Before the current wave of laws banning mobile phones in schools, we had published a piece from some researchers who had looked at how similar bans had worked in Australia, with the conclusion that… they didn’t. At best, the research showed the evidence on school phone bans to be “weak and inconclusive.” Those authors suggested that rather than doing outright bans, politicians should leave the issue to the schools themselves to determine what’s best.
So it should come as little surprise that two years later, after many similar bans have gone into effect in the US that… the studies are showing up as (you guessed it) weak and inconclusive. The new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has some people shaking their heads because it can find no evidence of better student performance in schools.
Wait, you are telling me the moral outrage against smartphones massively misses the point?
Whatttt? I am shocked!
Though I’d say there’s also a difference between banning phones in school and saying you can’t use them during class. We couldn’t just read our favorite fiction paperback or comic book in class back in the day either. No one ever (that I recall) suggested banning them from the school. I don’t see much compelling evidence that social media is a cause, much more obvious to me is schools having become mostly worthless in the US.
Books don’t have incoming messages or short video addiction loops.
I definitely got lost in a book and missed a class change on more than one occasion myself though.