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Some parents are organizing campaigns to opt their kids out of classroom tech. Others are suing education software companies. But there may be a quieter majority: Parents who support some screen time in schools.
That’s according to recent polling, which also indicates parents might welcome students’ exposure to tech like artificial intelligence in order to prepare them for the job market.
Two polls of parents conducted this year — one from the National Parents Union and another from EdChoice, a conservative-leaning school choice group — showed that parents overwhelmingly support some degree of technology in the classroom. More than 80% of parents in the EdChoice poll conducted by Morning Consult said they either somewhat or strongly supported using laptops in school. And of the majority of parents who supported screen time limits in the National Parents Union’s poll, just 1% said they thought students should have zero screen time at all in school.
The National Parents Union also found that a majority of parents — 53% — said it was important for students to learn how to use AI tools for future career opportunities.
The polling adds complexity to the vigorous debate about technology in education, in which those opposed to laptops and other devices have often attracted the most attention. But more moderate parents who support some screen time — depending on what it’s used for — could be important people to consider, as big school districts like Los Angeles and New York City start to pass limits on screen time and some uses of student-facing AI.
That doesn’t mean the public doesn’t have any concerns about the prevalence of technology in education. A May poll of registered voters also conducted by Morning Consult for The Century Foundation found that 73% said too much reliance on devices, phones, and AI in the classroom posed either a “major problem” or “somewhat of a problem” for public schools.
Parents want guardrails, but not wholesale bans on devices, said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. That balancing act with technology that schools are confronting includes artificial intelligence: Parents don’t want low-quality AI-generated material in front of their kids, but they do want students to know how to use it for their future.
“Do they want their kid parked in front of a screen all day? No,” she said. “But do they want them prepared for what work is going to look like in the future? Absolutely … we’re having a very hysterical, knee-jerk conversation around this whole tech-lash thing.”
Meanwhile, groups representing less-affluent families have also argued that they’re being left out of the conversation around the backlash to technology.
Maya Martin Cadogan, founder and director of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education in D.C., a group that represents many low-income families of color, described how another group of parents argued against ed tech in district schools earlier this year. They focused on “how they limit their child’s technology use at home because they have lots of devices,” she said. “Our parents know that so many kids in their communities don’t have any device at home whatsoever.”
The polling isn’t necessarily as clear on that point. About 80% of low-income parents reported strongly or somewhat supporting laptops in schools, compared with 93% of higher income families, EdChoice found. But 12% of disadvantaged parents also reported being undecided about laptops, compared with 1% of affluent parents.
Many parents support education technology, with limits
Education technology is a broad term. There are many different ways screens, devices and software show up in the classroom, and the nuances are important, Rodrigues and others said.
For instance, parents want to know that any data captured digitally is secure, Martin Cadogan said. That aligns with some of the concerns Bridie Lee and Schools Beyond Screens — a grassroots group in cities like Los Angeles and D.C. — has about technology in education.
But the same groups may diverge on other issues.
For instance, Schools Beyond Screens in D.C. has argued against the use of i-Ready, an individualized learning platform that critics say improperly gamifies learning without sufficient evidence that it works.
Martin Cadogan said while her group also wants to know that education software is backed up by research, some parents like i-Ready. They appreciate, for example, that it offers extra practice on math problems without creating extra tasks for a parent who might not have the time to challenge their child academically, she said.
The EdChoice poll shows broad support for gamified learning. About 3 in 4 parents said they either strongly or somewhat support online learning games used in school. The poll listed Kahoot!, MobyMax, and Prodigy as examples of game-based learning software. These gamified learning tools are exactly the type of ed tech that the American Psychological Association expressed strong reservations about in a recent report.
Still, the type of technology is one thing, but the amount of time kids spend with it is another. Nearly half of parents supportive of limits said any activity on screens should be limited to one to two hours, according to the National Parents Union poll.
Lee said Schools Beyond Screens has gained momentum not because parents are completely against technology in the classroom, but as a counter to unchecked technology in education.
“What has happened is that, especially since the pandemic, tech infiltrated absolutely everything,” she said. “All of a sudden, everything was on a screen. Reading was on a screen. Math was on a screen.”
Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org. Lily is on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook.
