Concord's data · Updated for 2026

What Concord's data show

Every two years, the Emerson Youth Risk Behavior Survey reaches nearly every student in grades 6, 8, and 9 through 12, in Concord-Carlisle and other area districts. The 2026 results are in, and set beside 2024 they tell a clear story: Concord families are changing how technology works at home, and students' answers show it on almost every home measure. The school day has not moved the same way. Below are the survey's numbers side by side, and what you can do about the school day.

19%

of high schoolers report high stress from home, down from 36% in 2022

59%

report high stress from schoolwork, barely changed from 64% in 2022

57%

of sixth graders keep devices out of the bedroom at night, up from 43% in 2024

77%

of high schoolers say phones are allowed outside class, at lunch and between classes

Figures from the Emerson Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Concord-Carlisle students.

Two years later · The student survey

Concord families are doing their part

In 2024, students said they were spending too much time on their phones, sleeping beside them, and running into trouble online. Families heard it. By 2026, students report closer watch at home, devices leaving the bedroom, and steep drops in online harms.

20242026

Closer watch at home

More parents are setting and checking limits, including in high school, where monitoring had always dropped off. Higher is better.

Parents monitor their phone use8th grade

202458%

202671%

Parents monitor their phone useHigh school

202431%

202640%

Parents monitor their social media6th grade

202452%

202664%

Feel supported by familyHigh school

202490%

202693%

Healthier nights

Devices are leaving bedrooms, and fewer students are woken by them. Phones out of the bedroom: higher is better. The rest: lower is better.

No devices in the bedroom at night6th grade

202443%

202657%

No devices in the bedroom at nightHigh school

202413%

202619%

Woken at least once a night by a deviceHigh school

20246%

20262%

Sleep 7 hours or less on school nightsHigh school

202477%

202670%

Fewer online harms

Every measure of risky online experience fell, most of them steeply. Lower is better.

Unwanted contact from someone onlineHigh school

202414%

20266%

Sent or received sexual imagesHigh school

202420%

20267%

Saw pornography in the past monthHigh school

202443%

202629%

Feel they spend too much time on their phone6th grade

202430%

202614%

Each card shows the grade where the change is clearest. Every grade, for every measure, is in the full table further down the page.

The district's own goal

Stress from home fell by half. Stress from school barely moved.

The district's Strategic Plan sets a goal to cut student stress in half from 2022 levels, measured by this survey. The survey asks about two sources of stress separately. One of them is on track. The other is not.

202220242026Goal: half of 2022

Stress from home

Goal met in 8th grade, nearly met in high school

8th gradeGoal: 14%

202227%

202417%

202613%

High schoolGoal: 18%

202236%

202424%

202619%

Share reporting somewhat or very high stress from events or pressure at home.

Stress from schoolwork

Far from the goal, and up in 8th grade

8th gradeGoal: 22%

202243%

202448%

202645%

High schoolGoal: 32%

202264%

202461%

202659%

Share reporting somewhat or very high stress from school or academic workload.

36% to 19%

High schoolers reporting high stress from home, 2022 to 2026. For eighth graders it fell from 27% to 13%, beating the district's goal.

64% to 59%

High schoolers reporting high stress from schoolwork over the same years. Reaching the goal means getting to 32%. For eighth graders, school stress rose from 43% to 45%.

Both bars in each panel use the same scale, so lengths compare directly. Sixth graders' stress fell from both sources (home 16% to 14%, schoolwork 36% to 29%, 2022 to 2026); see the full table.

Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School and Concord-Carlisle High School

Where phones stay off from bell to bell, the gains are biggest

Concord's schools have two different phone rules, and between 2024 and 2026 the two groups' results moved very differently.

Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School

Off and in backpacks, bell to bell

Phones are turned off and left in students' backpacks for the whole school day. Elementary schools follow the same rule.

Concord-Carlisle High School

Put away during class only

Phones only required to be put away during class. They may be used during lunch, passing time, and all other time outside class.

How every grade changed, 2024 to 2026

Felt depressed for two weeks or more

In the past year. Lower is better.

Cut in half6th grade

202421%

202610%

Down8th grade

202411%

20268%

No changeHigh school

202414%

202614%

Feel they spend too much time on their phone

Lower is better.

Cut in half6th grade

202430%

202614%

Down8th grade

202433%

202626%

Down slightlyHigh school

202451%

202646%

Concord-Carlisle High School has bright spots too: fewer students say they lose focus in class because of their phones (42% to 29%), and more are getting more than seven hours of sleep. But on mood, high schoolers stand still. The same 14% felt depressed for two weeks or more in both years, while the rate among sixth graders was cut in half.

State test scores · MCAS, 2019 vs. 2026

Elementary and high school scores are still below pre-pandemic levels

MCAS is the state's standardized test. Below is the share of Concord students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2026, set beside 2019, the last year before the pandemic on the same test.

20192026

Not recovered

Elementary

Grades 3 to 5, at Alcott, Thoreau, and Willard

English language arts

201979%

202664%

Math

201980%

202666%

15 points below 2019 in English and 14 in math. 2026 is the lowest year on record for this test in both subjects.

