Both companies conduct mail and telephone surveys of schools throughout the nation, asking for laundry lists of their high-tech equipment and purchasing plans. Their results are supplemented by information from the Education Department and other surveys. The problem, say many experts, is that the data are flawed. Henry Jay Becker, a University of California-Irvine education researcher, notes that a census survey is prone to undercounting. He estimates that QED consistently low-balls school technology counts by about 25 percent.
Sample surveys are much better.
A number of state technology directors and researchers have pointed out other problems with QED's survey.