Minimizing Classroom Distractions to Maximize Student Learning:
Building Walls to Buffer Politics, Phones, Prejudice, and Preferential Treatment
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Dear Colleagues,
Introduction
One of my colleagues began a recent Facebook post with: “These past two weeks have seemed like six months.”
While his post focused on “all things Washington, D.C.”, most of us—in this first month of 2025—have watched many other significant national and international events:
- The New Year’s Eve truck and terror attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans
- The devastating fires in Los Angeles, and other now “less-than-unusual” weather events across the country
- The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with its protracted return of more October 7 hostages and Palestinian detainees, and residents’ return to many now-devasted communities across Gaza
- Another school shooting in Nashville, TN at Antioch High School—with renewed calls for lawmakers to truly (?!) address school safety
- Continued focus on TikTok, teens, and national security, paralleled by a new Chinese AI app, DeepSeek, that upset the tech industry (and Wall Street)
- The tragic incident when an American Airlines flight collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., resulting in the loss of 67 lives
. . . and so on . . .
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And, of course, there are the issues closer to our “educational lives.”
For example:
- Calls to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education
- The brief freeze of trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans—causing panic and confusion across education and other public services (before a federal judge intervened)
- The President’s Executive Orders—
(a) recognizing only two genders,
(b) restricting access to gender-affirming care for individuals under 19 years old (with threatened litigation, and then a withdrawal by the Administration),
(c) banning schools that receive federal funding from allowing transgender and nonbinary students to use names and pronouns that best match, and bathrooms and locker rooms that best fit, their gender identity, and
(d) disallowing transgender girls from competing on women’s teams, and threatening to withhold federal subsidies and launch investigations into non-complying K-12 schools
- A related Executive Order threatening schools with the diversion of their federal funds if they—
(a) teach "discriminatory equity ideology"—an ideology that treats "individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals," and that minimizes "agency, merit, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations"; or
(b) assert that some people are oppressed because of their race, or that the U.S. is "fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.”
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And in the midst of these events and edicts, school marches on. . . with teachers trying to teach, and students trying to learn.
But these (sometimes) random, stream-of-consciousness edicts are creating concern or confusion in our schools and classrooms. . . and they are distracting many educators and students away from “the business of school” and into a realm of dissention or distress.
And while it’s hard not to initially take these edicts seriously. . . as they are typically delivered in a serious manner and, if implemented, would have significant effects. . .
. . . many of them are predictably unpredictable, most of them will be legally or legislatively contested, and very few of them will survive or have any practical or functional impact.
And yet, they are exhausting.
Moreover, they are largely unwelcomed—and they encroach on the sanctity of the school day.
Indeed, they are taking up time and space. . . and interfering with “teachers trying to teach, and students trying to learn.”
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Critically, some of the educational issues above clearly do matter—especially those that directly relate to school climate, the acceptance of all students (and staff) with individual differences, and the safety and comfort of these students (and staff).
As to the others . . today’s Blog hopes to:
- Recalibrate the discussion;
- Re-establish the “safety net” that protects educators and students from unnecessary and unwanted distractions that waste time, energy, and emotional capital; and
- Reinforce what many educators are already doing—namely, offering students a balanced education that exposes them to established facts, proven methods, scientific certainties, and opportunities to discuss contested issues in safe, productive, and collegial ways.
Recalibrating the Discussion: What Makes a Difference for Students’ Long-Term Success?
In 1992, well-known political pundit, James Carville, coined the phrase,
“It’s the economy, stupid”. . .
recognizing that many Presidents are elected based on voters’ past, current, and future expected incomes.
Given this, and politics aside, one of the “ultimate” K-12 educational goals is to prepare graduates (and non-graduates) with the skills to become. . . eventually. . . financially self-sufficient.
In November 2023, Good Reason Houston collaborated with the University of Houston’s Education Research Center to determine what educational experiences predicted PreK to Grade 12 students’ postsecondary college enrollment, credential attainment, employment, and earnings.
Investigating Grade 8 through 12 students from Houston (TX) public schools from 2012 through 2017, the results, released a few weeks ago in January 2025, revealed that:
Accessing challenging schoolwork early and taking multiple advanced classes better positions students for high-paying, fast-growing jobs, and to earn a living wage after high school.
The Key Findings from this Research were:
- Only 20% of Houston graduates earned a living wage: For example, only 1 in 5 high school graduates from the class of 2017 earned a living wage six years after high school graduation.
