At Gorham High School in Maine, James Welsch teaches American politics almost entirely through digital means. However, he noticed that essays submitted online were increasingly fragmented and less articulate, prompting him to require some first drafts to be crafted by hand.
This shift highlights the challenges of what the Bloomberg editorial board has termed an unsuccessful edtech initiative. While intelligence quotient (IQ) scores in Western countries climbed steadily for over a century due to educational expansion, this trend reversed approximately twenty years ago.
Generation Z is the first in modern history to perform worse on standardized assessments than their parents, with declines observed in IQ, numeracy, literacy, and creativity.
A 15-Year Statewide Experiment in Maine Yields No Academic Improvement
In 2002, Maine pioneered a statewide laptop initiative, where Governor Angus King distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools, aiming to boost internet access among students. By 2016, this program expanded to include 66,000 laptops and tablets, at an annual cost of about $12 million, approximately 1% of the state's education budget.
After 15 years, NPR reported that test scores across Maine remained unchanged. Amy Johnson from the University of Southern Maine suggested the issue lay in poor implementation rather than the concept itself.
While schools acquired devices, teachers often lacked sufficient training to integrate technology effectively into teaching.
“The absence of widespread improvements in student achievement suggests we still need to support educators in adopting best practices for tech use in classrooms,” Johnson explained.
NPR’s investigation further revealed socioeconomic disparities: students in affluent areas utilized laptops for creative projects, whereas those in less privileged and rural schools mostly engaged with basic tools like PowerPoint and Word.
A program intended to close educational gaps inadvertently widened them.
Former governor Paul LePage labeled the initiative a “massive failure,” a judgment Fortune later echoed as Maine’s experiment concluded.
Nationwide Adoption Did Not Improve Scores
Maine’s early adoption was soon mirrored nationwide. The Bloomberg editorial board reported in early 2026 that U.S. schools invested roughly $30 billion in edtech in 2024, ten times the expenditure on textbooks that year.
Bloomberg also projected this spending could double within six years.
Despite this massive investment, student performance failed to improve. Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, highlighting that despite unprecedented tech access, Gen Z scores on standardized testing declined compared to previous generations. Citing the Program for International Student Assessment data of 15-year-olds globally, he demonstrated a clear link between more classroom screen time and poorer academic results.
Screens now dominate much of the school day. A 2021 EdWeek Research Center poll involving 846 teachers found that 55% of students spent between one and four hours daily using educational tech, while 25% used it more than five hours. Fewer than 1% of teachers said their students did not use educational technology at all.
“This discussion is not about rejecting technology outright,” Horvath stated in his testimony. “The challenge lies in adapting educational tools to align with effective learning processes; unregulated digital increase has weakened rather than enhanced education.”
Distractions Dominate Laptop Use
A significant factor undermining learning gains is students diverting attention to unrelated activities.
A 2014 study from the journal Computers and Education observed nearly 3,000 university students and found that 63% of laptop screen time was spent off-task. Surveys reported a similar 61%.
Note-taking was the primary on-task activity, while social media was the leading distraction.
In large lecture settings, students could easily avoid detection while disengaging. Though this study focused on higher education rather than high schools, the findings mirror what Welsch has seen at Gorham High.
Horvath emphasized that constant attention shifts disrupt learning by delaying refocus, impairing memory retention, and increasing error rates.
Jean Twenge, psychology professor at San Diego State University and expert on generational trends, explained to Fortune that the problem involves more than distraction.
“Many social media and gaming apps are engineered to be addictive,” Twenge said. “Their business models rely on users spending maximum time and frequently returning.”
TikTok’s Design Engages Users More than Educational Tools
A forthcoming 2025 study from Baylor University sheds light on why students struggle to concentrate on schoolwork amid competing digital distractions.
Researchers James A. Roberts and Meredith E. David of Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business compared three short-form video apps on ease of use, recommendation accuracy, and surprise factor. They found TikTok excelled across all categories.
The instant video playback on TikTok creates a seamless, immersive experience unlike other platforms requiring user input to start videos, enhancing the app’s ease of use.
“TikTok’s success in keeping users scrolling combines effortlessness, accurate recommendations, and surprise,” David explained. “Effortlessness underpins the others; without it, they’d be less effective.”
The study concluded TikTok's design fosters addiction by first boosting engagement, leading users to lose track of time — a phenomenon called time distortion.
Educational Technology’s Challenges Reflect Policy Mistakes
The evidence does not equate school laptops with social media but points to a shared outcome: Maine’s extensive laptop program brought no academic benefits despite high costs, and a generation educated with these devices now demonstrates unprecedented cognitive declines.
Horvath told Fortune this reflects systemic policy failure, not student shortcomings.
“When I speak with teenagers, I remind them it’s not their fault. They didn’t choose to spend their entire schooling behind screens,” he said. “We made the mistake.”
Some states are taking corrective steps. By August 2025, 17 states restricted cellphone use in classrooms during lessons, and 35 states enacted laws limiting phones in schools. Over 75% of schools have policies against nonacademic cellphone use, though enforcement varies, as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics.
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