Screen time in ES

[Anonymous]

Parents of MCPS ES kids, can you provide insight into how many minutes of screen time your kids get a day in school, as part of their instruction?

I attended an Open House recently and every room in K and 1 was teaching with a big screen at the front of the room.

Even the PE teacher was telling kids the activities they would be doing in the gym that day by pointing to a big screen.

Is this the case everywhere?

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about the big smart boards? I don't count those as screen time (unless a video is being played on them.) They are very common but they're basically just the modern equivalent of a blackboard or white board.

[Anonymous]

I do think there is too much actual screen time-- my kindergartener is on a Chromebook for a half-hour or so during FIT time multiple times a week-- but that's a separate issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about the big smart boards? I don't count those as screen time (unless a video is being played on them.) They are very common but they're basically just the modern equivalent of a blackboard or white board.

NP

I agree, but my child says they sometimes watch videos on them, which blackboards and whiteboards don't do.

[Anonymous]

I’m an MCPS teacher (ESOL) who goes into classrooms in various grades. There is entirely too much screen usage—in addition to slides and educational videos on the smart board, the students do research on PebbleGo, do math and reading games that track data, and do testing on laptops.

However, it’s not an easy fix. Teachers are required to use the curriculum and stay on the pace set by the county, there’s very little room for creativity. They are required to do this testing, and if the students don’t know how to use the platforms properly then they won’t get scores that match their abilities.

It’s a systematic problem and yes, very disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS teacher (ESOL) who goes into classrooms in various grades. There is entirely too much screen usage—in addition to slides and educational videos on the smart board, the students do research on PebbleGo, do math and reading games that track data, and do testing on laptops.

However, it’s not an easy fix. Teachers are required to use the curriculum and stay on the pace set by the county, there’s very little room for creativity. They are required to do this testing, and if the students don’t know how to use the platforms properly then they won’t get scores that match their abilities.

It’s a systematic problem and yes, very disappointing.

Thank you for sharing this. EdTech has been such a disaster for student learning.

On the national test, students’ reading scores were the worst in three decades, and math scores were the lowest since 2005.

The scores are at least partially explained by the pandemic and school closures. But they also reflect broader societal changes, including an increase in time spent in front of screens for both young people and adults. The decline was primarily driven by lower-scoring students, who have been losing ground for a decade.

The results have vast consequences for a generation of students, the U.S. economy and the country, which already ranks 28th in the world for math, behind Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and nearly every other major industrialized democracy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/us/reading-math-scores-declines-impact.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS teacher (ESOL) who goes into classrooms in various grades. There is entirely too much screen usage—in addition to slides and educational videos on the smart board, the students do research on PebbleGo, do math and reading games that track data, and do testing on laptops.

However, it’s not an easy fix. Teachers are required to use the curriculum and stay on the pace set by the county, there’s very little room for creativity. They are required to do this testing, and if the students don’t know how to use the platforms properly then they won’t get scores that match their abilities.

It’s a systematic problem and yes, very disappointing.

PP, our MCPS MS and HS have been rolling classroom screen usage back in the last two years. They realize that the Chromebooks are not working, and students were not learning enough. Please tell your administration that this is happening. Urge them to consult with their ES administrator peers on ways to ensure the students know the platforms well enough to take tests, but still use them minimally on a daily basis. I appreciate your dedication.