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Merit Software, a publisher of software since the 1980's, has commissioned ongoing studies on the impact of Merit software on student achievement. This study is a follow-up and extension of an earlier study conducted at Calhoun County Middle School in rural West Virginia. The first study demonstrated that Merit Math software improved the achievement of students in grades six and eight on all nine of the SAT-9 variables. The current study investigated whether Merit software has improved the achievement of middle school students in an urban setting in southern West Virginia in science, mathematics,

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB] in 2001, public school systems in the United States became heightened to "Twenty-First Century Learning Skills" and technically based instruction. Schools, school leaders and teachers increasingly turned to technology to help meet the compliance standards of the new federal mandates, particularly in reading and mathematics achievement (No Child Left Behind, 2001). Computer-based instruction progressively became the means in schools for enhancing reading and literacy achievement and the tools for correcting and remediating reading deficiencies. Likewise, educational software manufacturers found their products in great demand and heralded in a vast assortment of reading and language arts instructional software. Whether school districts paid attention beforehand to the available research regarding the overall effects of instructional technology products and resources is an important question. There is an enormous amount of research literature examining the effects of instructional technology interventions and related products on student achievement, albeit invariant. Regardless, school districts in the United States are subjected to the political pressures of NCLB and the need to substantiate school/student compliance levels in math and reading achievement. Consequently, schools have invested greatly in the promise of commercial instructional technology. Kinnaman (1990) foreshadowed the issue in a summary of microcomputers and schools noting then that the educational use of computer technology would grow far beyond expectation, resulting in considerable expense and investment. Parents

A review of studies from both education and industry on motivation reveals the importance of creating conditions that intrinsically and extrinsically motivate, and providing quality communication and clearly defined employee roles. It is important that accountability systems empower employees in proposed changes in the workplace and satisfy their basic needs, but perhaps the most essential element in motivation is a consideration of the ways that teachers/employees perceive themselves.