EdTrust puts college data at your fingertips

Check this out! The Education Trust has organized some of the best data on higher education productivity in an easy access form.

For example, it took me under a minute to see these 2007 data points:

Pell grants are the main form of federal aid to students with low-income families, so the right-most column is sorted to give an indication of the resources available to students at different schools.  There's rough and sad correlation between high numbers of students getting Pell grants and low numbers collecting degrees. And yet, don't miss the standouts:

• Good news that Morehead has very high Pell participation and middle of the pack graduation levels.
• Not so good that Northern, with much lower Pell participation, still has the second lowest graduation rate.

But, to get back to the great data itself, the Ed Trust design will also let you see:

• Disaggregated graduations by race, gender, or both
• Percent of students graduating in four, five, and six years.
• Enrollment data
• Spending and financial aid information.
• Six years of data on all those subjects.

Plus, you select schools to compare, and you can "click to sort" in order identify top and bottom results at a glance.

It's great for students and parents researching the choice of a single college to attend, and it's also great for citizens and policy wonks interested in how well important institutions are delivering overall.

Check it out!