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Poor schools, rich targets

About this series
Across the country, education software companies are trying to capitalize on the 2001 No Child Left Behind law by targeting struggling schools that are under pressure to raise their test scores and have millions in new federal funding to spend. But there is little solid research behind much of the software, which may not produce lasting results for the poor students the law claims to help.

September 21, 2004

Law, software fuel new 'digital divide'

CAMDEN, N.J. -- When it comes to the teachers in their classrooms, the students in this impoverished city have to settle for less than the best. A lot less.

September 21, 2004

Poor schools, rich targets

Careful choices, good results

In downplaying concerns about a new "digital divide," education software vendors argue that poor districts tend to buy more rudimentary programs because their students' needs call for a remedial approach.

September 21, 2004

Poor schools, rich targets

You're wrong, but don't ask why

When experts in education technology look at the drilling software being used in many poor districts, they don't just see the makings of a new "digital divide." They see a wasted investment.

September 20, 2004

Poor schools, rich targets

Evidence of effectiveness proves elusive

Second in a series

September 20, 2004

Software business profits from influence, good timing

In benefiting from No Child Left Behind, the education software industry can point to two factors: influence in Washington and plain old good timing.

September 20, 2004

In-school trials of software can be easily influenced

Lacking good research about education software, school districts often do their own evaluations. But their trials are easily influenced by software vendors -- or by administrators already inclined toward buying the product.

September 19, 2004

Pitching the quick fix

Earlier this year, two salespeople drove deep into the coal country of southern West Virginia on an improbable mission: selling expensive education software in one of the poorest corners of America. Logan County does not look like promising sales territory. Its mines have laid off thousands, methamphetamine labs abound, and every spring flooding creeks threaten impoverished hollows. Its population has dropped 35 percent in the past four decades.

September 19, 2004

Industry says it makes sales, makes a difference

When challenged about their focus on selling to struggling districts, education software executives respond with vehemence. They focus their efforts on troubled schools not only to make sales, they say, but to make a difference.

September 19, 2004

Parties, perks and peer pitches lure schools

When Karen Stanford, the technology director at Hyattsville Elementary School, ran into one of her school district's administrators at the annual Maryland education technology convention in May, she had one question: Why wasn't the administrator on the cruise the night before?

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