- Attaining a credential played an important role in earning a living wage:High school graduates who earned a bachelor’s degree were 3.8 times more likely to earn a living wage, and those who earned a professional certificate were 3 times more likely to earn a living wage, compared to those without a credential.
- The following key academic experiences in Grades 8 to 12 predicted the students who were likely to earn a post-secondary living wage:
- Students who took Algebra 1 in 8th grade
- Students who met 8th-grade reading standards on the Texas state standards/benchmark exam
- Students who completed five or more advanced courses in high school (they were 22 percentage points more likely to earn a post-graduation credential)
- Students who excelled in both 8th-grade reading and advanced coursework were the most likely to achieve economic stability
- High school graduates with postsecondary credentials were 17 percentage points more likely to earn a living wage than their peers without credentials
Assuming similar results across the country, this research demonstrates—once again—the importance of PreK through Grade 12 students’ academic depth, breadth, and proficiency, and the significant gaps that impact high school graduates’ post-secondary financial status and economic stability.
Moreover, to be proficient in middle school and high school, students clearly need to be prepared for and proficient at the elementary school level.
But we are not doing a good job across the board.
Indeed, the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, released on January 29, 2025, reveal a sobering picture of the current state of education in our country.
Specifically:
- Reading Scores Declined: Average reading scores for both fourth and eighth graders declined since the last assessment. This marks a continuation of a downward trend that began around a decade ago.
- Math Scores Show Mixed Results: While fourth-grade math scores saw a slight increase, eighth-grade math scores remained stagnant. The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students in eighth-grade math is the widest it's ever been.
- Impact of the Pandemic: The pandemic has had a lasting impact on student performance, with many students still performing below their pre-pandemic levels.
- Persistent Achievement Gaps: The divide between high-achieving and low-performing students has widened, with struggling students stagnating or falling further behind.
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If our country is going to prepare all students for post-secondary living (or beyond) wages and financial stability, we need to take and modify James Carville’s lead:
“It’s about quality instruction, student engagement and learning, and high school graduates’ academic proficiency and post-secondary readiness. . . stupid.”
And to do this, we need to build a wall to discourage and keep the distractions and silliness out of our schools and classrooms.
We need to allow “teachers to teach, and students to learn.”
Re-Establishing the Safety Net: What Students Want and Need
While many distractions need to be eliminated to strengthen our country’s “student safety net,” let’s address a political external distraction (reinforcing the introduction above), and a self-induced school and classroom internal distraction.
Eliminating an External Distraction
As noted above, an Executive Order was signed this past week threatening schools with the diversion of their federal funds if they (a) teach "discriminatory equity ideology,” (b) assert that some people are oppressed because of their race, or (c) declare that the U.S. is "fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.”
This is the same unvalidated fear from the first Trump Administration which resulted—in early 2021—in 44 states introducing bills (or taking other steps) to restrict either the teaching of critical race theory or how teachers discuss racism and sexism in the classroom.
Critically, the fear was largely unfounded then, and is largely unfounded now. Below are three studies providing support.
- Study 1. In 2022, the American Historical Association (AHA) launched the most comprehensive study of the national U.S. history teaching landscape undertaken in the 21st century. The study combined a 50-state appraisal of history standards and legislation, a commissioned survey of over 3,000 middle and high school U.S. history educators, interviews with over 200 teachers and administrators, and analyses of thousands of pages of instructional materials “from small towns to sprawling suburbs to big cities.”
The published AHA report indicated that:
(a) secondary U.S. history teachers are professionals concerned with helping students learn central elements of our nation’s history by reading and understanding founding documents, and grappling with the complex history and legacies of racism and slavery. We did not find indoctrination, politicization, or deliberate classroom malpractice.
(b) Despite legislative interference, the localized influence of state-mandated assessment, and efforts to standardize instruction, history teachers retain substantial discretion over what they use in their daily work.
(c) Free online resources outweigh traditional textbooks, which are unlikely to stand at the center of history instruction. U.S. history teachers rely on a short list of trusted sites led by federal institutions including the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and Smithsonian museums.
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- Study 2. A 2022 University of Southern California Rossier School of Education survey of 3,751 Americans—representing diverse political, racial, and economic backgrounds—asked their views on teaching controversial topics in schools. Forty percent of the respondents were Democrats, 36% were Republicans, and 24% were neither.
