The Word on Education: Buying a Home in a Good School District

Given these economic times, most homeowners rely on public schools for their children’s education. Private and parochial schools can just be a bit too pricey on top of the mortgage. So if you are in the market for a house and you have or are anticipate having children, buying in a good school district is usually of utmost importance. I remember my brother looking for a home in the Los Angeles area and debating whether they should buy a cheaper home in a less-desirable school district and send their kids to private school or buy a more expensive home in a really good school district. He chose to put the money in the house, since a parochial education wasn’t absolutely necessary to him and his wife. Not only has his house appreciated more rapidly than in other cities he considered, his kids are getting a top-notch education.

The same can be said for the Bay Area, but a few words of caution. While many school districts are still using the traditional neighborhood school system, others have developed a magnet school program where you can choose where your child goes, based on the academic theme of the school (science, math, computer, arts, etc). While this program has its good points, you do not always get your first choice of schools and could end up schlepping across town twice a day. Make sure you are familiar with which system is used so that you don’t purchase a home assuming that the school two blocks asay will be where your children go.

As for the measurement of a school’s performance, word of mouth can go a long way, but many rely on the state’s STAR program. The STAR Program administers annual California Standards Tests (CSTs) to schools throughout California. The CSTs are primarily multiple choice tests in English, math, science and history/social sciences, with a writing component for forth and seventh grade students only. These tests were developed specifically to assess students’ knowledge of the California content standards adopted by the State Board of Education. Not every grade takes all four tests every year. English testing is done in grades 2-11, math 2-11, science only grades 5, 8, and 10, and history/social science in grades 8 and 11. Last week the 2008 scores were published and available online.

From these scores, an Academic Performance Index (API) is developed, giving each school a score and a ranking among similar schools throughout the state. The scores also allow educators to measure Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Program Improvement (PI), all of which add up to the Accountability Progress Reports (APR). (Apparently educators also love the use of initialisms, which I will try to avoid for the rest of this post.)

For an accounting by county, district or school, you can go to the Department of Education’s website. This will give you a starting point to either zoom in on specific schools or learn which maybe should be avoided.