Businesses See Hot Commodity In School Data

By Robert C. Johnston

Officials of the Evanston/Skokie, Ill., school district were not amused when their schools mistakenly received the lowest rating last fall on a free World Wide Web site designed to help home buyers.

As it turned out, a computer-programming error had occurred in the school-rating calculations, which were posted on the official site of the National Association of Realtors. The error was quickly corrected, and the well-regarded district, which is home to Northwestern University, received the site's top ranking.

The incident dramatizes the perils, and potential, that await as more groups customize school data for needs ranging from shopping for schools, to reforming them, to headhunting...