Educational reform and financial considerations have emphasized accountability and use of research-based materials and strategies in education. Simultaneously, with growing enrollment in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary ASL programs, the number of commercially marketed materials has grown. Do such materials stand up under scrutiny when examined for relationship to current educational research and to requests for evidence of efficacy? A commercially available program for improving fingerspelling recognition was tested, using qualitative and quantitative methods, as an example of the type of research needed within the field. (Contains 3 tables.)