Educated Consumers

Seven years ago, William S. Rice and his wife set out to buy a new house in the St. Louis suburbs. With a 4-year-old daughter about to enter kindergarten, another young child, and a baby on the way, top-flight schools were high on their priority list.

There's nothing unusual in that, but Rice wasn't content to take the word of real estate agents or friends who vouched for a particular district. He wanted the facts.

And when he popped into schools to ask for data, he got nowhere. "They just looked at you," the 39-year-old marketing...