Pearson Digital Curriculum Being Questioned in Los Angeles

LA Times:  New problems surface in L.A. Unified's iPad program 

Don't worry, L.A. Unified officials keep telling us. The $1-billion program to give iPads to more than 600,000 K-12 students is going to work out fine.
Maybe. But so far, nobody at district headquarters gets any gold stars for the rollout.
Last week, students at Roosevelt High were almost instantly able to breach the wall intended to keep them from using the iPads as toys rather than tools. They simply deleted the personal profiles on their tablets and presto! A free pass to YouTube and Facebook.... 

...Is that a case of lousy students, bad teaching, uninspired software or a failure to fully appreciate the challenge of convincing students the tablets are for education rather than recreation?
The Roosevelt story was followed by another Blume report that 71 iPads were "missing" from an early implementation program last year.
Let's just call them goodbiPads... 

...One question is whether the educational software is any good, or whether everyone was so focused on the hardware that they forgot to scrutinize the separately purchased content? 

...We're talking about a superintendent who's in a race to spend $1 billion, counting bringing Wi-Fi to classrooms. And let's not forget that Deasy was featured as a pitchman in a commercial for iPads, and Deputy Supt. Jaime Aquino (who just resigned in a snit over the tech implementation) once worked for the parent company of Pearson, the firm hired to provide curriculum for the iPads.So, yeah, do some micromanaging. Hold people accountable. Ask questions.
As in, what was so compelling about the Pearson proposal that L.A. Unified bought a product sight unseen?... 

...I'm with him after looking at another eighth-grade math lesson on one of the district-issued iPads that involves graphing a roller coaster's movement. Just when it might get interesting from an interactive standpoint, a message pops up:"This digital manipulative (interactive) is not playable in this version of the Pearson Common Core System of Courses."That'll get the kids excited, won't it?