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The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) collects, analyzes and makes available data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. This site is very comprehensive and professional. For anyone interested in doing research.

There is a great deal of enthusiasm for the use of games in formal educational contexts; however, there is a notable and problematic lack of studies that make use of replicable study designs to empirically link games to learning (Young, et al., 2012). This paper documents the iterative design and development of an educationally focused game, Compareware in Flash and for the iPad. We also report on a corresponding pilot study of 146 Grades 1 and 2 students playing the game, a paper and pencil related activity and completing a pre- and post-test. The paper outlines preliminary findings from the play testing, which included high levels of student engagement, an approaching statistical improvement from pre- to post-test, and a discussion of the improvements that needed to be made to the game following the pilot study.

This article looks at gaming on a variety of levels and offers interesting stats (i.e.,"42% of gamers are women . . . (representing) a greater portion of the game-playing population than boys 17 or younger.") No wonder the White House is interested.