A new study by the U.S. Department of Education
finds that educational software has little effect on standardized test scores. The Washington Post story also highlights purchasing scandals at some school districts.
The biggest news to me is that the software is purchased by the school district and used by individual teachers, who sometimes are not trained in how to use the software, but who all use the software in different ways. Most surprising is that some teachers even use the software differently for different students.
Centralized decisions on how to educate children do not produce better results. Charter schools provide more choice to parents at less cost to taxpayers and avoid million-dollar bets on specific software programs that may not work.
Can we now recognize the need to remove the cap on charters and provide more choices for parents?
