Rick Karlin is reporting for the Times Union beginning next year, a new Parent Dashboard will allow New Yorkers to access data about their children's schools including class sizes, test scores, safety, graduation rates and the social climate in a given building. The information is already gathered by the state Education Department, but it can be hard to find and is not compiled in an accessible format. A recent survey showed that nearly half the those who responded did not know where to get school information, or found the data online to be confusing or not useful, Rose LeRoy, director of Educational Data and Research told members of the Board of Regents June 3. However, some members of the Board of Regents said they are concerned that the online information could be misinterpreted or used to make what they say are unfair comparisons between wealthy and poor school districts. The tension between putting out public school data and the underlying reasons for the vast performance gaps is nothing new. In the mid-1990s, the state Education Department launched School Report Cards that allowed test score comparisons by district. Some local officials argued that the reports did not provide sufficient context for those scores. Read the full story in the Times Union.