From the recent cellphone ban in schools study:
The share of students using cellphones in class for nonacademic reasons declined to 13 percent from 61 percent in schools using the pouches, according to teacher surveys, which suggested that students were not widely able to circumvent the bans.
Even so, the bans had a “close to zero” effect on test scores, according to the paper. Test scores are affected by many factors, including the stability of students’ home lives and the quality of teaching and curriculum. The researchers also noted that once cellphones had been banned, students might have been distracted by other forms of technology, such as laptops, which are ubiquitous in American classrooms.
The bans also did not improve student attendance or perceptions of online bullying. And in the first year after strict bans went into place, student suspensions increased by an average of 16 percent — a large and troubling change.
This study was also covered on The Political Gabfest a few weeks back. As Emily points out, at least the teachers are happy:
One positive benefit is that teachers are more satisfied, the teachers are happier, they have to spend less time policing it. That seems like a genuinely important issue. You want teachers to be happy, they will stay longer, they will do their job better, they will, you know, be able to teach more because they’re not policing, they’re not copying the kids who are sneaking phone use. That’s really important. The other one was, did you guys see that, that wonderful little detail? That there was one school district that looked at school library use in the wake, in the wake of the cell phone bans and that way, way, way more books were checked out of school libraries after phone bans, which is fascinating. That seems like a pure good.
Studying ongoing “adult” use would be more interesting. What the relationship between cellphone use and income, happiness, etc.
Also, I don’t think “cellphone” is the right framing, but what tot do with it. Surely there’s a difference between reading Facebook and Twitter al day versus Wikipedia and Chaucer in the a kindle app.