The survey revealed that:
(a) Most respondents overwhelmingly supported teaching controversial social and political issues at the high school level, while they were more hesitant about teaching these topics at the elementary school level.
(b) At the high school level, (a) 95% of the respondents supported students learning about slavery, and the contributions of women and people of color, respectfully; (b) 85% supported learning about the 2nd Amendment and racial inequality, respectively; (c) 82% about gun control; (d) 80% about pro-choice and pro-life decisions; (e) 68% about gay rights and sexual orientation; and (f) 62% about gender identity and trans rights.
(c) There was bipartisan agreement on teaching some topics in elementary school, like the Founding Fathers, contributions of women and people of color, slavery, and environmental issues.
(d) Less than 50% of the respondents from both political parties supported teaching about LGBTQ topics at the elementary school level, while over 80% of Democrats supported LGBTQ education at the high school level in contrast to less than 40% of Republicans.
(e) About half of respondents either had not heard of Critical Race Theory (CRT) or did not know what it meant. The most common response about teaching CRT was neutral.
(f) 81% of the Republican respondents supported allowing parents to opt children out of controversial lessons in contrast to 46% of the Democrat respondents.
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- Study 3. A study published in the most-recent Winter 2025 issue of Education Next analyzes the results of a nationally representative May 2024 survey of 850 U.S. high school students. The survey investigated whether public schools are systematically indoctrinating students in “woke” CRT ideologies.
The key findings from this national survey revealed that:
(a) The teaching of CRT-related concepts exists but is not pervasive in that--(i) The majority of the students learned about racial progress in America; (ii) About 40% of the teachers used common terms like "white privilege" and "systemic oppression;" (iii) About 1/3 of the student respondents reported frequent teaching that "America is fundamentally racist;" and (iv) 20% said that teachers assert "white people should feel guilty about privilege"
(b) 76% of students felt comfortable sharing differing opinions
(c) Students reported equal criticism of both conservative and liberal viewpoints
(d) The students reported that they formed their political beliefs primarily from family, friends, and social media. Only 17% of survey respondents said that their teachers had a “very influential” impact on their beliefs
The article concluded that (a) both sides of the debate have legitimate concerns; (b) teaching critical views of U.S. history is important for learning from past mistakes; and (c) there is a need to balance critical examination with instilling patriotism.
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Assuming that the representative samples in these three studies truly reflect the perspectives of their chosen groups, these studies reinforce a conclusion that:
- Most Americans support the teaching of controversial social and political issues at the high school level;
- Most secondary U.S. history teachers are teaching these topics with professionalism and without undue indoctrination or politization; and
- Most students are forming their political beliefs primarily from family, friends, and social media.
Given this, it seems that the recent Executive Order regarding schools teaching a "discriminatory equity ideology” is largely a needless distraction to teachers and students.
At the same time, administrators may need to informally complete a “check and balance” here without burdening, alarming, or questioning the integrity of their staff.
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Removing A Self-Induced Internal Distraction
A February 6, 2025 Education Week article (“More States Are Moving to Ban Cellphones at School. Should They?”) discussed one of the major distractions in schools over the past number of years.
Critically, this has been a self-induced distraction as—without casting any blame or responsibility—most districts allowed cell phones in their classrooms as they were largely unprepared for this issue, and there was no research to guide their decision-making.
It seemed like cell phones were treated as an inalienable right!
But now, education “gets it.”
Cellphones are a major distraction in the classroom with students showing almost a psychological dependence on them—if not an addiction. They negatively impact students’ engagement and learning. And they are accessories to social media teasing, bullying, and other negative peer interactions.
According to the Education Week article:
Nearly all 13- to 17-year-olds (95%) have access to a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center. On average, teens receive 237 notifications on their cellphones per day, and kids spend a median of 43 minutes on their phones during school hours, or the equivalent of about one class period, according to a 2023 study by Common Sense Media that tracked the cellphone usage of 200 11- to 17-year-olds. Those distractions hurt students’ ability to learn, research has found.
Sixty-five percent of parents of K-12 students polled by the Pew Research Center said they support banning middle and high school students from accessing their cellphones during class time, and 35% favor banning phones for the entire school day.
An August 2024 survey from the National Education Association found that 90% of teachers support policies prohibiting student use of cellphones or other personal devices at school during instructional time.
Currently, at least 19 states have laws or policies that ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools statewide or recommend local districts enact their own bans or restrictive policies. Some states, such as Florida and Louisiana, bar students from using cellphones throughout the entire school day, with some exceptions. Other states require or recommend that districts create their own cellphone policies to limit—if not completely restrict—students access to cellphones.
