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Today in Williamsburg, I ran into two high school seniors on their way back from summer school. The students — Miguel, 18, and Edward, 20 — both carried cell phones.

I asked them to explain how they got their phones into Automotive High School, which has lines of security guards and metal detectors at the entrance. Like all city schools, Automotive abides by Chancellor Joel Klein’s cell phone ban.

Here is what they told me.

Department of Education employees reined in their text-message habits this month after a change meant to curb unprofessional use of city-owned phones.

Since July 15, thousands of principals, assistant principals, and members of the central administration have had to prove that they send text messages for professional reasons. Then they can pay $20 a month to have the service reactivated, spokeswoman Ann Forte said. (Principals can subtract the charge from their school budgets, according to Forte.)

All parent coordinators have cell phones and will retain their text messaging capability, Forte said.

The department pledged in May to cut $20 million from its central administration budget. Eliminating text messaging could save some money, but the change was not meant as a cost-cutting measure, Forte said. Instead, she said, it was an attempt to curb excessive personal use of city-owned phones.

The department will reactivate the service for employees who prove that they text for professional reasons, Forte said. (more…)

Cell phones are banned in the New York City schools, but elsewhere, EdWeek reports, frustrated school officials are trying new tactics.

One Minnesota school lets students use their phones, just not during class. Another may soon require students to leave their silenced cell phones on their desks, where they can be easily monitored, presumably to prevent distractions and cheating by text message.

In light of the many ways students try to avoid detection, I wonder whether they will all own up to having phones and display them, or whether they’ll claim not to and keep right on texting?

“It’s obvious to teachers, but (students) put binders up a little higher, they put their purse in a certain spot, they can text from the side, from the hip — there’s a lot of different ways.”

It also helps that Flynn and many students are so proficient they can text without looking at their phones.

The student’s comment that “it’s obvious to teachers” rings true to me. A good teacher who is alert to what’s happening in the classroom will quickly spot most students thanks to odd posture or divided attention.

It’s been a big year for the DOE. In September, it won the Broad Prize, given each year to an urban school district that has improved its poor and minority students’ test scores. This spring, students continued on their upward trajectory, at least according to the state math and reading scores that were released yesterday. But the biggest coup may have happened this past weekend, when the DOE, in partnership with the agency Droga5, snagged a prestigious international advertising award given each year to the “most innovative and ground-breaking idea” in advertising.

The DOE took home the Cannes Lion Titanium Award for the “Million” Motivation Campaign, which aims to increase students’ engagement with school through the use of cell phones. Through a partnership with Verizon and Samsung, the DOE gave cell phones to 2,500 students in seven middle schools. The number of minutes available to each student depended on their performance in school; a child who successfully completed all of his work, therefore, would have more minutes to use than a lackluster student. When the program launched last fall, the DOE planned to use the phones to deliver motivational text and voice messages, sometimes from celebrities such as Jay-Z; it’s not clear whether that portion of the campaign has been rolled out yet.

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