Best School Districts in the United States – Best Objective Evaluation
Recently, I searched for “best school districts in the us.” A usual suspect showed up at the top of the online query: “Business Insider.”
Why Business Insider? We are asking a question about “schools”, not “business.” However, business insider has done an incredible job leveraging “search engine optimization” which I focused on for a number of years in between all my time teaching the incredible children in Asia. The list does come from a more education focused website, “Niche.com,” but Business Insider still gets the initial credit and if the visitor is not savvy enough, s/he will not click on the link for the source.
However, my comments about the source isn’t my main concern in what I saw. It was the interesting bias that was found in the Top 10. All of the school districts that were in the list by both Niche.com and Business Insider (as an indirect source) were in the East Coast. It’s very sad because knowing that many top schools do not necessarily reside JUST in the East Coast, I am wondering how the world is affected by such biased reports???
The list said 7 out of 10 of the Top 10 School Districts are located in New York State and the remaining 3 are in Pennsylvania. This is truly ludicrous!
To get a more objective viewpoint, I clicked on the second link in Google which wasn’t completely germane to my search, but helped us answer this question in a more fair manner. The 2nd result exposed the Top High Schools by a very notable and respected source that has been evaluating schools and universities for more than 3 decades: US News and World Report. In this report, it was shown that:
- 4 of the Top High Schools were in Texas
- All the schools were NOT in the two most populous states: New York or California (which tend to be more publicized given their larger numbers)
- In essence, the list from Niche/Business Insider is proven to be incredibly biased (Niche is based in Pennsylvania and Business Insider is based in New York – No wonder!!!)
Top 10 Best Public High Schools
10. Gilbert Classical Academy High School (Arizona)
9. Lamar Academy (Texas)
8. University High School (Arizona)
7. Academic Magnet High School (South Carolina)
6. Carnegie Vanguard High School (Texas)
5. School of Science and Engineering Magnet (Texas)
4. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology (Georgia)
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Virginia)
2. BASIS Scottsdale (Arizona)
1. School for the Talented and Gifted (Texas)
And within the same publication, they analysed which schools performed the best for College Readiness and State Exit Exams. The following infographic shows the Top States are actually:
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- Virginia
- New York
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Colorado
To add some more objectivity to the evaluation, we looked at a couple other sources:
Global Report Card (for Top US School Districts) by the Atlantic – 2009
And lastly, Money Watch/CBS/Trulia/GreatSchools.org’s Survey of:
Top 10 most attractive school districts in the United States
10. Warren Township School District, New Jersey
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.86
Price per square foot: $260
Located about 40 miles southwest of Manhattan, Warren, N.J. is a suburb with cul-de-sacs and golf courses. But it’s also unique in that it has dozens of working farms and adopts a somewhat rural atmosphere, according to CNNMoney, which named the suburb its sixth best place to live in 2009. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 9.
9. Madison School District, Connecticut
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.87
Price per square foot: $204
Located along the Long Island Sound shoreline, Madison, Conn. might be a bit too far from New York City to be considered a suburb–it’s nearly 100 miles away. The sea town is known for its extensive public beaches, including the state’s longest, Hammonasset Beach State Park, and Surf Club Beach. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.
8. Colts Neck Township School District, New Jersey
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.87
Price per square foot: $252
Located in central New Jersey, Colts Neck still lives within the metropolitan area of New York, despite being almost 60 miles from the city. It is considered one of New Jersey’s wealthiest communities and one of the more unique–the township has strict zoning laws that don’t allow for many chain stores, letting more local stores thrive. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 8, though one of the schools was not rated.
7. Hillsborough City Elementary School District, California
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.90
Price per square foot: $649
Sandwiched between two super-expensive cities–San Jose, Calif. and San Francisco–Hillsborough, Calif. is super wealthy itself. The landscape is dotted with huge houses because of zoning laws that require a 2,500-square foot minimum house size, which is close to the average American home size, and a minimum lot size of a half-acre. The city is located less than 20 miles from downtown San Francisco and about 40 miles from San Jose. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.
6. Weston School District, Connecticut
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.92
Price per square foot: $258
Located between New Haven and Stamford, Weston, Conn. is yet another faraway New York City suburb on the list. It’s a small, affluent community with little commercial development, which helps it maintain a rustic, rural feel. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.
5. San Marino Unified School District, California
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.92
Price per square foot: $536
San Marino, Calif. breaks the trend of faraway suburbs on this list: It is only 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles. San Marino was designed to be mostly residential with large properties surrounded by gardens, wide streets and maintained parkways, according to the city. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.
4. Glencoe School District 35, Illinois
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 1.93
Price per square foot: $277
Glencoe is a suburb of Chicago, in the affluent North Shore area along Lake Michigan. The largely residential community has a train stop that takes residents to Chicago’s Loop 25 miles away. Most of its shopping and dining is small and local, clustered in a tiny downtown area. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.
3. Cold Spring Harbor Central School District, New York
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 2.09
Price per square foot: $322
Another Long Island Sound community, Cold Spring Harbor is a hamlet of Huntington, N.Y. and is located a little less than 40 miles from Manhattan. The district draws students from Huntington, where the TV show “Growing Pains” was set, and Oyster Bay, along with a few other small hamlets. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 9.
2. Lovejoy Independent School District, Texas
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 2.15
Price per square foot: $92
Located in the far northern suburbs of Dallas, Lovejoy Independent serves students in Fairview, Lucas and Allen, Texas. The communities have been rapidly growing over the past decade, thanks, in part, to the inexpensive real estate. At $92 per square foot, the area is far and away the least expensive place to live on this list. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.
1. Saratoga Union Elementary School District, California
Ratio of school-age children to pre-school children: 2.38
Price per square foot: $603
Saratoga, Calif. is a bedroom community for Silicon Valley executives, located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although it’s part of the San Francisco Bay Area, Saratoga is really a suburb of San Jose–it’s 13 miles from downtown, but nearly 50 miles from San Francisco. Saratoga pitches itself as a San Francisco Bay Area getaway with world-class entertainment, a great location for weddings and a dog-friendly community, in that order. The district has a GreatSchools rating of 10.