Districts have met these directives in a variety of ways. For example, some districts require students to lock up their phones in specially designed pouches at the start of the school day. Others allow students to use their cellphones between classes and during lunch periods, but they must be stowed away during class time. Still others have left cellphone policies up to teachers to create for their individual classrooms.
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The early results from schools establishing policies to eliminate cell phone distractions are notable.
A separate Education Week article (“What Schools Look Like Without the Cellphone Distraction;" February 5, 2025), reported that:
- A North Adams (MA) school district cellphone ban resulted in a 75% drop in student discipline referrals in the last quarter of the 2024 school year (most notably in students skipping class or detention, being out of class without permission, verbal altercations that escalate into fights), and anecdotal increases in student classroom engagement and teachers getting through instructional material more quickly.
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- A teacher survey—at the end of the 2023-24 school year—when the Bentonville (AR) school district piloted a cellphone ban in one of its High Schools, showed that 86% of the teachers perceived an improvement in student engagement from the 2022-23 to the 2023-24 school year, and 75% perceived increased socialization within their classrooms.
There also was a 57% reduction in verbal- and physical-aggression student discipline offenses, and a 51% decrease in drug-related offenses—attributed to students who used cellphones to coordinate drug exchanges.
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- The Indian River County’s (FL) 2023-24 districtwide cellphone ban was especially beneficial at the middle school level where there was a 14% decrease in fights from one year to the next.
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- And after two years of restricting cellphone use in the Middleburgh (NY) School District’s Junior/Senior High School, there were fewer cyberbullying and disciplinary issues in school, and—as students started to pay more attention in class—teachers needed to reconfigure their lessons to make them more interactive as students wanted them to be more engaging.
The Education Week article noted that parents became more supportive of their schools’ cellphone restrictions when data was shared with them on student engagement increases and office discipline decreases.
And the article suggested that the most effective restriction approaches included (a) district-wide implementation with (b) clear tiered consequences, (c) consistent teacher-wide implementation, (d) effective continual communication of the new approaches to students across their schools and in their classrooms, and (e) sticking to “the Plan” with persistence and a non-punitive, matter-of-fact attitude.
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Significantly, it’s never easy to change well-established patterns of behavior.
As noted above, students have become dependent on their cellphones, and some parents have reinforced this dependence by using texts and e-mails to communicate with their children and/or adolescents during the school day.
Behavioral science clearly demonstrates that, when we try to eliminate (“extinguish”) a strongly-reinforced behavior in the face of meaningful (here, to the student) consequences, the inappropriate behavior typically first increases in frequency.
However, when tiered consequences are consistently applied to the inappropriate behavior, and positive social and self-reinforcement occurs with the appropriate behavior, the inappropriate behavior quickly and significantly decreases and, eventually, is eliminated.
An essential “training” step is to roleplay the “I-need-to-look-at-my-cellphone impulse” scenario with students before implementing a new policy.
This involves guiding them through roleplays where they simulate (a) wanting to take out their cellphone; (b) taking deep breaths to control their emotions; (c) simultaneously saying to themselves, “I need to focus on the teacher and my work;” and (d) shifting their bodies slightly in their seats, repositioning their hands toward their work, and listening consciously to their teacher or looking consciously at their work.
When these roleplays and behaviors are practiced to a level of almost-automaticity, more students will be more quickly successful when the new cellphone ban policy is later implemented.
Reinforcing the Reality: Most Educators Demonstrate Consistent Professionalism
The results of the Gallup Poll’s annual “Mood of the Nation” survey, conducted between January 2 to 15, 2025, were reported on February 5th.
Involving a random sample of 1,005 adults, 18 years old or older and who live in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the respondents’ average satisfaction with 31 different aspects of the country held at 38%, matching the same average as the last four years.
The Gallup Press Release noted that:
Americans’ overall satisfaction with the direction of the country is also historically on the low side, although today’s 20% satisfaction score, similar to the readings since 2023, is improved from 11% in January 2021. That reading captured public discontent during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as with the negative political climate after the 2020 election and Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
American’s highest satisfaction is with nation’s military and overall quality of life. Americans are least satisfied with anti-poverty efforts, and the moral climate of the country.
