Software doesn't boost student performance, study says
Educational software, a $2 billion-a-year industry that has become the darling of school systems across the country, has no significant effect on student performance, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Education. The report amounts to a rebuke of educational technology, a business whose growth has been spurred by schools searching for ways to meet the testing mandates of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The technology has been embraced by low-performing schools as an easy way to boost student test scores.