API Scores - The Local High School's Score is the Most Important

Today's article on SFGate.com talks about how API (Academic Performance Indicator) scores are affecting home values. Essentially, areas that have schools with high API scores (a range of 200-1000) have higher home values than areas with lower scores. An elementary school's ratings are definitely important, but I believe that the true indicator of an area's educational quality is the API score of the local high school.

In my experience, elementary schools typically have very high API scores since there are so many of them and because they are each focused on specific geographic areas. It is no surprise that Hillcrest Elementary (featured in the SFGate article), has a great API score. I've driven by Hillcrest and it is in a great neighborhood - the homes adjacent to the school are nice and most have great views. The same can be said about Madera elementary school in El Cerrito (located in the West Contra Costa County school district).

As kids grow up, they'll eventually attend middle school and high school. Where I grew up, these middle schools are usually bigger than the elementary schools and the high schools are bigger than the middle schools. Each level of school gets progressively bigger and each covers an even wider geographic area. In the SFGate example, the Hillcrest students will eventually merge with students from other schools with lower test scores. If you take a look at the API scores for the high school that Hillcrest students must attend (district based), you'll find that the scores are alarmingly low (relative to the 951 of Hillcrest) - I know because I looked at homes in this area. The same can be said about Madera elementary (my alma mater) and its parent high school.

On the flip-side, if a high school has a high API score, the feeder middle schools and elementary schools generally have high scores as well. See the Piedmont school district in Oakland and the Lamorinda school (Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda) district in the East Bay. Both of these school districts have some of the highest ranked high schools in California. It is no surprise that ALL of the elementary and middle schools feeding these high schools have great API scores as well. In my opinion, the quality of all of the schools, from K-12 are the true indicators of a "good school district".

One of the main reasons people like to buy in "good school districts" is so that they can send their kids to *good* public schools (at least from an API score perspective) and in the process save money from not paying private school tuition. In school districts that have great elementary schools and not-so-great high schools, parents may resort to sending their kids to private school - which may or may not negate the premium they paid to live in the area. The $12-20K per year of private school, for 4 or 7 years can make a difference in a home's value and is a big factor for most people.

Ultimately, it really depends on the parents and what their goals are for their children. I firmly believe that good schools are important, but how parents raise their kids is more important. The example cited in SFGate about how the prospective home buyer was comparing Hillcrest elementary (951 API) and Chabot elementary (921 API), was somewhat comical. In general, any score of 900 is fantastic. I don't believe that a 30 point API differential will determine whether your child gets into Harvard or ends up at community college - it is up to the parents.

If API scores are important to you (as a parent or a home buyer), remember to check the scores for your local high schools as well.