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Relative to education, Poll results indicate that Americans’ opinions about the quality of public education in the United States continue to decline. Indeed, the percentage of adults who are dissatisfied with public education has increased steadily from 62% to 73% between 2019 and 2025 annual polls. The percentage of adults who now feel satisfied with public education is the lowest since 2001.
At the same time, when other surveys ask parents to rate their own local public schools, their satisfaction has historically been much higher than the more generic Gallup Poll. This discrepancy often reflects parents direct experience with their community schools versus their “national” perspectives. . . which are often influenced by what they see in the media.
Regardless. . . based on all of the discussions in this Blog, students’ literacy and mathematics performance desperately need to improve, and schools need to redouble their attention and interventions for low performing and less successful students.
This will require a laser focus—as noted earlier—on:
“Quality instruction, student engagement and learning, and academic proficiency and readiness for each next grade level.”
In keeping with today’s theme, this will also require a reduction of external and internal distractions, and a recognition that:
“Many educators are conscientiously providing students a balanced education that exposes them to established facts, proven methods, scientific certainties, and opportunities to discuss contested issues in safe, productive, and collegial ways.”
Controlling the use of cellphones in our schools and classrooms is an important step in this process. . . a step that needs to be paired with the other effective school and schooling processes that schools are implementing or need to implement.
In addition, educators and educational leaders need to “build a wall” to control the introduction, discussion, and impact of the current external wave of Executive Orders and stream-of-consciousness asides that are leaking into our schools and becoming distractions in our classrooms.
They are usurping far too much time and space. . . and they are interfering with “teachers trying to teach, and students trying to learn.”
Summary
This Blog began by listing some of the significant national and international events or crises that directly or indirectly affected us this past month. We also noted that, simultaneously, educators experienced an additional series of significant political and profession-impacting events that included Executive Orders and public pronouncements regarding the quality and business of instruction, learning, and the schooling process.
Combining the results of numerous recent and past surveys and reports, we discussed how the current external and internal distractions are creating concern or confusion—making it difficult for teachers to teach, and students to learn. The first-cited study showed that Grade 8 to 12 students from Houston public schools (2012 to 2017) who took challenging schoolwork early and advanced classes in high school had higher-paying and faster-growing jobs later on.
Relative to external distractions, studies were reviewed to demonstrate that the premises underlying the Executive Orders targeting schools teaching “discriminatory equity ideologies” are unfounded, and we discussed that those targeting the trans and nonbinary communities are being legally contested or have already been withdrawn.
Relative to internal distractions, we discussed recent studies showing the positive effects of cellphone bans on student engagement and behavior. This will add value to the many educators who consistently offer students a balanced education that exposes them to established facts, proven methods, scientific certainties, and opportunities to discuss contested issues in safe, productive, and collegial ways.
In the end, we paraphrased James Carville, stating:
“It’s about quality instruction, student engagement and learning, and high school graduates’ academic proficiency and post-secondary readiness. . . stupid.”
We encourage all educators to “build a figurative wall” to discourage and keep distractions and silliness out of our schools and classrooms.
Teachers need to teach, and students need to learn.
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A New Podcast and Professional Development Resource for You
At the beginning of January, we announced a new partnership and resource for you.
The partnership is with popular AI Educators, Davey Johnson and Angela Jones. . . and the resource is their Podcast:
Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive
For each published bimonthly Blog, Davey and Angela will summarize and analyze the Blog in their free-wheeling and “no-holds-barred” Podcast. . . addressing its importance to “education today,” and discussing their recommendations on how to apply the information so that all students, staff, and schools benefit to “the next level of excellence.”
You can find the Podcast at the following link:
Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive | Podcast on Spotify
Davey and Angela have also created a Podcast Archive of more than 35 additional and separate podcasts involving all of our 2024 Blogs (Volume 2), and 14 of our most-popular Blogs from 2023 (Volume 1).
The Podcasts are posted on Spotify, and you can “Follow” the Podcast Series so that you will be automatically notified whenever a new Podcast is posted.
Many districts and schools are using the Podcasts in their Leadership Teams and/or PLCs to keep everyone abreast of new issues and research in education, and to stimulate important discussions and decisions regarding the best ways to enhance student, staff, and school outcomes.
If you would like to follow a Podcast up with a free one-hour consultation with me, just contact me and we will get it on our schedules.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Best,
Howie
[To listen to a synopsis and analysis of this Blog on the “Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive” podcast hosted by popular AI Educators, Angela Jones and Davey Johnson on Spotify: CLICK HERE for Angela and Davey’s Enlightening Discussion]
