Well, That Was Fast; Actual Listening Happening in Seattle Schools

Posted yesterday; Bold mine

"Dear Seattle Public Schools Community,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. I am so happy to write to you all this week.

As many of you know, the district, alongside many families, educators, and community members, has been working diligently to adjust our technology rules and regulations.

When I arrived in Seattle, it was clear that the district had steered too heavily into an overreliance on technology, especially regarding the percentage of screen time our children were exposed to during the school day.

Over the summer, we worked hard to develop a step-by-step methodology to keep student learning front and center while addressing a dependency on screen time and technology that seems to pervade our classrooms and district writ large.

In September, the district, alongside our partners at Seattle Families for Intentional Technology, held a press conference to announce our first foray into stricter controls around technology use:

https://youtu.be/yVObakSlhRI?si=v-F_tU0ZkupFgv8N

As a reminder, these were our changes less than two months ago:

https://www.seattleschools.org/news/technology-use-k-2-students/

This week, the district continued to adjust our policies, as promised, expanding guidance to include 3rd through 5th grades and limiting software that had been abused, especially during student downtime.

Thus, I am very happy to announce the following changes:

Students in grades three through five will have a one-hour daily cap on screen time. And as a reminder, that is a limit. Our hope is that on most days, our upper elementary students don't even approach an hour. But after talking with teachers and principals, it became clear that the hour limit made the most sense, as it was enforceable without large-scale changes to curricular expectations.

For instance, in 5th grade, if a student had 20 minutes of screen time for ELA during their two-hour literacy block, participated in an interactive math project for 15 minutes during their 90-minute mathematics block, conducted a science simulation for 15 minutes, and watched a video about the American Revolution for 10 minutes, that would already be the one-hour limit.

The educators and administrators we spoke to felt that any more time would be unnecessary, but we didn't want to limit the creativity and control of teachers around pacing and hands-on learning.

Hence, the one-hour screen-time limit for 3rd through 5th grades.

Though the screen-time limits might've gotten the most focus, I am even more pleased with two other major parts of the new guidance.

The district is finally blocking specific software, including YouTube, Gemini, and Minecraft. By not allowing these programs on student computers, we can limit unacceptable usage. I have to commend our tech team for figuring out how to truly block this software without stopping the functionality of our computers for our children.

From the moment I came to Seattle, one of the biggest complaints I heard was about the seemingly unfettered access to YouTube. We also heard of students accessing AI-enabled software, like Gemini, and using it inappropriately. And with Minecraft, we saw it being played over and over during downtime or even when teachers were trying to teach. By shutting these three programs down, along with others, we think we are starting to turn the tide on improper technology use.

However, even more important than limiting software, the district made a clear statement to our educators, families, and students that laptops, iPads, and other devices were not to be used "for incentives, free time, or rewards."

This is huge.

In my hundred-plus school visits, walking through over a thousand classrooms, I saw device after device being used for activities having nothing to do with the curriculum. To be clear, I am not faulting educators in any way. We gave the kids the devices. We said, here you go. And of course, when there was free time, they immediately started using them. If we buy all sorts of ed-tech "learning" games for students and teachers, the reaction will be to use them. But this change, I think more than any other, will help alleviate excessive screen time.

As I promised early on, we are moving on these tech issues. We started with K–2 guidance, and now we have 3–5 guidance. We are addressing software more strongly and getting rid of Gemini access. There is more to be done, for sure, but I do hope the district sees these as positive steps for our children and schools regarding technology usage and screen time.

Thank you all for believing in SPS. With your help and hard work, SPS truly will be the best urban public school district in the country.

Ben"