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While colleges across the country have been raising tuition and student fees, the U.S. Department of Education has been busy making a list of the tuition-hiking schools and ranking them; they released their list today.

Moreover, the 530 schools on the list are going to have to explain to the U.S. government just why they've made such steep hikes in tuition and what they are going to do to halt or reverse the trend.

The DOE also unveiled an interactive website today where users can generate a report on the highest 5 percent and lowest 10 percent academic year charges for public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, and two- or four-year U.S. colleges. Users can compare tuition costs, the net cost of attendance, and the tuition-raising rates at these schools.

The College Affordability and Transparency lists were compiled and made available to the public in compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which also requires each postsecondary institution in the U.S. participating in Title IV programs to post a net price calculator on their websites by October 29, 2011. By clicking on any of the school names on the DOE site, users will be directed to College Navigator, an interactive website provided by the DOE's National Center for Education Statistics. Here, users will find in-depth cost information along with data on enrollment figures, retention and graduation rates, programs and majors offered, accreditation, campus security, athletics, and more not only for all schools listed on the DOE College Affordability and Transparency site, but for the rest of the U.S. colleges that fall somewhere in the middle as well.

The DOE College Affordability and Transparency site reveals that Penn State's main campus has the highest public-school tuition in the nation, at $14,416 a year. Attending one of most inexpensive schools in the country is not as easy as finding the cheapest school and applying for admission, however. Tribal colleges Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Dine College in Arizona have the cheapest tuition in the country, at $430 and $805 a year, respectively. While they are considered public schools, attendance at these colleges is generally limited to students of Native American Ancestry, however, and students must be able to prove it. Not all is rosy at the Native American colleges, however. Northwest Indian College in Washington had an average net price of attendance increase of 2,324 percent from 2006-07 to 2008-09, with average net costs jumping from $484 a year to $11,731 per year. Average net price is computed by subtracting the average amount of federal, state/local government, or institutional grant or scholarship from the total cost of attendance.