Methodology and sources

What each figure is

• Programs and completions: IPEDS Completions 2023-24 (C2024_A), one row per school, field of study (six-digit CIP 2020) and award level. We keep certificates and associate degrees in 29 program types; the CIP codes for each type are fixed in one file and never guessed per school.
• Program cost and length: IPEDS Cost (COST1) 2024-25. Clock-hour schools report whole-program tuition, fees, books and length for their largest programs; community colleges report per-year tuition, shown on the school page.
• Net price, completion, loan default, earnings and debt: College Scorecard, June 10, 2026. Program earnings and debt come from the field-of-study file, which groups programs by four-digit CIP and credential; where one group holds two of our types (practical nursing and nurse aides; cosmetology, barbering, esthetics and nails) the figure is labelled as the group's, and nurse aide pages never show the nursing group's earnings. Small cohorts are suppressed by the source and shown as not published.
• Pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, by metro area where the school is in one, else by state.
• CDL training: FMCSA Training Provider Registry, training locations download dated October 8, 2026: public, active locations only. Private (employer-only) programs are counted but not listed.
• WIOA list badge: U.S. Department of Labor TrainingProviderResults.gov file (ETA-9171), programs on state lists as of June 30, 2025, matched to a school when the state, the field of study, the provider name (distinctive words) and the place (ZIP, city or within 2 miles) agree. 10,322 matches.
• State nurse aide lists: Texas HHSC, California CDPH, Florida Board of Nursing, New York Department of Health and Education Department, Pennsylvania Department of Education, Ohio Department of Health and the Illinois nurse aide testing program list, each with its own date on the page. Florida CNA pass rates: Florida Board of Nursing, 2025.
• LPN pass rates: each state board's file, shown as printed with the board and period. Pass rates are not shown for Florida, Ohio and North Carolina programs.

What we publish, and what we index

• Search engines are asked to index a school, program or CDL page only when it carries at least 3 sourced facts of its own (a program page needs 2 cost or outcome figures among them), a metro page only with at least 5 providers and a BLS metro wage, and a state page only with at least 5 providers.
• CDL locations are indexed only with in-person behind-the-wheel training and a phone or website. No page is built for a trainer whose registry name reads as a person's.
• Location pages exist per federal metro area, never per town.
• The launch covers 12 program types in TX, CA, FL, NY, PA, IL, OH; other pages are built and linked but not offered to search engines until the first wave proves useful.

Files