A parent’s recent opinion piece in the Washington Post stopped us in our tracks. The author and her husband had imagined their daughter’s kindergarten classroom filled with books, art supplies, building blocks, and conversation. What they didn't expect was their 5-year-old coming home reciting pharmaceutical ads from YouTube and asking to watch "KPop Demon Hunters" after seeing clips in class.

This struck a nerve for our community manager, Kate Rice, because her 5-year-old also came home from school one day obsessed with KPop Demon Hunters. Pop culture is fun (and those songs are catchy). But, she wondered why this was introduced during the school day.

It's a fair question. Most of us remember the rare, magical moment when the teacher wheeled in the TV cart. It happened a handful of times a year—right before a holiday break, or as a reward after a big test. It was an event. Today, for many kids, screens in class aren't a special occasion. They're the default from an early age.

This newsletter isn't another "screens bad, books good" debate. We already covered that in a previous issue. The concerns that American adults are voicing right now are more specific. After spending billions getting tech into the hands of every student, how are our kids actually using that technology in school? What are they learning? And who is directing them—making sure they don’t visit random websites or start playing games?

Answers are emerging across all age groups. Put simply, technology can absolutely be used to support learning. But human learning, by nature, isn’t passive. It requires active instruction from a real teacher making sure it happens, without distraction. And it requires that students actively practice the skills they’ve learned.

TL;DR: There’s a huge difference between a self-directed child sitting alone with a video or app, and a child working with an expert teacher who is using a screen as a tool. One of these is still instruction. The other is just a screen.

This distinction is exactly what our Summer Reading Programs are built on — live, online classes led by highly trained teachers, not algorithms. We use technology to reach as many kids as possible with real reading instruction that builds core skills and confidence.

In today’s issue:

• Replacing read-alouds is hurting early literacy

• Getting off-topic online gets kids off-track academically

• What $30 billion in classroom tech really cost

Content without Context

Earlier this year in rural Michigan, a single conversation led to the drastic decision to ban digital devices from classrooms at Mesick Elementary School. Superintendent Jack Ledford asked his principal how much teachers were reading aloud to students in grades K through 5. Her answer was devastating: “That has almost vanished.”

It's tempting to think Mesick is an extreme case. But their superintendent put his finger on something important. Screens had quietly replaced the thing young readers need most: an adult reading to them, talking with them, noticing the moment they're confused.

The cognitive science backs this up. As one Washington Post contributor — herself a DC public school parent — recently wrote, the youngest readers learn best through sustained attention, repetition, and conversation. Completely self-directed screen time isn’t effective for them.

And beginning readers need a lot of help right now. A national survey of kindergarten teachers conducted last fall found that nearly three-quarters say today's kindergartners are already behind in early literacy compared to five years ago. Almost 90% report shorter attention spans during reading activities. They need instruction from a warm, inspiring reading teacher.

Distraction without Direction

Schools spent years fighting to keep smartphones out of classrooms in order to prevent ‘distractions’ from learning. Now a former English teacher has captured the irony perfectly in a piece for the Fordham Institute: "Schools ban phones but allow access through one-to-one computing to many of the same diversions."

Kids have always found new ways to goof off at school. But Education Next explains why technology has made this natural tendency more severe. They aren’t “passing notes” or “sneaking a comic between textbook pages” anymore. Instead, they “play games or browse YouTube in class” in a way that is almost impossible for teachers to catch and correct.

Schools across the country are finally pushing back. Principals who once championed personal device programs are locking Chromebooks away and returning to more teacher-led instruction during the school day. The verdict from educators on the front lines: "This technology can be a tool. It is not the answer to education."

Late elementary students are in a critical window for building reading comprehension. They need a teacher guiding them toward deeper understanding in a wide variety of texts across subjects. Lack of direction, coupled with tempting distractions, is incredibly costly for their academic achievement (For more on why active engagement matters so much at this stage, see our earlier issue on learning to read to learn.).

Teaching Requires a TEACHER

Evidence has been building for years. In 2024 alone, the U.S. spent $30 billion putting devices in classrooms. But test scores aren’t budging. The issue has never been the technology itself. It is that technology, on its own, cannot teach.

Earlier this year, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath testified before the U.S. Senate that Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the one before it — and that more screen time in school correlates with worse scores across 80 countries. His conclusion was careful but clear: "This is not a debate about rejecting technology. It is a question of aligning educational tools with how human learning actually works."

The schools pulling back on devices aren't going backward. They're intentionally returning. Not to a particular format, but to a person. A skilled teacher who sees students, responds to them, and holds them to a genuine standard.

The screen isn’t the problem. Who’s on the other side of it is what matters. That's why IRD’s online Summer Reading Programs don’t run on an algorithm. They are led by expert teachers, trained to ensure that every child reads, speaks, and is heard in every single session.