Dive Brief:
- Nearly all, or 95%, of elementary school teachers say their students use laptops, tablets or other digital devices in their classrooms, according to a Walton Family Foundation and Gallup report released last week. A quarter of elementary school teachers say their students use digital devices in all or most class periods for main lessons.
- About 46% of elementary school teachers say devices are a distraction during instruction to some extent. However, 61% of elementary teachers say digital tools help students learn more effectively.
- Although teachers of all grades believe technology helps students learn, most still want it scaled back, with 61% of teachers overall saying students should use devices less often. Over half — or 55% — of elementary teachers favor less time on devices.
Dive Insight:
A majority of teachers were likely to say that student learning devices either do equal amounts of harm and good, or do more harm than good — but fewer teachers overall, including elementary teachers, were likely to say that student learning devices do more good than harm.
Two-thirds of teachers overall would support making device-based classes paper-based instead, the report found.
Teachers who reported strong oversight of devices were more likely to view devices positively, including that the devices were a good fit for their students' needs. These same teachers were also less likely to say devices were distracting.
But wealthier districts were much more likely to agree the tools they use are a good fit for their students compared to those in higher-poverty districts. This is "a gap that may reflect differences in the tools schools can afford and how they're implemented," the report said.
The findings were based on responses collected in May 2026 from over 2,000 K-12 public school teachers, who were chosen from a nationally representative sample.
They come as more restrictions, such as screen time limits, are being placed on ed tech in schools nationwide. This scrutiny has grown particularly for younger students.
However, as this movement is growing, national groups and leaders, including the U.S. Department of Education, have told schools to consider more than just screen time when putting restrictions on technology use.
In an August Dear Colleague letter, the department told schools that they should consider whether technology is improving learning and student outcomes — not whether students and teachers should use technology at all.
Earlier this month, the American Psychological Association said something similar, suggesting that policymakers should examine what students are doing on screens, what activities technology may be replacing, and whether it helps or hinders learning.
