• Reading Legislation in California and Massachusetts – Is There a Third Path?

    Two pieces of reading legislation - one recently enacted in California and another one under consideration in Massachusetts - mark early efforts in these states to align classroom instruction with the broad scientific consensus on how children learn to read, why some students struggle, and which components are essential for effective reading instruction.

    There is evidence that reading policies can contribute to improved student outcomes, as seen, for example, in Mississippi. A recent national analysis likewise suggests that comprehensive early literacy laws are linked to gains in elementary reading achievement. While there is no single policy formula – as Matt Barnum notes, states adopting Mississippi-like policies may see meaningful gains but perhaps should not expect Mississippi-sized improvements – it is reasonable to conclude that strong legislation can contribute to raising literacy levels. Yet, these laws' potential, rest heavily on their effective implementation and sustained commitment over time. In this sense, the laws are best understood as setting the stage for reading reform, rather than as guarantees that change will unfold exactly as written. 

    How can more states move (or continue to move) toward stronger reading laws that set a better stage for improvement efforts? How can legislation meaningfully address something as complex as reading development and the instruction it requires? And what distinguishes laws that are best positioned to succeed? While lessons can be learned from states at the forefront, different contexts will call for different approaches. In this piece, we compare the paths taken by California and Massachusetts and highlight a third, promising model from Illinois, which enacted literacy legislation in 2023.

  • School Cell Phone Bans: Listen to Researchers and Stakeholders

    In my few years of teaching, I saw more than enough evidence to support phones being banned in schools. My students were regularly sharing photos of completed homework with friends, playing phone games under their desk, and claiming that their “mom” was calling them every single class. I also spoke to many students who wanted to be present in class but were plagued by the ringing and lighting up of their screens. They expressed anxiety at not being able to check notifications, which distracted their thinking during lessons. Without a regulated phone policy at my school, my route was to build trust in the classroom environment and encourage students one on one to cut down on distractions. This was, frankly, a time-consuming and discouraging endeavor. I felt like I was constantly fighting the distractions—not just phones, but school devices too—with students who already found “buying in” to the material difficult. It’s safe to say that my attempts at getting middle schoolers away from their phones were not always successful.

    That teachers support school phone bans is not surprising. What’s more surprising is how sudden the nationwide focus toward phone banning policy occurred, and how parents are reacting to the change. Within the last year, school phone bans have exploded in state education policy. As of 2025, 26 states have implemented a complete, or bell-to-bell, ban on phones in schools and 4 more have mandated some regulation on their use. 

    This widespread trend began in 2023 with Florida's HB 379, which calls attention to how quickly this trend has found its way into most state’s laws. What makes this abrupt trend even more confounding is the time between the game-changing iPhone‘s release in 2007, and lawmakers’ choice to get involved: a gap of 16 years. This is time in which teachers, parents, and administrators were on their own to figure out how to navigate this new world of cell phone usage in schools.