Teachers report better focus, engagement with stricter high school phone bans

After Stephanie Lassetter first tests her algebra students on graphs, she commonly hands out Cs and Ds.

But this school year, the veteran McNary High School teacher said the average score was a high B on a topic that often proves challenging, even for students who haven’t struggled before in math.

The difference? With a strict phone ban in place schoolwide this fall, she said the number of students not paying attention in class has fallen dramatically.

“Kids are completing things. They know each other’s names because they have to talk to each other now,” said Lassetter, who’s been a teacher for two decades, including 18 years at McNary. “The student engagement and collaboration is significantly better than it has been.”

McNary is one of five high schools in the Salem-Keizer School Dist