Although picking a college or university is often one of the most important and costly decision students and their parents make often times they are forced to do so with very little data. In this Op-Ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education ITIF President Rob Atkinson discusses that while the National Survey of Student Engagement by the Pew Trusts gathers annual data on America's 1,300 colleges and universities, due to an agreement with schools Pew does not release the information to the public. While schools have access to the data in order to gauge how they compare to other schools parents, guidance counselors and students are not. Making such surveys public would reward high performing schools and hold poor performer's feet to the fire.
