Guilford County Classroom Phone Restrictions Increase Engagement, Improve Math

At the Academy at Smith in Greensboro, classrooms are noticeably quieter and teachers say students are more focused after Guilford County Schools implemented a districtwide no-phone policy at the start of the school year in anticipation of House Bill 959 taking effect Jan. 1, 2026. Principal Dorand Blackston said the school has “seen a significant increase from the first to the second semester in their math numbers,” and that students may use phones only at breakfast, lunchtime and during class transitions.

The district policy, Blackston explained, means “students that have a cellphone … can’t use it during instructional time.” Implementation at Academy at Smith has varied by teacher: Kasheena Burris stands outside classrooms collecting phones in a clear bin and stores the bin in a cabinet for the remainder of class, while a teacher identified only as Lanier asks students to place phones in a pouch on the wall.

Teachers described the classroom change in concrete terms. Burris said, “Before, when I collected them, there would be that questioning, but since the policy, there’s no back and forth, usually the students say, ‘Oh, it’s the law now,'” and Lanier summarized the effect: “When phones are out of sight and out of mind, it’s easy to see the difference already.” Lanier also linked the classroom practice to workplace expectations, saying, “It’s not just in the classroom. It’s in the workplace. You have to be present at your job so you can do your job well. I don’t want to be at the doctor’s office, and my nurse is scrolling.”

Those on student schedules reported the change as well. Junior Mackenzie White-Blandon said classmates are “more zoned into their work and not so much, ‘I don’t want to do this, so I’m just going to pull out my phone,'” adding, “It’s either do it or be bored, so you might as well do the work.” Teachers at the school reported that buzzing and dinging have disappeared during lessons since the collection practices began.

Guilford’s classroom phone limits sit alongside broader instructional work in the district. Superintendent Whitney Oakley described the district’s K-2 curriculum as aligned with the Science of Reading and said recent school report card data show reading proficiency gains in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. The district highlighted literacy during Public Schools Week when Governor Josh Stein and state Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green visited Bluford STEM Academy in Greensboro in February 2026.

Other district investments aim to bolster math and literacy supports. Faith Freeman, who oversees Guilford’s tutoring program, noted the initiative began in fall 2020 with eight college students focused on math in Title I middle and high schools and now requires tutors to work with the same student groups over time and meet weekly with teachers; Freeman said, “Families tell teachers and district leaders about the positive effects tutoring has had on their students.” The program was expanded into a dedicated department, but leaders have acknowledged that much of the work was “currently supported largely with federal COVID-relief money, which runs out in 2024,” leaving questions about long-term funding.

Local advocacy groups frame teacher quality as central to student gains; materials from the Guilford Education Alliance cite research claiming the “cumulative percentile gain over three years for students with the most effective teachers has been shown to be as much as 54 points higher” than for students with less effective teachers, and the alliance lists reports such as the Guilford County Teacher Working Conditions Report and Education Matters in Guilford County.

The early, school-level reports at Academy at Smith point to quieter classrooms and improved engagement, but Blackston’s reference to a “significant increase” in math numbers comes without the districtwide numeric detail to confirm a broader effect. Superintendent Oakley has framed the district’s instructional strategy as “a strategic response to what both research and North Carolina industry leaders say students need to access opportunities after graduation,” and the district now faces the work of quantifying which practices - phone limits, tutoring, and literacy curriculum - are producing sustained gains.