CHICOPEE: One Chicopee High School teacher, who instructs a particularly difficult math class, has seen the average quiz and test scores increase from 40% to 70% in recent weeks.

A history teacher reported students have been participating more and doing better group work.

Another math teacher has found students who have done nothing all year are now completing assigned work.

All of those changes have taken place over the past month since the school began requiring students lock their cell phones in a magnetically-sealed pouch at the start of the school day. At the end of the day, teachers use a device to free the phones from the pouches, principal Carol Kruser said.

“Overall it is still very early. We are working out the kinks but it is extremely promising,” she said.

In January, Kruser appealed to the School Committee to waive the cell phone policy and allow Chicopee High educators to try the new program offered through a California company called Yondr.

She said students, who were mostly learning remotely between March 2020 and April 2021, came back to in-person learning more addicted to their phones than they ever have been before and were constantly distracted in class. The policy only allows students to use their phones in the cafeteria and hallways but the teens were blatantly violating it.

The School Committee voted to allow the pilot program. On Wednesday, Kruser updated members on how Yonder, which was instituted March 29, is working.

For US$15,000 the company is providing the pouches and the mechanisms to lock and unlock them through the end of next school year. It also trained Chicopee High staff on how to use them, Kruser said.

“It is not an easy thing but it is so much better in the classrooms,” Kruser said.

Sure students are still sneaking in phones they have not locked in the pouches. Teachers have caught them on camera peeking a look at them in the hallways or putting in earbuds connected to them, she said.

“Some don’t like it,” she said. “We had a few major blow ups with just a small number of people who refused and we are dealing with that.”

But most of the students have gotten used to it and some even admit they are paying attention more in class because of it, Kruser said.

“Some students are still not happy about it but they are still following the rules,” Kruser said.

Some of the concerns, such as students arriving late to class because of the time it takes to seal pouches of more than 900 students, has not happened. The tardy line is the only one that is long, but that is mostly a problem of students arriving late not an issue with the phones, she said.

The clerks have been working harder because parents who cannot contact their children during the day, call the school to relay messages. There were a few glitches when a message did not get to a student right away because of a large assembly was taking place or students were outside on the track, she said.

There have also been a few unexpected consequences including educators have found the lunchroom is much louder than it has been in the past because students are talking to each other instead of looking at their phones, Kruser said.

The school has also had to purchase more clocks for the lunchroom and more calculators after realising students use their phones for math class and to tell time, she said.

There are a handful of students who are allowed to access their phones during the day because they face emergency situations with their families or use their phones to track medical conditions. They are under strict orders to limit their use to those needs.

 - TNS