Where to buy home to be "guaranteed" best school?

[Anonymous]

If money is not a dispositive factor, in what specific neighborhood would you buy a home in order to get the best possible access to an education grades K-12 without having to worry about applying to a magnet program or a lottery -- one neighborhood each for:

(a) Washington D.C.
(b) Maryland
(c) Virginia

Would prefer a neighborhood with a reasonable commute to downtown D.C. of less than 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

c) Mclean

[Anonymous]

b) Somerset/the part of Chevy Chase Village in the Somerset school district

[Anonymous]

c) Arlington, depending on your priorities N. (higher test scores, less diversity) or S. (many ESL students, more diversity, still great schools but test scores are lower b/c of this)

[Anonymous]

City of Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

How about (d) None of the above. Because there is no guarantee - you have no control over whether a good principal or teacher will leave, or not so good ones will come. And you have no control over who your child's classmates will be - whether they'll create a class that is too loud or too aggressive for your child, whether there will be one or two kids who have behavior problems and take up too much of the teacher's time, whether they won't be as advanced as the average class and your child will be bored, etc. You have no control over whether the school will undergo renovations while your child is there, and the kids will be bused elsewhere or placed out in trailers during the work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about (d) None of the above. Because there is no guarantee - you have no control over whether a good principal or teacher will leave, or not so good ones will come. And you have no control over who your child's classmates will be - whether they'll create a class that is too loud or too aggressive for your child, whether there will be one or two kids who have behavior problems and take up too much of the teacher's time, whether they won't be as advanced as the average class and your child will be bored, etc. You have no control over whether the school will undergo renovations while your child is there, and the kids will be bused elsewhere or placed out in trailers during the work.

Amen!

[Anonymous]

b) Bethesda, in neighborhoods in the Whitman HS cluster

[Anonymous]

There is no "best". Give up the quest. I'd aim for "good, decent, solid". There are tons of great schools in the area.

[Anonymous]

McLean in Churchill Road Elementary district if you want Virginia (other amenities include typically larger lot sizes than MD or DC and less income taxes).

Glen Echo/Cabin John if you want MD

DC - Palisades area

[Anonymous]

La La Land

Home prices are always stable, all moms stay home, and fathers bring in over $400K.

You can't go wrong.

Just Google it.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you to the serious responders. I currently live in D.C., in a neighborhood that does NOT have good public schools. I had assumed that I would just trudge through the private school route, but I am realizing that I don't really have the stomach for it. When I said "best," I wasn't trying to make fine distinctions. I meant a school in which you had confidence that your kid would receive a great education.

[Anonymous]

OK, OP - My son goes to Darn Good. In Arlington. I wouldn't presume for a minute that it is the "best." And later with high school - there's no "best", either. If I had an additional infinity to spend on a house, I'd buy a nicer one in my current neighborhood with the current mix of strengths and weaknesses in the schools.

Oh, and I don't have confidence in any of the schools - public or private. I made my choice, and make sure every year that the choices remain the right ones for my. For all I know, there are special needs he has yet to develop.

[Anonymous]

Langley school district is rated tops in the country (higher than any other public district in VA, MD or DC I beleive). If you want a guarantee on public school, move to 22101 and the Langley district. It's about as close as you can get to a guarantee based on current rankings! Of course, there is never a full guarantee but all the real estate agents push the Langley district because they know its a selling point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Langley school district is rated tops in the country (higher than any other public district in VA, MD or DC I beleive). If you want a guarantee on public school, move to 22101 and the Langley district. It's about as close as you can get to a guarantee based on current rankings! Of course, there is never a full guarantee but all the real estate agents push the Langley district because they know its a selling point.

a
I went there. Everybody is virtually the same,,,,there is the problem of wealth and drugs,,,competition and local universities (uva, william&mary) putting a quota on the number of students they will accept from here each year. I chose to move to another 'good' hs in arlington with more diversity across the board--yet still academically very sound.