Phone-Free Schools at LSSU

The Case for Education without Distraction

Introduction

A mounting body of evidence suggests that removing students’ personal mobile devices from places of learning (with notable exceptions for those with special educational or medical needs) will automatically and effectually improve academic performance and mental health of the student body.

If students are phone-free during the school day, there is less distraction, less inappropriate content viewed, and less cyberbullying.

There is more focus on academics, development of social skills, and students engaging with each other — in class and at extracurricular activities.

Bottom line: Phone-free schools promote student achievement, foster educational excellence, and ensure an equitable experience for all.

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8/16/2024

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A Global Movement

• 2023: The UN Global Education Monitoring Report makes a worldwide recommendation to remove phones from classrooms to improve learning and decrease exposure to cyberbullying.
• 2023: England bans phones in schools for all grades.
• 2021: China bans phones in schools for all grades.
• 2018: France bans phones in schools for kids under 15.

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9 Ways Phones Interfere With Learning and Healthy Development at School

• In 2023, the average number of alerts Gen Z receives was 237 per day (one every five minutes). One-quarter of them are received during school hours. It takes the adolescent brain 20 minutes to refocus after a distraction.
• When American teens moved onto smartphones, time spent face-to-face with friends plummeted, from an average of 122 minutes a day in 2012 to 67 minutes a day in 2019. 
• 2023 report from UNESCO states that, “There is little robust evidence on technology’s added value in education [and] a lot of the evidence comes from those trying to sell it.” Students with access to phones use them in class and pay far less attention to teachers.
• Smartphones damage social relationships. After 2012, students around the globe began to disagree more often with statements like, “I feel like I belong at school.”

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• In a 2023 study, 97% of students use their phones at school, for an average of 43 minutes per day. The majority of their time is spent on social media (32%), gaming (17%), and YouTube (26%).
• In a 2013 study, students who were not using phones in class took 62% more notes, were able to remember more information about the lecture, and scored a full grade and a half higher than those using phones.
• Like second-hand smoke, these issues affect non-phone users. In a London School of Economics study, the presence of a neighboring student’s phone lowers a non-phone student’s grade by 6%.
• Evidence suggests smartphone use exacerbates ADHD.
• Research indicates smartphone use may interfere with the development of executive brain function.
• More than 70% of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a “major problem.”

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What About Smartwatches and Flip Phones?

• Smartwatches are like having a mini phone strapped to your wrist. A 2021 study found that they can be even more distracting than smartphones.
• SES students report that when kids are bored in class, they play games on their watches and text parents and friends.
• Smartwatches are a threat to academic integrity. During exams, students can text questions to friends, silently type questions to Siri or Android Assistant, and schedule notifications with test answers.
• Many flip phones come preloaded with apps such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and games.

Why not simply have students keep cellphones in their backpacks or lockers?

• This incentives students to hide phones during class.
• Policing phone use becomes a full time job for teachers. Many give up and tolerate phone use.
• As soon as class ends, students pull out their phones instead of forming friendships.
• In between classes, phones can be misused for sexting, cyberbullying, viewing porn, buying drugs, meeting to vape, spying on kids in the bathroom, etc.
• The “Brain Drain” effect: Having a phone in the room—even if it is powered off—makes it harder to work.

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The “Brain Drain” Effect

• A 2023 University of Toronto study found that having a cell phone in the room—even if it is powered off—is distracting and can make it harder to work, problem solve, and process and remember information.
• Students were asked to power off their phones and then assigned to one of three groups. Group #1 left their phones in the lobby. Group #2 kept them in their pocket or bag. Group #3 put their phones face-down on the desk in front of them. All three groups were given tasks to test their fluid intelligence and working memory capacity.
• Even though all the phones had been turned off, phone location was directly tied to performance. Students did best when they were left in the lobby and worst when they were on the desk, with phones in pockets/bags in between. The effect was strongest for heavy phone users.

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What If There Is an Emergency?

• Some parents are understandably concerned that they want to be able to reach their children immediately if there is an emergency, like a school shooting.
• However, a school in which most students are calling or texting during an emergency is likely to be less safe than a school in which only adults have phones and students are listening to the adults and paying attention to their surroundings.
• Cell networks can go down if too many calls are placed at the same time.

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Even Students Believe Schools Should be Phone-Free

• In a 2023 study of high-schoolers:
• 92% said elementary school students should not have access to phones during class.
• 78% said middle school students should not have access to phones during class.
• 38% said high school students themselves should not have access to phones during class.

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Phone-Free Schools Movement

• Mission: to provide youth the freedom to excel academically and develop socially without the distractions, pressures, and harms of phones and social media during the school day.

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8/16/2024

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Definition of a Phone-Free School

1. Has a first bell to last bell no-phone policy. Phones must be turned off and stored in a cell phone locker or secure pouch.
2. The policy must be clearly communicated to all stakeholders and strictly enforced by all administration and staff.
3. The school must provide a means of communication for students and parents should it be necessary during the school day (i.e., office phone).
4. Exceptions must be in place for students with special educational or medical needs that require a personal device.

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Sample Secure Storage Options

Yondr Cell Phone Pouch

Vevor Cell Phone Storage Locker

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Providing lockable phone pouches or phone lockers is the most likely way to produce substantial educational, social, and mental health benefits of a phone-free policy because they allow students a full school day away from phones.

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����������������������What Happens When Schools Implement Phone Storage Systems?

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What Educators Report in Phone-Free Schools

• Decrease in bullying and discipline issues
• More attention and comprehension, leading to better skills and grades
• Increased student engagement and more vibrant lunchrooms
• Improved teacher morale and retention
• Increased attendance because kids aren’t messaging parents to call them out of school
• Classes are weeks ahead in lesson plans because students are focused and work faster
• Increase in school library books being checked out
• Less cheating
• Fewer mental-health related student visits to school counselors

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Case Study: How a Connecticut Middle School Eliminated Smartphones

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How a Connecticut Middle School Eliminated Smartphones

• Students confirmed that the disappearance of cell phones has stimulated something old-fashioned. Serenity Erazo, 14, said free time during the school day is a little duller now, but the students have adapted: “We’ll just find conversation, we figure it out.”

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“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen, but, if one will, to be lived.”

Soren Kierkegaard

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