A Baltimore County Public Schools pilot program to reduce student cellphone use has yielded favorable results, but the district doesn’t yet have a concrete plan for implementing the policy districtwide next school year.

In an update to the school board Tuesday night, two principals shared their successes in getting students to stop using their cellphones in school. The pilot included 10 high schools and seven middle schools, said Mildred Charley-Greene, the district’s chief of staff. Its goal was to reduce student distraction and class disruptions caused by phones.

The presentation did not include details on the districtwide policy for restricted phone use in secondary schools, as it hasn’t yet been drafted. A workgroup of principals will generate model implementation plans that staff will be trained on over the summer, Charley-Greene said.

At Sparrows Point High School, the pilot began for the school’s 1,100 students in August and will end in June, Principal Emily Caster told the board. She said her students have shown more responsible cellphone use since the pilot began.

“We have learned this is not going to be a quick fix,” Caster said. “We have to make sure we’re embracing the attitude of progress over perfection.”

Sharing the justifications behind the policy and the negative impacts of phone use with students, families and staff was “equally as important as the policy itself,” she said. Overall, teachers found students were more attentive during class, according to quotes from staff that Caster brought to the board.

Cockeysville Middle School began limiting in-school cellphone use before the pilot, said Principal Adam Carney. Teachers email the school’s office when a student is spotted with a cellphone. The office then records infractions in a spreadsheet.

“We track every time a kid pulls their phone out at CMS,” Carney said. Consequences like lunch detentions and required parent conferences are part of the school’s policy.

“Our goal is to change behavior at the middle school level,” he said, adding the approach tries to teach students responsible cellphone use.

By collecting its own data last school year, the middle school found students with five or more phone violations performed worse academically on several metrics, including cumulative GPAs and standardized test scores.

Caster will lead the workgroup over the summer to develop model implementation plans for the district, Charley-Greene said. Carney also will be invited to participate in it.

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