"West looks at a lot of student data, so when he started to see the decline, dating to the years after 2010, he and other researchers began searching for explanations. There were several policy factors in the U.S. to consider notably, a shift away from the No Child Left Behind-era emphasis on testing. The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act removed some of the high stakes that the federal government had placed on test scores."
"While research has yet to establish a direct link between the rise of students' use of smartphones and declining scores, West, Figlio and others say the timing certainly raises questions. "If we have these extremely addictive devices on our person 24 hours a day or near us 24 hours a day," Figlio surmises, "this has to be one of the contributing factors.""
Student test scores in the U.S. have fallen compared with a decade ago, a trend researchers ultimately recognized after analyzing long-term data. The decline appears to begin in the years after 2010. Analysts considered domestic policy changes, including a move away from No Child Left Behind testing emphasis and the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act's reduction of high-stakes accountability. Similar score declines in other countries prompted researchers to examine cultural causes, notably the rise of smartphone use among adolescents. Direct causation remains unproven, but timing and experts' observations about phones' constant presence suggest smartphones could be a contributing factor, prompting state lawmakers to restrict device use.
Read at www.npr.org
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