Although here at OEP we lean toward quantitative analysis of data, there are times when you just need to talk to people to understand issues that data may not reflect. So, in December we loaded up and went out to visit 10 school districts throughout the state to ask how phone-free is going in their schools. As Senate Bill 142, known as the Bell-to-Bell, No Cell Act is moving quickly through the Arkansas legislature, we think it is important to highlight what parents, teachers, and students had to say about their experiences with phone-free learning environments. We published the full report today, but will share the highlights here.
Overall, parents and teachers supported the phone-free policy, but had concerns about the way the policy was being implemented.
Students were less supportive of the phone-free policy, and more frustrated with the implementation than parents and teachers.
Parent concerns included:
- inability to quickly communicate with their child during the school day, particularly regarding emergencies or scheduling needs.
- phone-free policies varied from classroom to classroom, and that teachers and school leadership were not consistently holding students accountable for violations of the policy.
- the policy was developed and implemented without parent input, and communication about anticipated benefits for students was lacking.
- classroom learning time being lost to the routines related to the Yondr pouches.
- the long-term plan for and sustainability of the Yondr pouches.
Teacher concerns included:
- initial excitement around the policy waned due to inconsistent enforcement by administrators and staff.
- students are finding ways around the policies, and it is challenging for them to be responsible for monitoring compliance.
- variation in the policy is needed depending on the grade level of the students.
- a desire for a more comprehensive approach to teaching students about technology pros and cons
Students concerns included:
- consequences for students violating the policy varied by school, and in some cases students felt they were excessively severe.
- doubt that Yondr pouches meaningfully reduced distractions or improved the learning in the classrooms.
- students and teachers who don’t follow the phone-free policy
- teachers have a greater impact on student focus than the absence of phones does
- their concerns and feedback about the policy not heard or valued by administrators
- would prefer to have a less intrusive way to remove cell phones from their learning environment
Recommendations
Based on the experiences shared by members of the focus groups, we recommend that school leaders and policymakers planning to implement phone-free school environments should:
- include parent, teacher, and student perspectives when developing a plan for implementation.
- effectively communicate the policy and the rationale behind it, including how effectiveness will be measured and reported, with community members.
- provide community members with clear information on how emergency situations will be communicated and plans for ensuring student safety in an emergency.
- align consequences for violations of the phone-free policy with the goal of student well-being and learning and strive for consistent application of the consequences to all students and school staff.
About the focus groups:
We solicited Arkansas districts and open enrollment charter systems that had opted into the phone-free school pilot and were actively using Yondr pouches. When selecting districts for focus groups, we considered enrollment size, geographic location, and demographic/programmatic characteristics of students. The combined population of the districts selected for the focus groups was similar to the K-12 public school population in Arkansas, although they enrolled slightly more Hispanic/Latino students (23% vs. 15%), and a somewhat lower percentage of economically disadvantaged students (52% vs. 60%).
Districts identified focus group participants. On average, focus groups consisted of six participants and lasted 35 minutes. Participating students were in grades 5-12 and parental consent was obtained prior to the meetings. All 30 focus groups occurred in December 2024, and all but one location was conducted in-person. The interviews began with a brief explanation of the study, followed by a specific set of questions. The interviews operated in a semi-structured and open-ended format allowing interviewers to ask about tangential topics. Once the interviews were completed, recordings were anonymized, transcribed, and imported into a database for analysis.