We'll start with the negatives first.
One of the negatives to not publishing school data is that parents resent the fact they can't research all the school options for their child's education. They are forced to tour as many schools as possible in a short amount of time to come to a final decision. Parents may find the process exhausting (as some have mentioned in several blog sites we've explored), and settle early in the process for a school, instead of touring all available campuses within their area.
One of the positive aspects is, as mentioned, competive schools can't acquire information about you easily. Competing schools won't be able to access information about full-time personnel, part-time staff, or affiliated associations. They are reliant upon what information is obtainable on each school's Web site, and perhaps on what marketing is sent to the public.
However, the U.S. Department of Education has released information on their Web site that stirs the waters—a search feature that allows parents to access data fairly easy. This resource supplies information such as associations the school is affiliated with, the demographics of students, and days of study compared to the number of days students are in school.
All parents need to know to build a report is the school's name and address (or at minimum the state and county), and the system generates an Excel file with the school's data. They can select as many schools as desired to be included in the report for cross referencing.
Petersons.com is another Web site that helps simplify the searching process for parents. This information isn't as inclusive, but it will still shorten the process of searching for each individual institution.
