Study: US schools with strict cellphone bans in class have not seen higher test scores on average so far, but students reported a greater sense of well-being
Cellphone bans got devices out of students' hands, according to the first large study. But behavior and academics have not improved, at least so far.
New York TimesDana Goldstein
Context & Ripple Effects
School phone restrictions have long faced a split constituency: adults broadly supported limiting use during class, while teens were more divided, and both groups showed more resistance to all-day prohibitions. Parents’ desire to remain reachable has also complicated implementation.
The new study supplies an early outcome measure for a policy debate previously centered on access and screen time: strict in-class rules appear to change device use and reported well-being, but have not yet translated into higher average test scores.
First-order effects
Schools using strict in-class bans have evidence that the rules remove phones from classroom use and are associated with improved student-reported well-being.
Administrators cannot yet justify these bans primarily as a tested route to higher average scores; the academic case remains unproven in the study’s results so far.
Second-order effects
Districts weighing restrictions are likely to focus implementation on classroom-time limits rather than full-day bans, where survey evidence shows weaker support and parent objections are sharper.
The lack of an average test-score gain raises the importance of how schools measure success—well-being, attention, discipline, and instructional conditions—rather than treating academic results as the sole policy benchmark.
Third-order effects
If further evidence continues to separate well-being gains from test-score gains, school phone policy may settle into a student-environment and classroom-management intervention rather than an academic-performance reform.
The enduring fault line will be governance of student connectivity: schools can restrict use in class while still needing policies that address families’ demand for contact outside that setting.
The trend: School systems are moving from debating whether to restrict student phones to evaluating which limits improve the school environment without requiring full-day disconnection or promising immediate academic gains.
literally every teacher I know says ban phones there are qualitative effects that don't show up immediately on standardized tests you SPREADSHEET BRAINS
The past 2 years that my school has enforced a cell ban have provided such a vastly better in-classroom experience (for both kids & teachers) I would leave the profession if they came back. I can't understand how ppl like Lorenz convince themselves phones aren't destructive.
Another big study on cell phone bans finds that “average effects on test scores are consistently close to zero.” There is no evidence banning phones had any significant effect on school attendance, classroom attention, or perceived online bullying. https://marginalrevolution.com/…
The fact that everyone is interpreting this study to say that phone bans are useless, despite the fact that the study shows a clear positive effect on student well being, tells you everything you need to know about the priorities we have for schools
I don't trust this at all. This seems like a planned campaign to discredit @JonHaidt, @jean_twenge, and other scholars calling for bans. It's ridiculous to expect overnight test score and achievement results when it took about 14 years to create the current mess we're in.
@mattyglesias Who cares about test scores when kids are telling us how unhappy they are? Removing phones improves that and its going to help them with long term success.
the funny thing about this debate is that anyone who has been around someone distracted by their phone for 5 seconds knows why they should be banned in schools
School phone bans get devices out of students' hands, but led to no improvement in discipline or test scores, a large-scale study found. Thousands of US schools require students to put phones in locked pouches; the researchers observed the impact over three years, compared to
@mattyglesias I don't understand what compels people to defend letting kids bring their distraction machines into class. Even if the harm is minimal, what is the benefit? Or are they just trying to own the cons?
“Still, teachers have been thrilled with the change, reporting fewer distractions from personal cellphone use. Over time, students in schools with strict bans reported a greater sense of personal well-being.”
I think it's clear that phones in class are a barrier to learning, but anyone who argued getting rid of them would unleash achievement was peddling a fiction. If we want students engaged we have to go deeper into the experiences of learning. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/u...