Clifford J Cooper Jr, EdD

🦔Schools across the US are reversing years of technology-first classroom policies after studies show laptop and screen use has either decreased test scores or produced no improvement. Maine adopted one-to-one laptop policies in 2002 and showed no improvement after 15 years. Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath told the Senate that frequent in-class computer use correlates with significantly lower math and science scores across both high and middle income countries, and that Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower than their parents on standardized tests. Schools in Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan and elsewhere are restricting laptop use and returning to pen and paper, with some reporting improvements in reading comprehension within months. My Take The data here is hard to argue with. Fifteen years of laptops in Maine classrooms produced no improvement in test scores. Schools that switched back to pen and paper saw reading comprehension improve within months. The technology industry spent billions convincing schools that screens were the future of learning, and the evidence is pointing in the opposite direction. We're pulling laptops out of elementary classrooms in 2026 at the same moment we're deploying AI into hospitals, courtrooms, and financial systems that depend on humans being able to think critically, catch errors, and exercise judgment. The children who spent their formative years navigating text boxes instead of working through problems on paper are the same people who will be asked to oversee those AI systems in ten years. If the screen-first approach genuinely stunted the development of analytical thinking it was supposed to enhance, we have a compounding problem that goes well beyond test scores. Hedgie🤗