Devices really do help make learning more flexible, accessible and engaging.
Christina Barreto
Sixth grade, Yonkers, N.Y.
Teachers are constantly competing with their Chromebooks for attention.
Wesley Lima
High school English, Dartmouth, Mass.
Devices should be treated like cigarettes for kids.
Joshua Lemere
Sixth-grade English, Westminster, S.C.
Supported by
How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School? We Asked 350 Teachers.
American classrooms have been transformed by screens in the last five years, with most students, of all ages, now learning on computers or tablets during the school day.
Even as schools have moved rapidly to ban cellphones, screens are nearly universal: Ninety-nine percent of teachers said their school provided devices to students for use in class, in an informal national survey of 350 pre-K through 12th-grade teachers conducted by The New York Times in October.
Eight in 10 teachers said students at their school had a device assigned to them, compared with about a third who said that was the case in 2019 before the pandemic.
And of elementary schoolteachers, 81 percent said students at their school receive devices for use in class by kindergarten.
In a separate Times questionnaire, sent to the 20 largest U.S. school districts, nearly all said they provide devices to students starting in kindergarten or earlier.
Landon Durtschi
High school history, Bronx
Jason Zimmerman
High school math, Kansas City, Mo.
How much do school-issued devices distract from schoolwork?
Time students spend on devices
Laura Lou Delehanty
High school English, Leeds, Ala.
Niki Goll
Fifth grade, Denver
Amy Rosenstein
Third grade, Ardsley, N.Y.
Brent Aaron Chapuis
Second grade, New Orleans
Share of teachers who say their students use devices in class for …
Elexia Strickland
High school English, Richmond, Texas
Mike Sullivan
Middle school math, Brockton, Mass.
Stephanie Lewis
Library, Horseheads, N.Y.
Mary Geasa
Middle school English and social studies, Pleasanton, Calif.
About the data
The Times’s survey was circulated to members of the American Federation of Teachers, a union; Educators for Excellence, a teacher-led advocacy group; Teach for America’s alumni group; and teachers’ Facebook groups. Responses were recorded from Oct. 6 to Oct. 25. The results are not a statistical sample of all U.S. schools.
The 350 teachers who responded taught in 40 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C. Roughly 60 percent taught in urban schools, more than the national share. Thirty percent were from suburban schools and 10 percent from rural ones. Two-thirds said they worked in low-income schools that receive federal Title I funding, similar to the share of those schools nationwide.
For each question, The Times removed respondents who answered “I don’t know.”
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
Claire Cain Miller is a Times reporter covering gender, families and education.
Sarah Mervosh covers education for The Times, focusing on K-12 schools.
From The Upshot: What the Data Says
Analysis that explains politics, policy and everyday life.
Betting on Reality TV: Kalshi and Polymarket, the two largest prediction markets, are offering bets on reality television shows that have already been taped, raising the possibility that people involved in the taping could profit from surefire bets before episodes are aired.
Cost of Child Care: It has always been expensive, but recently prices have risen faster than inflation.
Who Won the Winter Olympics?: Which country won the most events on snow, ice or sliding track? Here are all the ways we could think of to track the medal count.
Physician Assistants: In multiple states, P.A. now means “physician associate,” and other states may follow this year. Increased responsibilities and a push for the title change by physician assistants are raising tensions with doctors.
Related Content
Tony Luong for The New York Times
Eleanor Davis
Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
The New York Times
Morgan Lee/Associated Press
The New York Times
Robert Voets/CBS
Editors’ Picks
Visual China Group, via Getty Images
Sela Shiloni for The New York Times
Trending in The Times
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Image by Project CETI
Tom Hill/WireImage, via Getty Images
Thor Swift for The New York Times
Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
David Degner for The New York Times
Courtesy of the brand
Image by Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times
Advertisement
