Trade-off as you will, I think people use test scores and school districts to justify buying in a more expensive neighborhood. Research shows that parent involvement is the most important factor in student achievement. So live where you can afford to be involved with your children. The schools might carry them academically in your stead, but there will be trade-offs in your child’s life, for the family for that matter, that aren’t measured on your standardized test. My goal as a parent of children attending a socially acceptable but otherwise not excessively high testing school district is that our children are qualified to perform at the peer level of the better students in the highest scoring schools. This is an on going process, but at this point I have zero concerns.

I am not saying we live better or worse…just that the school argument is given too much credit for public school using families.