The Canon-McMillan school district in Pennsylvania, which serves approximately 5,400 students near Pittsburgh, has implemented a significant reduction in classroom technology usage, particularly for younger students. Beginning with the current school year, students in kindergarten through second grade will no longer have regular access to school-issued laptops or tablets. Students in grades 3 through 8 will have limited access to Chromebooks through shared carts rather than individual devices, while high school students will continue to receive their own school-issued devices for classroom and home use.
District Superintendent Greg Taranto explained that the policy shift reflects a growing body of research suggesting that students learn more effectively from paper-based materials and direct teacher-student interaction than from extended screen time. The district has been progressively emphasizing hard copy textbooks and workbooks for several years, and this decision represents an intentional effort to maximize human-to-human interaction during the school day. Taranto noted that classroom teachers in core subjects will continue to use Chromebooks for specific purposes such as typing essays, conducting research, running science simulations, and accessing learning management systems, but the devices will not be primary instructional tools.
The superintendent indicated that the decision has received widespread support from parents, the school board, teachers, and administrators. The district plans to maintain robust technology education programs, including partnerships with Carnegie Mellon University for advanced programming classes, ensuring students develop necessary digital literacy skills. The district will monitor the policy’s effectiveness through informal feedback from staff, teachers, and parents rather than formal measurement systems.
Taranto acknowledged that Pennsylvania’s mandate for online state testing presents a challenge to the district’s efforts to reduce screen time and recommended that the state reconsider requiring paper-and-pencil testing options. He suggested that other districts considering similar changes should start incrementally by selecting specific subject areas for transitioning to hard copy materials as curriculum purchasing cycles occur, rather than attempting a complete overhaul in a single year.
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