Next week, school leaders will flock to the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee to share what's working for them and learn from one another. We've put together a preview of nine sessions we're particularly looking forward to. The whole program is available here.

In this episode:

• 1:57-8:30--Emily DeBaker and Debbie Brewster on School Finance Storytelling
• 8:55-16:10--Andrea Gribble on Building Trust through Social Media
• 16:44-23:27--Lisa Pugh and Dan Keyser on Hosting a Legislative Day
• 24:03-28:31--Kris Meloy on becoming a Data-Informed, Student-Driven district.
• 28:51-30:39--Sonya Ganther on Strategic Teacher Compensation.
• 31:02-33:52--Randy Guttenberg on Strategic Succession Planning.
• 34:26-41:10--Vince Bruenig, Matthew Horan, Tyler Potter on Building a District-Wide STEAM program
• 41:30-44:40--Jenny Gracyalny on Community Partnerships in CTE, YA and ACP
• 45:05-50:21--Bryan Davis and Sam Coleman on Improving Literacy through School-Community Partnerships.

Alyssa Burrage and Luke Pinion join Derek to talk about their districts' experiences with designing and rolling out personal communications devices policies over the last several years. What gave rise to the need, how did it all go, what have been the effects so far, and what advice might they have for others?

In this episode, Derek reviews the research literature on the effects of implementing a personal-devices policy in schools; and then Rob joins the conversation to talk the things that staff, students, and parents want a phone ban to achieve -- and they're not the same!

If you're interested in surveying your stakeholders, reach out!

Below is a brief bibliography of the studies references in the episode.

• Abrahamsson, S. (2024). Smartphone bans, student outcomes, and mental health. NHH Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper No. 01. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4735240

• Adams, M. (2019). Threading the Cyber-Needle: protecting children by banning smartphones in school while still embracing technology. U. Pac. L. Rev., 51, 245. (https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1243&context=uoplawreview)

• Beland, L. P., & Murphy, R. (2016). Ill communication: technology, distraction & student performance. Labour Economics, 41, 61-76. (https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/62574/1/dp1350.pdf)

• Böttger, T., & Zierer, K. (2024). To ban or not to ban? A rapid review on the impact of smartphone bans in schools on social well-being and academic performance. Education Sciences, 14(8), 906. (https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/8/906)

• Campbell, M., Edwards, E. J., Pennell, D., Poed, S., Lister, V., Gillett-Swan, J., ... & Nguyen, T. A. (2024). Evidence for and against banning mobile phones in schools: A scoping review. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 34(3), 242-265. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20556365241270394)

• Doffing, E. (2018). Effective Technology Policies: How To Create And Implement An Effective Policy For Personal Devices In Secondary Schools.

• Dontre, A. J. (2021). The influence of technology on academic distraction: A review. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(3), 379-390.

• Figlio, D. N., & Özek, U. (2025). The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida (No. w34388). National Bureau of Economic Research. (https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w34388/w34388.pdf)

• Kessel, D., Hardardottir, H. L., & Tyrefors, B. (2020). The impact of banning mobile phones in Swedish secondary schools. Economics of Education Review, 77, 102009. (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=3617386)

• King, D. L., Radunz, M., Galanis, C. R., Quinney, B., & Wade, T. (2024). “Phones off while school's on”: Evaluating problematic phone use and the social, wellbeing, and academic effects of banning phones in schools. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 13(4), 913-922. (https://akjournals.com/downloadpdf/view/journals/2006/13/4/article-p913.pdf)

• McCoy, B. R. (2020). Gen Z and digital distractions in the classroom: Student classroom use of digital devices for non-class related purposes. (https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=journalismfacpub)

• Rahali, M., Kidron, B., & Livingstone, S. (2024). Smartphone policies in schools: What does the evidence say?. (https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125554/1/Smartphone_policies_in_schools_Rahali_et_al_2024_002_.pdf)

• Selwyn, N., & Aagaard, J. (2021). Banning mobile phones from classrooms—An opportunity to advance understandings of technology addiction, distraction and cyberbullying. British journal of educational technology, 52(1), 8-19. (https://pure.au.dk/portal/files/285092954/Banning_mobile_phones_from_classrooms_accepted_manuscript_2020.pdf)

• Toth, D. M. (2022). Ohio principals with students in grades 6 through 12 and their perceptions and procedures on student cell phone use within their schools. Youngstown State University. (https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=ysu1646989570155478&disposition=inline)

Tammy Champa sits down with Derek to talk about her experience with transforming school climate in Hastings, Minnesota.

Here we revisit the impact of Wisconsin's landmark Act 10 legislation, which gave Wisconsin district leaders unprecedented flexibility to experiment with teacher compensation. Dr. Steve Kimball, from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, talks about WCER's recent follow-up study, tracking what districts have done with that flexibility. And our own Daren Sievers recounts his process of developing a new compensation system in Slinger -- a model that remains in place all these years later.

Dr. Stephen Plum, superintendent of the Kettle Moraine School District, joins us to talk about the task of triangulating staff, student, and parent survey information -- and putting it all together with attendance and achievement data -- in order to improve parent engagement, staff compensation, and student experiences.

For more information about our staff, student, and parent surveys, visit our website!

Roy de la Garza, veteran school leader with experience in the Houston Independent School District and Carlsbad Municipal Schools, joins us to share what he's learned about how to improve student behavior, staff buy-in, and school climate all at once.

For our suite of tools to help district and school leaders do their work well, visit our website!

Steve Schroeder, of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and Kelly Thompson, of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, join Derek to talk about what makes for great board/superintendent relationships and how those can go awry.

Use our leadership tools to help get or to help keep your administration and your school board aligned!