An average high school student’s attention span is about 10-15 minutes and 25-30 minutes per subject. A normal class period is about 45-60 minutes. However, some teachers are saying that the attention span of a high school student is less than that.

“Right now max, about 5 minutes,” PE coach Savannah Metts said.

Cell phones may be the cause of this decline.

“According to a recent study, we are spending so much time online that we are causing ‘acute and sustained’ changes to the way our brains work,” Gavin Esler said in an online article. 98% of teens use their phone up to 8 hours a day.

In addition to teens being connected to their cell phones continually, almost 20% of students have dyslexia and 9.5% of students have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Teens who have dyslexia or ADHD already have a harder time keeping up with their grades and have a shorter attention span in school.

Most teens with ADHD have better grades in the subjects they like rather than subjects they don’t like.