by Gabriel Esteban ‘27 and Ryan Green ‘26

For the 2025-26 school year, MCPS has implemented a stricter phone policy than previous years. According to the official MCPS website, high school students are now allowed to use mobile devices only during passing periods, lunch, and before school. At Sherwood, teachers across departments have tightened their policies and expectations about students’ phones, with some teachers using school-issued wall pouches for students to store their phones during class time.

Teachers appear uniformly in agreement that students not accessing their phones during class is having a tremendous benefit on learning environment. “I believe it has increased student engagement and performance so far,” said social studies teacher Katherine Jaffe, who requires students to put their phones in pouches. “Students are paying attention and are more willing to have conversations with one another. Whether students realized it or not, the cell phone was always competing with the day’s lesson and now that competition is gone.”

Social studies teacher Matthew Schneider also agrees about the benefits of no phone during class. “Students are more engaged in class activities, they talk to their peers more and they participate more regularly,” he said.

Similar results have been seen in the English department. English teacher Lori Leonard agrees putting away phones increases interactions between students. “It is wonderful to see how much more students speak to each other, because they aren’t hiding behind their phones,” she said.

Leonard also noticed academic improvement. “More students are doing well because they are using their class time to get work done,” she recounted. “Taking away the distraction of the phone is a huge help in allowing students the time and space to focus on work.”

As high schools in MCPS and throughout the country turn to no-phones policies, they face the challenges of enforcing the rules. “The social studies department has implemented a Behavior Improvement Collaborative plan,” said Jaffe. “If a student doesn’t comply, the teacher is able to give a detention and the social studies teachers are each taking a couple of days during the semester to monitor the detention room.”

Among departments and Sherwood as a whole, teachers are committed to stressing the value of having a phone-free learning environment. “We simply cannot focus on learning or engaging with others when our phones are there begging us to use them,” explained Schneider. “Phones prevent learning and destroy the overall classroom learning environment.”

Despite high teacher approval, among students the policy is less popular, with over 50 percent of 550 students surveyed reported “no change” to their attention or engagement during class.