Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Elvis’ “Burning Love.” The Electric Six’s “Danger! High Voltage” and its proverbial fire in the Taco Bell.

I’ve got songs about fire on the mind lately as the online ed-tech firestorm continues apace.

The latest alchemical powder thrown into the pot is courtesy, at least according to my Twitter feed, of a piece by Dana Goldstein in the New York Times titled “Did School Cellphone Bans Work? New Study Finds Mixed Results.” (Yes, much to my chagrin, I do still read the New York Times on occasion.)

The rather negative framing of (or, at least, tenor of the discussion around) the efficacy of cellphone bans seems a ready-made attempt to throw the cellphone ban out with the bathwater. Even if the piece, to its eventual credit, comes around to noting the multiple positives the study discovered as well.

But as someone who has quite loudly, in these very pages, supported cellphone bans generally and here in my Hoosier state, I felt the need to pause. Given the study’s findings, are cellphone bans all they’re cracked up to be?

The Purpose of Cellphone Bans in Schools

Which begs a different question first. What, really, were cellphone bans cracked up to be? Here is perhaps my biggest issue with Goldstein’s coverage of the study. They begin the piece by saying, “Banning cellphones was supposed to improve many of the problems ailing American education, including distraction, bullying, declining test scores and absenteeism.”

But that’s forcing far too much baggage onto a singular policy that was never sold as a panacea to everything that’s wrong with American schools.

I do believe cellphone bans can help improve academic achievement. I’ve never believed they alone will suddenly boost test scores and I don’t think the “parents and educators” Goldstein refers to thought so either.

Still, the study is useful, if only because it’s the biggest study focused on the impact of cellphone bans in American schools yet conducted.

The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools

So here, according to the article, are the study’s main findings:

• First, a “meaningful decline in student cellphone use.”
• No test score increases in places that adopted bans, on average.
• An increase in student suspension rates, at first.
• A “greater sense of personal well-being” among students.
• “Fewer distractions from personal cellphone use” reported by teachers.

To recap in very general terms. Positive. Neutral. Negative (which faded over time). Positive. Positive.

Put another way, the study found three positive effects, one initially negative effect that faded given time, and little impact on academic outcomes (at least so far). Would I have loved to see dramatic test score improvements following cellphone bans? Of course. Does a lack of immediate academic improvement lead me to feel these bans are misguided or ought to be rolled back as some have been quick to say? Hardly.

During Indiana’s legislative session earlier this year, one caution I raised based on other states’ experience was the one negative found in this study: the rise in suspensions immediately following a new ban. Particularly because a rise in suspensions for any reason typically impact students of color disproportionately.

As I said then, the good news is that fades over time, just like this study found. The better news would be if schools and districts implemented these policies without a rise in suspensions. That’s possible.

And if that’s the case, I really don’t see a downside given these bans aren’t meant to be a panacea for academic improvement. Though I do believe they are a helpful input into creating classrooms where more learning (and, ultimately, academic achievement) can occur.

Which Direction are We Headed?

Classrooms are complex social spaces. Sorry, I know that’s an abstract, very egg-head kind of thing to say. But I’m not sure how else to say it. They are. And they’re often messy places where it’s difficult to know what impact a single policy will have.

In light of that, I think a broader question needs to be on the table when evaluating the impact of something like a cellphone ban. Not, “Did it solve our educational woes?” But, “Did this help us head in the right direction?”

Cellphone bans in classrooms are, in my view, a step in the right direction. They are not (indeed, cannot) be the only step.

Because, as the piece notes, cellphones aren’t the only potential distraction or impediment to student learning currently in the classroom. Laptops may be a corrosive influence too. I have zero qualms about the wave of restrictions around one-to-one devices now popping up nationwide, especially when they target early grades.

There is zero meaningful rationale to me for a Kindergarten student to be sat at a computer for any length of time during a school day unless we bring back Pajama Sam and Freddy Fish. Otherwise, get behind me Satan. (For the record, I’m joking; though I will die on the hill that says Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside is a stone-cold classic.)

We broadly banned cellphones from classrooms and test scores didn’t go up. That’s okay. Other things improved and we learned things to guard against. We still have more to do. Let’s not take our eye off the ball.