Silicon Valley School System Bang-for-the-Buck
by Alex Wang on Mar 31, 2007 | 9 Comments »
The California Department of Education (CDE) has released the updated 2006 Academic Performance Index (API) scores for California schools, including data for San Mateo County and Santa Clara County. The API is a statewide benchmark based on standardized achievement tests which is primarily used to rank schools relative to one another and relative to schools with similar demographics. Here’s an example of what the statistics look like.
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We’ll take a look at how school rankings and Silicon Valley real estate prices are related, but first let’s look at how to read the information.
Number of Students. In the first column, you’ll find the number of students whose results were included from that school. It’s pretty close to the total number of students, less any excluded students. The rules for excluding students are listed in the API Base Documentation Information Guide found on the CDE API page. Surprisingly, the number of students has little to do with how well the school did in its API scores (almost, see epilogue).
Base API, Statewide Rank, Similar Schools Rank. The Base API score is like an SAT score except it’s from 200 to 1000. Higher is better. To make comparing schools easier, the CDE provides a statewide rank from 1 to 10 (ten is best) and a similar schools rank that rates schools (again from 1 to 10, ten being best) that have similar demographics and characteristics. Apples-to-apples in a way.
Growth Target, API Target. The growth target is the number of points California wants the school to improve in the next year. That added with the current base API score equals the API target. The CDE doesn’t set a target for schools above the current statewide performance target of 800.
Silicon Valley School District Scores
I’ve assembled information from the CDE site and the Palo Alto Daily News to provide a table of school district API averages for Silicon Valley and Bay Area elementary and middle schools.
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Here are the API values for these Silicon Valley school districts:
| Campbell Union | 772 |
| Cupertino Union | 931 |
| Foster City | 801 |
| Gilroy Unified | 732 |
| Los Altos | 960 |
| Los Gatos Union | 897 |
| Mountain View-Whisman | 778 |
| Palo Alto Unified | 912 |
| San Mateo | 801 |
| Santa Clara Unified | 747 |
| Saratoga Unified | 952 |
| Sunnyvale Elementary | 781 |
Comparing School Districts and Housing Prices
Remember the chart of median Silicon Valley single-family home prices in February 2007 from my article Determining Your Must-Haves When Buying a House?
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Combining the chart for Silicon Valley school district rankings with the one for Silicon Valley median single-family real estate prices brings up some surprises. (I used a simple ratio between how far the API score was above 700 and the median single-family home price. The resulting number isn’t really that relevant, it’s the visual comparison I was looking for.)
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Regarding Schools and Value in Pricing
First, while Cupertino and Foster City housing prices are very similar, there is a vast difference between the performance index of their school districts. On school rankings, compared to Foster City, Cupertino represents a much better value based on the median sale price of single-family homes.
Second, while Los Altos has the highest API scores, it also had a much higher median price putting it on-par with other elite school districts like Palo Alto and Los Gatos, but well-below Saratoga which had both higher test scores and a lower median home price.
Third, it is possible to cherry-pick good schools in average school districts. For example, you can search around Sunnyvale’s Cherry Chase Elementary, which has a base API score of 941, if you’re looking for a good elementary school. Stay tuned.
(c) Alex H. Wang for the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog at 1SiliconValley.com
Recommended Reading:
- Determining Your Must-Haves When Buying a House
- Silicon Valley School Information
- Mortgage Rates Are Low Without Exclamation Points
- Why the Perfect House Wasn’t So Perfect
[ed. This is the CYA: The data in the report is considered accurate but not guaranteed.]
Epilogue
There’s a quirk in the ratings system where only test scores for “statistically significant” groups (read: ethnicities) are counted. Some schools, none that I can find documentation on, were accused of reclassifying lesser performing students into groups that weren’t statistically significant to prop up their overall test scores.
There is a measure of transparency, though, because if you drill down on the individual schools, it will show which groups were counted, which weren’t, and how many were in each.
Categories: Cupertino, Foster City, Home Buyers, Market Updates, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Mateo, Schools, Sunnyvale
Steve -
Interesting chart on “bang for the buck”. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
Impressive that you are thinking out of the box : )
Mary
Thanks, Mary, sometimes it’s more fun playing outside the sandbox ;-)
Steve –
I found your site by accident on Topix. This post is outstanding – I can’t wait to mine the rest of your articles for other nuggets of insight. You’re in my RSS reader from now on!
Awesome! Is there any data for private schools to check their bang for the buck? :)
,Wil
A lot of information can be pulled from Education.com and GreatSchools.net, thought I’m not sure of an ‘API-like’ system for private schools.
I was wondering if you have any updated to March 2010 info about the above?
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for the message. As of now, we’re waiting most current base scores but an update is definitely on it’s way. Currently, we have API scores as of January 2010.
Alex,
Excellent post and good analysis. One more additional factor that is vital in this analysis is average lot size. Unless I’m missing something, the “bang for the buck” chart assumes that the properties in the cities mentioned are equivalent. Which as we all know is incorrect. For example, Los Altos and Saratoga have (on average) lots 1/3 larger than those of Cupertino and Sunnyvale. Buyers might want to give more weight or more value when comparing cities that have different lot sizes (ie Saratoga versus cupertino). Good job.
Thanks David. Very good point.