Kansas middle school CUTS tech use in return to focused learning [0:00-2:20]

The schools across the country re-evaluating tech in the classroom to try and limit distractions. One middle school in Kansas, now asking their students, give back those problems. I love this idea. Joining us now is that principal from McPherson Middle School, Inga Esping. A principal Esping, thank you so much for joining us. So tell us what led to this decision to limit Chromebook use in the classroom. Well, four years ago, our school decided to go cell phone free and we saw just a huge benefit to that with both our culture and our student focus by not having cell phones. Last spring, we had one teacher in our building leadership team just finally say out loud, what if we need to look at Chromebooks next? I'm still frustrated. I'm trying to manage devices when I really want to be focusing on the academics of my students. We knew the research really indicates that student screen time is a huge concern and our school wanted to do our part in lessening student screen time overall. So over our winter break, our students returned their one-to-one devices. We still do have Chromebooks available in the classrooms, but we really wanted to have less distractions overall for our students and a greater focus on the academics. Great. What's been the reaction from the kids, Inga? Really for the most part, students have been really okay with it. We've definitely had some students struggle with executive functioning skills. Organization has been something we've really had to intentionally teach. But for the most part, students who are saying, I do feel less distracted in class. I'm focusing more on my teacher. I'm worrying less about online activities. So for the most part, students have also been very positive about the change. I'm going to try and squeeze in one more question. No four. We've got 30 seconds, cell phones and friends. Have grades changed as a result, really quickly to you. You know, at first, grades really went down because we've not asked students to organize and hold on to their work before. We are now seeing less failing grades than we've had all school years. So we've seen a huge benefit already in such a short time. Challenging the mind. That's awesome. Principal Epstein. We thank you for joining us. I'm Steve Ducy. I'm Brian Killme. And I'm meansly Earhart. And click here to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page to catch our hottest interviews and most compelling analysis.