Recently, I attended the wedding of a friend who just happens to be a Chicago Public Schools teacher. Many of the guests were teachers from areas nearby, so we did what teachers always do when our spheres collide: We talked school.
Usually, discussions about the first few weeks of classes are a mix of excitement about a new school year kicking off, drizzled with twinges of sadness about the end of summer. But the teachers I spoke with were smiling from ear to ear about a policy many schools have initiated on student cellphones.
My friend, who teaches at a charter high school in Chicago, said her school’s policy requires students to place cellphones in their lockers so that they are out of sight and use for the entire school day. Another friend who teaches at a suburban public high school said her school’s policy allows students to have cell phones during passing periods but requires them to put phones in “phone homes” during class.
I chimed in on both conversations, speaking fondly of the suburban public high school where I work, East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. Our policy mirrors that at my suburban friend’s school: Students have to put phones in holders during class, but can use them during passing periods and at lunchtime.
These conversations, and others I’ve had with my East Leyden colleagues, express enthusiasm about the policy changes. We have a hope that is very different from the general hope we educators have about the start of school: the hope that our students will actually be engaged, fully listening and participating in our lessons.
The shift has been empowering for me. When I began my teaching career in 2004 at Corliss High School on Chicago’s Far South Side, smartphones weren’t around. Flip phones, like Razrs, were all the rage, but they weren’t that much of a distraction in classrooms. Every now and then, we’d hear an Usher or Beyoncé ringtone in class, but for the most part, they weren’t a problem.
Fast-forward to the smartphone era, and cellphones have become the most hated enemy of high school teachers and the biggest impediment to student learning. Two out of three teenage students surveyed on the Program for International Student Assessment reported being distracted due to cellphones, and half were distracted by other students using cellphones, as reported in Education Week. The numbers correlate strongly to lower achievement on the PISA exam, with distracted students scoring 15 points less, on average, on the mathematics section.
In 2023, Common Sense Media studied a sample of over 200 11- to 17-year-olds on their cellphone usage. They found that the teens and tweens received a median of 273 notifications a day, with about a quarter of them occurring during the school day. Many youth reported them as a distraction and felt the need to respond to each notification.
A ‘dramatic’ shift for better learning
As a school librarian who often teaches lessons to students, the change has been dramatic. This year, students make eye contact with me when they speak, since their phones are out of reach. They participate more in lessons, and their personalities shine through right away. And there is no conflict from me, the adult, asking them to put their phone away and take their earbuds out, as I had in past years.
The success is because the policy is schoolwide. For years at East Leyden, our policy was one of teacher discretion, similar to many other high schools. Some teachers allowed phones in class, others did not, which created conflict. I’d often hear students say, “You’re the only teacher that cares about phones,” or “Everyone else lets us use our phones” to teachers who were strict about phone use.
This year, our principal told all of us to be strict. Our district sent out information to all parents about the new phone policy, and it has quickly become a norm. Students walk into class and place their phones in phone homes, often without being asked.
If you are a school district, or have a child in a school district that hasn’t yet switched to a schoolwide no-phone policy, I highly encourage you to do so, or to ask your child’s district to do so. Learning improves, engagement improves and teaching improves when everyone “buys in” — and phones are not at the forefront of students’ minds.
Gina Caneva, Ph.D., is the library media specialist for East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. She taught in Chicago Public School for 15 years and has National Board certification.
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