Los Angeles parents are fed up with schools loading students with laptops and tablets and assigning homework to a bunch of apps.
Some families who choose not to give their children screens at home told school board members they are horrified to find young students using school devices — even in kindergarten. Some parents complained that their children were allowed to play video games or watch videos on social media during school. Others said the AI app that fourth graders were supposed to use create portraits fictional Swedish schoolgirl Pippi Longstocking, generated sexualized images.
Such concerns prompted parents to create a group called Schools off screens push for increased technology oversight in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest public school system.
The Los Angeles School Board approved last week resolution Requiring the district to limit student access to YouTube completely eliminated digital devices in first grade and creating device time limits for upper grades — becoming the first major U.S. school system to do so.
The parents’ successful campaign points to an escalating national reckoning for the powerful classroom technology industry. Encouraged by the rapid spread of school cell phone bans, parents, teachers, and lawmakers across the United States are coming together to ensure that the use of technology in schools is beneficial for learning.
In New York, hundreds of parents urged the mayor delay the introduction artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT in schools. Last month, Utah Gov signed the law this will allow parents to see how much time their child has spent on the school facility and view the websites their child has visited.
This month in Oregon, parents successfully pressed the Bend-La Pine school board to adopt a resolution requiring the district revision of all school facilities and applications for educational effectiveness. The resolution also requires the district to remove applications that do not prove to be effective.
In Los Angeles, parents urged school board members to support new tech restrictions.
“Our members have been advocating for a safe and science-based approach to technology in the classroom for over a year,” said Anya Meksin, Associate Director of Schools Beyond Screens. “Enough for big tech to interfere with our public schools.”
Tech giants like Google and Apple, along with companies that make school software, have been selling their technology to schools for years. The tech industry promised that devices and apps would adapt learningimprove student learning outcomes and expand employment opportunities. Many districts rushed to adopt the tools, fueling a booming multibillion-dollar market for school technology.
Current and former school district officials say the rapidly growing parent crusade reflects a long-standing reality: Many public schools lack the resources to adequately screen technology in the classroom.
“The burden on school districts to manage these systems is enormous,” said Hal Friedlander, a former chief information officer for New York City Public Schools who has also helped other school districts evaluate the technology. “Unfortunately, most districts are small and don’t have the resources or expertise.”
Some children’s educational organizations have similar concerns. Two UN agencies, UNICEF and UNESCO, issued this year guidelines for online learning warning that public schools have largely ceded digital education to private technology companies.
Online education tools have brought important innovations, UN agencies said. But they also warned that digital learning platforms could treat schoolchildren “like consumers”; expose students to health, safety and privacy risks; and threaten the “autonomy of the school”. Instead, digital learning “must be driven by public needs and public purposes,” UNESCO and UNICEF recommend.
Some technology companies and school technology organizations note that using school laptops and apps can teach students important digital skills. And they say parenting groups are connecting children’s use of social media — as students browse streaming videos during class — with useful learning tools specifically designed for education. For example, some math and reading apps can tailor lessons to each child, allowing teachers to chart a student’s progress.
“Educational technology allows teachers to differentiate instruction and assess student understanding in real time,” he said Keith KruegerCEO of the Consortium for School Networking, a nonprofit organization for leaders in school technology. (Group of school networks Corporate sponsors include AmazonGoogle, Lenovo, and Microsoft.)
In recent Zoom interviews and meetings, parents in more than a dozen states have expressed concerns about the security, privacy and effectiveness of student devices, classroom software and learning apps. Some parents pointed to well-known school software companies that have recently faced complaints poor data security and collection of sensitive student data. Other parents said their districts are trying to limit student access to video games and video streaming platforms on school devices.
Over the past year, Los Angeles has become the center of parent efforts to control school technology.
In a recent Zoom presentation for Los Angeles parents, Alisha Mernick described how she started a campaign at her son’s elementary school to help families opt out of i-Ready, a math and reading app with game features.
Ms Mernick, 40, and other parents said they were concerned the app was using video game-like techniques, including cute animation and reward points, to attract young people.
“If I give my 5-year-old a game version of a worksheet, it stunts his development of intrinsic motivation and compromises his ability to learn,” said Ms. Mernick, who teaches art education at California State University, Northridge.
Curriculum Associates, the company behind i-Ready, said in a statement that its online learning tests and lessons “help teachers respond to student needs more quickly and accurately.” The company added that i-Ready’s student engagement techniques “mirror reward systems in the classroom.”
Parents say their concerns have escalated recently scandals related to student tech.
In 2023, the Los Angeles Unified School District approved a $6.2 million deal with a little-known artificial intelligence startup. develop a chatbot for students. next year charged by federal prosecutors the founder of a start-up with defrauding investors.
The AI chatbot fiasco prompted Schools Beyond Screens to launch a petition this year called “Get the large Tech Off children’s tables.” He called on the Los Angeles school system to audit recent tech contracts to make sure digital tools for students are “safe, legal and effective.” More than 1,000 people signed up.
Among the affected parents is Sandra Martinez Roe, 50, a children’s book author whose son attends an elementary school in Los Angeles. She said she decided not to buy him an iPad or laptop for home use. But at the start of second grade, her son came home with the school’s Chromebook for homework.
She was worried about the kinds of websites the school facility would allow him to view. She was also concerned that some online learning software seemed to lack rigorous evidence of educational effectiveness.
“They’re just selling it and pushing it through the school system,” said Ms Roe, who is a member of the Schools Beyond Screens leadership team. “Our children are guinea pigs.
In a statement, the Los Angeles Unified School District said it has thorough processes for evaluating technology tools to ensure “any platform used with students meets rigorous standards for privacy, cybersecurity and educational effectiveness.”
After the Pippi Longstocking incident, the district said it reviewed how the AI tool was used in classrooms and worked with a software company to “strengthen content controls.” As for i-Ready, the district said the math and reading app has helped inform teachers’ instructional decisions and improve student learning.
“We will continue to implement and strengthen our review processes to ensure that all approved tools meet the high standards our students and families deserve,” the district said in a statement.
Now Los Angeles school board members like Nick Melvoin are pushing for increased tech surveillance in schools. In 2024, he pushed for a council resolution that prohibited use of student cell phones during school. This year, after working with Schools Beyond Screens, Mr. Melvoin presented recent resolution limitations of school technology.
In addition to new screen time limits for each grade level, the policy will require elementary and middle schools to ban student device use during lunch and recess. The district must also compile a report on all current school equipment contracts.
“I see it as a recalibration, a policy that tries to find the right balance for our children,” Mr. Melvoin said in an interview. The extra oversight seems especially urgent, he added, now that some popular school technology products have empowered students with new artificial intelligence tools.
“I think parents should know: Your kids have access to these tools at school,” he added.
N
Natasha Singer
Technology reporter
I have been involved with technology in the classroom and the impact of the technology industry in schools for over ten years. I interviewed parents in red and blue states for this story, and I’ve never seen this kind of national parent-led effort for more oversight of the laptops and apps schools give kids. In addition to limits on screen time, parents are demanding more evidence that school digital tools are good for learning. And the movement for accountability in school technology seems to be only growing across the country.
Read all comments
