Finding a home in a good school district can be good for two primary reasons. First is obviously to get your kids a great education and secondly, homes in good school districts keep their value better over time which becomes important when you are ready to sell.
There’s a few ways to compare, first and foremost would be by checking out these two websites:
Niche.com -great overall website to see rankings on all schools, elementary through graduate school, do searches by town, district etc. This site grades schools in each category Academics, Diversity, Teachers, College Prep, Clubs/Activities and Administration & includes many breakdowns by rankings.
GreatSchools.org – a bit tougher on schools in terms of how it evaluates schools. They rank on a scale of 0-10. You can do searches by School name, level, or type and by city or zip. Also will provide a helpful map so you can see where schools are located within each city. They mostly base rankings off of test scores and student progress, they also break down schools by various demographics and allow some people to post their own reviews about each school.
It’s important to remember that some schools may also be better equipped than others for special needs children or other types of students who may need different types of teaching and direction.
Keep in mind how soon you may need to have purchased/closed on your home. If you are trying to get them in before the next school year, some schools may only require proof of signed sales contract, while others may need you to be physically moved into the home and provide proof of such before allowing you to register your kid for that particular school.
A final consideration to keep in mind. After covid, many schools rankings tended to fall across the board and now appear to be rebounding -although very slowly. Also, Greatschools had changed their algorithm a few years ago to put more emphasis on Equity within each school. They did this by comparing below income children to the overall class averages in terms of grades, testing etc. They found that if lower income children weren’t doing as well in school as their higher income student counterparts the theory was that the higher income children may have been excelling because they could afford additional outside help such as private tutoring and classes. So some schools did drop down a few levels when this was adjusted and many have been trying to address this issue.
Want more than which towns have the best schools? Find more community information here: AREA GUIDES