Back to 2019

Middle school

Grades 6 to 8, at the Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School

English language arts

201973%

202672%

Math

201967%

202673%

Back to 2019 levels. But 2019 was already a low bar: middle school scores had fallen from 2017 to 2019.

Not recovered

High school

Grade 10, at Concord-Carlisle High School

English language arts

201986%

202673%

Math

201988%

202681%

Math settled 7 points below 2019. English held near 85% through 2025, then fell 11 points in 2026 alone.

What changed in the school day

Concord gave students their own school devices around 2016, well before the pandemic. During remote learning, screen-based schoolwork grew sharply, and it has never been scaled back by design.

There are no districtwide guidelines on how much of the day students spend on screens, and the district doesn't measure it: the student survey asks only about screen time after school. Each teacher decides. The superintendent has agreed to look into school-day screen time this year. In middle and high school especially, much of students' learning now happens on a screen.

What the research shows

Across countries in the 2022 PISA international test, students who used devices for learning at school up to an hour a day scored higher in math than students who used none. Students distracted by classmates' devices in math class scored 15 points lower.

A review of 54 studies with more than 170,000 readers found people understand what they read better on paper than on a screen, and the gap grew between 2000 and 2017.

OECD, PISA 2022 results; Delgado et al., Educational Research Review, 2018

Concord can't yet say whether its screens are helping students learn or getting in the way, because the district isn't measuring. That's why we ask for a screen time report and evidence before any tool is adopted.

See the Efficacy priorities

Free event · Tuesday, November 17 in Concord

Want to go deeper? Neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath on Your Child’s Brain in a Screen-Saturated World.

See the event

MCAS results from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, all students. Elementary and middle figures combine grades, weighted by students tested. Scores reflect many things, including the pandemic itself and, for grade 10, the end of MCAS as a graduation requirement starting in 2025.

See every 2024 and 2026 figure, by grade

	6th grade		8th grade		High school
Measure	2024	2026	2024	2026	2024	2026
At home
Parents monitor their phone use	70%	78%	58%	71%	31%	40%
Parents monitor their social media	52%	64%	43%	53%	19%	25%
Have a social media account parents don't know about	15%	2%	13%	10%	19%	13%
Feel supported by family	93%	93%	90%	95%	90%	93%
Nights and sleep
No devices in the bedroom at night	43%	57%	26%	32%	13%	19%
Keep a phone in the bedroom at night	38%	28%	64%	58%	81%	75%
Woken at least once a night by a device	10%	3%	5%	2%	6%	2%
Sleep 7 hours or less on school nights	40%	37%	49%	47%	77%	70%
Screens and phones
6 or more hours of non-school screen time on weekdays	10%	6%	16%	10%	13%	9%
Feel they spend too much time on their phone	30%	14%	33%	26%	51%	46%
Often or always feel they must answer messages right away	33%	24%	25%	24%	27%	22%
Lose focus in class because of their phone, at least occasionally	15%	6%	30%	20%	42%	29%
Online
Unwanted contact from someone online	17%	4%	9%	7%	14%	6%
Sent or received sexual images	11%	1%	13%	3%	20%	7%
Saw pornography in the past month	30%	8%	38%	19%	43%	29%
Well-being
Felt depressed for two weeks or more	21%	10%	11%	8%	14%	14%
Hard time making it through stressful events	33%	25%	32%	23%	28%	21%
High stress from home	20%	14%	17%	13%	24%	19%
High stress from schoolwork	38%	29%	48%	45%	61%	59%

Sources: the 2026 Emerson Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Concord-Carlisle Regional School District, conducted in March 2026 by Market Street Research for Emerson Health and the district (69% of the district's 1,588 enrolled students responded), and the 2024 Emerson Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted in spring 2024 (79% of 1,677 enrolled students responded). Every comparison uses the same questions, asked of the same grades, in the same schools; where the district's goal is measured from 2022, we show 2022 too. Figures are for Concord-Carlisle students as published in the 2026 report. One 2026 chart, weekday hours on social media, appears to repeat the numbers from another chart, so we have left it out until it is confirmed.

A snapshot from Concord families

What families told us

In spring 2026, 71 Concord public-school families answered our community survey. It's a self-selected snapshot, not a scientific poll, but it points the same way as the student survey.

90%

64 of 71 families

flagged phones or screen time during the school day as a concern.

68%

48 of 71 families

say the district communicates "not well" about technology in schools.

82%

58 of 71 families

say a K-8 Technology Advisory Committee would be "extremely valuable."

The Concord Tech Impressions Survey, April to May 2026. Still open: add your voice.

What Concord's data show

Concord families are doing their part

Closer watch at home

Healthier nights

Fewer online harms

Stress from home fell by half. Stress from school barely moved.

Stress from home

Stress from schoolwork

Where phones stay off from bell to bell, the gains are biggest

Off and in backpacks, bell to bell

Put away during class only

Felt depressed for two weeks or more

Feel they spend too much time on their phone

Elementary and high school scores are still below pre-pandemic levels

Elementary

Middle school

High school

What changed in the school day

What the research shows

What families told us

Families are doing more to keep kids safe at home. Here's how to advocate for your child to be safer at school.

Set guardrails on your child's school device

Ask your child's teacher or principal

Sign the AI request

Bring these numbers to the School Committee