ABSTRACT
In March of 2007 the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced the results of a yearlong natural experiment: educational software does not work (Paley, 2007). The study had been commissioned by the DOE as required by the No Child Left Behind Act to determine the effectiveness of computer software in the classroom context. A group of researchers from Mathematics Policy Research, Inc. and SRI International tested 16 educational software products designed to enhance reading and mathematics in fi rst (7 years old), fourth (10 years old), and sixth (12 years old) grade students. The researchers randomly assigned 132 schools from 33 districts to treatment (software use) or control (no software use) conditions. The experiment took place over the course of an entire school year. The results showed no signifi cant difference in learning between software and nonsoftware students.
