Results of a study by the consumer advocacy site NerdWallet.com that scored Pennsylvania school districts based on their average home value, along with standardized testing scores and college readiness were released April 13. It shows that while school districts in Allegheny County with higher valued homes are providing a quality education, some districts with lower valued homes just aren’t making as high a grade.
The study, “Best School Districts for Your Buck in Pennsylvania,” ranked 491 districts in the state that give parents who are looking to buy a home in their price range, but also want a quality education for their children, the “best bang for their buck.” Of the top ten districts ranked, six were in Allegheny County—Mt. Lebanon, South Fayette Township, Hampton Township, Upper Saint Clair, Fox Chapel and North Allegheny. Near the bottom of list were Steel Valley, West Mifflin, Penn Hills, Woodland Hills, Pittsburgh Public Schools, McKeesport school districts and dead last was Wilkinsburg School District.
“Wealthy towns always tend to have good school districts in every state, but obviously people can’t live just anywhere, there are price limitations. So what we try to do is find the best school districts for your buck,” said Kamran Rosen, Economics writer for NerdWallet and the analyst who wrote the study.
“We rate housing costs against school quality. It turns up a lot of middle-income communities with good schools; it also turns up, sometimes, very high-income communities that have exceptionally good schools. So it’s like depending on where your buck is you’ll find the best school district for that… We’re happy with these results and have gotten great feedback.”
The study took data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Besides median home values, it looked at the district’s SAT averages, PSSA advanced scores; graduates who went on to higher education; and graduation rates. Data for graduation rates and PSSA scores were based on the 2011-2012 school year and metrics for the SAT scores were from the 2012-2013 school year.
Some schools were not included in the ranking, Rosen said, due to incomplete data. For instance, some districts were missing data on SAT scores and other districts like Philadelphia City, were missing graduation rate data.
Each of the top ten school districts—which included Lewisburg Area School District, Ligonier Valley School District, Fairview School District and Penn Trafford School District along with the six named before—had a median home value of $150,000 and up, an average SAT score above 1500, a graduation rate of above 90 percent, except for South Fayette, and a rate of more than 75 percent for graduates who go onto higher education, which Rosen said includes two- and four-year colleges or universities. Each of the districts had a Bang for Your Buck score above 78.
But for local districts with a lower median home value, and a higher number of African American student enrollment, the results were not as high.
Out of 491 school districts in the state Steel Valley, which covers Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall, ranked 314; West Mifflin ranked 318; Penn Hills ranked 413; Woodland Hills ranked 431; Pittsburgh Public School ranked 468, McKeesport ranked 478; Sto Rox ranked 485 and Wilkinsburg ranked last at 491.
The study reported that these districts had a median home value that ranged from approximately $88,000-$62,000; an average SAT scores that ranged from 1365 to1025; graduation rates that ranged from approximately 91 percent to 53 percent; and a rate of 71 percent and lower for high school graduated that went onto higher education. Based on their home value and data, these districts had a Bang for Your Buck Score of less than 68; Wilkinsburg’s as low as 36.27.
When asked for a reaction to the study’s findings, Wilkinsburg Superintendent Dan Matsook, who’s not familiar with NerdWallet or any of the work they put out, said, “Research has shown that achievement trends run parallel to socioeconomic statistics.”
He went on to say that “the Wilkinsburg School District, along with the Wilkinsburg Borough and Community Development Corporation, has been and will continue to work towards improving our schools, community and commercial growth.”
Recently, Wilkinsburg has been in the news for its requests for Penn Hills and Woodland Hills to accept some of its district’s students. It is unlikely that it will occur.
Along with Matsook, other districts were contacted for their reaction to the study’s results. Penn Hills School District Superintendent Nancy Hines declined to respond by the Courier’s deadline and Superintendent Linda Lane, Pittsburgh Public School District, failed to provide a comment by the deadline.
Rosen said this study has been conducted in three other states—Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey as well as in the Fort-Worth Dallas area of Texas. This is the first year the study has been done and based on its success, he said, the site plans to do it again.
According the state’s Department of Education website, of the students who graduated from state public high schools and were college bound during the 2012-2013 school year, only 17,765 (47.7 percent) were Black compared to the 97,199 (72.1 percent) who were White students.
(To view the study’s results, visit www.https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/cities/best-school-districts-for-your-buck-pennsylvania-2015.)
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