Studies of American schools with bell-to-bell cellphone bans – which include schools in Missouri and Kansas – may not reveal an immediate improvement in quantitative areas such as standardized test scores, yet scholars and teachers agree there are evident benefits in the classroom that might just take longer to appear on paper.
Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) is enforcing a bell-to-bell ban for the first time this year following the passage of the bipartisan statewide ban in March.
Those in favor of cellphone lockers or lockable pouches argue the measures make the ban easier to enforce and reduce stress on teachers who would otherwise have to deal with noncompliant students using their phones during class. Aside from that, University of Michigan professor Dr. Brian Jacob, who has studied cellphone bans nationwide, says there might not be much of a difference in which enforcement method schools choose.
A national study of phone bans by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, which specifically focuses on the use of lockable pouches, revealed nearly 5,000 schools were using lockable pouches for phones by 2026.
The study analyzed more than 43,000 middle and high schools across the U.S. over a three-year period and concluded that the use of lockable pouches didn't significantly affect school attendance, classroom attention, online bullying or standardized test scores.
The results also revealed disciplinary incidents increased in the first year of the phone ban but improved each year after that.
"I think we're still at the very beginning stages of figuring out exactly what type of restrictions implemented in what way will be most effective," Jacob, one of the study's coauthors, told Heartlander News.
"The national study we did on lockable pouches was a bit surprising and discouraging, I have to admit. Although I have to say none of the co-authors on the study expected this one change in a school in and of itself to dramatically raise standardized test scores."
Read the full article by Kaylee Obisesan on Heartlander News
