best and for whom.
The cellphone policy a school or district enacts isn’t merely an administrative issue. It’s about creating learning environments in which students can thrive both academically and socially. And it’s about enabling educators, 96 percent of whom say burnout is a serious problem in their school community, to practice the craft of teaching.
Before the school year comes to a close, we have an unprecedented opportunity to gather the data needed for informed decisions. The findings will be available quickly—we aim to produce a map of policies and preliminary analyses this summer.
For too long, schools have navigated the cellphone challenge without adequate evidence. Policymakers have been challenged to make decisions with minimal input from the educators themselves. With mounting concerns about youth mental health and academic performance, we can no longer afford to guess which approaches work best. It’s time to let data, not just debate, guide this critical conversation.
