With phone-free school policies gaining attention, new research examining children’s screen use, student achievement, and AI raises a bigger question about what technology is actually doing in classrooms. The opportunity is to move beyond the familiar battle between technophiles and technophobes and ask a more useful question: what helps children learn, think independently, and thrive?
As Managing Director of Getting Better Foundation, Rosemary Smith, explains: “Rebuilding trust in educational systems requires a return to relational transparency, active community listening, and proving real-world value. It’s still about collaboration. We collaborate better when we can overlook differences to consider how we might work together on solutions. Yes, that DOES sound like media and information literacies.”
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📵 A Phone-Free School Is a Start, Not the Whole Solution
The OECD’s PISA 2025 Results, published on 8 September 2026, deliver a sobering assessment of student learning across 91 countries and economies. Among OECD countries, average mathematics scores fell by 22 points between 2015 and 2025, while science scores declined by 7 points over the decade. Reading fell even further, dropping 28 points. Meanwhile, 28% of students said classmates were distracted by digital devices during most or every science lesson, and 46% reported using AI chatbots weekly or more to help them learn.
These findings raise important questions about how schools are preparing students to think, solve problems, and evaluate information in an increasingly digital world. But they do not establish that classroom devices caused the decline in test scores. Phone restrictions may reduce distraction, but they do not automatically resolve broader learning challenges or determine whether laptops, tablets, and AI tools improve educational outcomes. The real opportunity is to examine what helps students learn, measure the results, and distinguish useful technology from technology that gets in the way.
The Better Take:
A policy is a tool, not a verdict. When evaluating school phone restrictions, look for measured changes in attention, learning, well-being, and classroom behavior, rather than assuming fewer phones automatically mean better education. The encouraging part is that schools can test practical approaches, track results, and adjust policies. Good decisions should follow evidence, not loyalty to a particular technology.
🧠 What a Massive Screen-Time Study Can Tell Us About Children’s Learning
A major review reported by The Guardian on 28 September 2026 examined evidence involving approximately 2.8 million children across 64 countries. The research linked screen-based media exposure with lower academic achievement and language skills, alongside associations with several emotional, behavioral, and social difficulties. That scale makes the findings worth attention. The results also fit a broader concern about whether children's digital environments are leaving enough room for sustained attention, sleep, conversation, reading, and face-to-face interaction.
But there is an important distinction between an association and a proven cause. Educational content and recreational scrolling are not interchangeable, either. The longer-term challenge is to identify which patterns of use create risks, which support learning, and which practical changes make a measurable difference. Treating every screen as the same thing would make the research easier to summarize, but less useful to act on.
The Better Take:
When a study covers millions of children, pay attention, but read beyond the headline. Ask what was measured, how strong the associations were, and whether the research can establish cause and effect. The practical benefit is a more informed approach to screen habits, one that protects time for sleep, reading, relationships, and play without dismissing technology’s legitimate uses.
🤝 Trust in Schools Is Built Through Listening and Shared Decisions
In its June 2025 article, Strengthening Trust in Schools and Communities, the Brookings Institution examines how trust develops between education systems, students, families, educators, and communities. Drawing on experiences from different countries, the authors identify key elements of relational trust, including respect, care, integrity, listening, and a shared vision. Their central argument is that trust helps create stronger partnerships between families and schools, supporting students’ learning, sense of belonging, and well-being.
That approach offers a constructive framework for debates over devices and AI. Parents may agree that children need focused classrooms while disagreeing about whether laptops should be restricted, AI should be taught, or schools should return to more printed materials. Those disagreements need not become a choice between embracing every new tool and rejecting technology altogether. Schools can strengthen trust by listening to students and families, explaining why a tool is being used, and sharing evidence of its educational value.
The Better Take:
Trust grows when people can see how decisions are made and whether they work. Ask schools to explain the learning goal behind a digital tool, how its impact will be evaluated, and how parents can raise concerns. Shared goals, transparent evidence, and honest feedback make it easier to find common ground without requiring everyone to agree on every detail.
📚 Getting Better Recommendations
Brookings Institution: Six Global Lessons on How Family, School, and Community Engagement Can Transform Education identifies six key lessons on how strong partnerships between schools, families, and communities can build trust, support student learning and well-being, and drive education system transformation. It highlights the interconnected role schools play in their communities and calls for greater collaboration to ensure equitable, inclusive, high-quality, and relevant education for every student.