Software's Benefits On Tests In Doubt

County Superintendent John E. Deasy said the programs aren't magic bullets. "No technology adds value by itself," he said. "Just employing software is not likely to lift test scores for students."

Nationally, perhaps no school system better represents the fears of industry supporters than that of Los Angeles, which spent $50 million in 2001 to buy Waterford Early Reading, distributed by software giant Pearson Digital Learning.

Ronni Ephraim, a chief instructional officer for the district, said the company gave presentations that described how successful the program was for other schools. Los Angeles school administrators soon began praising it.

"Teachers loved it. Kids loved it," Ephraim said. "Waterford gave us data from their tests that showed it was working. Everyone said, 'Oh my God! The kids are doing so well.' "

But a school district evaluation found that students using Waterford were not scoring better on standardized tests than those not using it. "I'm so embarrassed to admit this," Ephraim said, "but when we heard the results we said, 'This can't be true.' "

The Los Angeles system dropped the program from its regular classes but sometimes uses it for individual students. Ephraim said she blamed the school system, because teachers were not prepared or properly trained to use the technology.

Nonetheless, some experts said the software holds promise. Elliot Soloway, professor of educational technology at the University of Michigan, said that teachers need to be better trained and that administrators need to wait more than one year to see results. He said he worried that the study would scare off school districts.

"This is the last thing that we need now," he said. "It is the poor kids who will suffer, because it is their schools who will not get technology because of this study."

To persuade companies to participate in the study, researchers promised not to report the performances of particular programs. Among the businesses whose products were in the study were LeapFrog SchoolHouse, PLATO Learning, Scholastic Inc. and Pearson. (The Washington Post Co. owns Kaplan, a test preparation company that sells education software. Kaplan applied to be in the study but was not included.)

Although some of the companies are now criticizing the report, many were initially eager to be studied and praised researchers.

"We are proud to be the largest commercial supporter of this important study of the effectiveness of using technology in the classroom," said John Murray, president and chief executive of PLATO, in 2004.