When entering data for our schools (or any organization, really), consistency ensures clean data. 

For anyone who has had to extract data from a database, it is a painful reality that the only consistent rule about data entry is that the data is never consistently added the same way. For example, Elm City Elementary School records student addresses by spelling out every word: “10 Main Street, Apartment 3A”. Elm City Middle School records student addresses using an abbreviation for part of the address: “10 Main Street, Apt. 3A”. Elm City High School has students coming and going, and they register students on the fly; when the high school records the student address, they enter: “10 Main St. #3A”.

So what is the point? If you need to extract data and are looking for all the students on Main Street, if you search Main Street, you may miss those students whose address was entered Main St. 

Solution? See how data was entered by the previous user, copy that. See if your database administrator can put a mask on fields in your database that will only accept information if it fits the prescribed format (e.g. Street, not St.). If that is not possible, talk to other users of your system and agree to the same format. It does make life much easier!