Exclusive: Gen Alpha bears the brunt of schools banning cellphones
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Cellphones aren't on school supply lists as Gen Alpha heads back to class this fall with administrators tightening bans in an effort to combat COVID-era learning loss.
Why it matters: Survey data from the Walton Family Foundation and Gallup shared exclusively with Axios shows attitudes toward phones in schools have shifted drastically in the space of a single generation as educators grapple with distractions and teens' wellbeing.
- "Once we started seeing the results of the cellphone ban, it was easy to get more and more people on board," Monica Samuels, principal of KIPP NYC College Prep High School, which banned phones in the 2021-22 school year, tells Axios.
State of play: Current middle and high school students face more restrictions on using phones during school for emergencies, between classes, for learning activities and during free time than the oldest members of Gen Z did at the same age.
- However, most schools still allow phones for emergencies.
By the numbers: 79% of Gen Z adults said they were allowed to use their phones between classes when they were students, compared to just 41% of middle schoolers and 61% of high schoolers now.
- 40% of current middle school students said they can use their phones during free time in class, which is 25 percentage points lower than when Gen Z adults were in school.
Flashback: Teaching abruptly became more difficult when schools shifted from remote to in-person learning, Rainer Kulenkampff, a high school history teacher in Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools, tells Axios.
- "It was night and day," Kulenkampff said. "The cellphone use was a major distraction. It disrupted student learning... It impacted their well being."
- Before the pandemic, in his experience, phones weren't as much of a distraction.
Zoom in: His school district's cellphone ban started this term, but he instituted one in his classroom halfway through last year.
- "The behavior improved," he said. "The students were more attentive. Their notes were better."
Zoom out: About three-fourths of parents said they support restrictions on phone use but favor allowing students to keep the phones in their possession.
The intrigue: Some schools are pairing the phone bans with instruction on developing healthy technology habits, Lisa O'Masta, chief executive officer of Learning.com, a digital literacy organization, tells Axios.
- "We start to give them the tools and skills to start to moderate and understand why that balance is important so that they can make good choices," she said.
- "Because the reality is that we can't police them forever. They're going to graduate, and then what? They haven't learned to do that balancing."
Go deeper: D.C. schools are banning cellphones, joining almost half of the nation
Methodology: Results are based on a Gallup Panel web survey conducted May 16 to 27 with a sample of 3,793 13 to 28 year olds living in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The margin of error is ±2.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
- Within the overall sample, 1,746 13-to 18-year-old respondents were reached through adult members of the panel. The margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
- The remaining 2,047 18- to 28-year-old respondents are members of the Gallup panel. The margin of error is ±3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
