5 Topic Commentaries

The Classroom Screen Defense

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  Hao Yu, PhD

  Population medicine; health policy

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  Harvard Medical School; Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute (Department of Population Medicine)

  How you help them incorporate these tools into their academic life is really challenging.

  Source
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  Thomas S. Dee, PhD

  Education policy; program evaluation

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  Stanford Graduate School of Education

  There is clearly justifiable enthusiasm for school phone bans, but it’s important to recognize that building effective, phone-free learning environments does not appear to be a simple or quick fix.

  Source
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  Matthew Gentzkow, PhD

  Economics; digital media and technology

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  Stanford University, Department of Economics

  Now that we’ve been able to really look at national evidence with a lot of detail, we can say both that there’s solid evidence of real benefits of these policies and that putting phones in pouches alone is not causing dramatic changes in test scores.

  Source
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  Guilherme Lichand, PhD

  Education policy; technology and education

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  Stanford Graduate School of Education (Lemann Center)

  The schools that are doing the best job [with compliance] are the ones that have dedicated spots for kids to store their phones. Even if you keep the phones in the classroom where students can see them, so no one is taking them away, the key thing is that the phones are not with them.

  Source
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  Annette C. Anderson, PhD

  Education leadership; school safety and policy

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  Johns Hopkins School of Education; Center for Safe and Healthy Schools

  School administrators tell me they see the impact [of cell phones] every day. Our students are more anxious, more depressed, and less inclined to take risks in getting to know people they might not otherwise know.

  Source