KENTWOOD, MI -- Eight-year-old Cora Hovermale fires up a computer at Kentwood's Meadowlawn Elementary and meets her chosen avatar - a casually dressed girl - ready to help tackle that day's lesson.

Corrected: An earlier version of this story noted an incorrect cost estimate for using daily tutoring to catch students up on lost instruction. The iReady study estimated it would cost $66 billion.

Superintendent Christy Boyte has lost count of the number of messages she’s received from vendors promising a digital silver bullet to boost math achievement in her Louisiana school district. Most are ...