PghRealtorMom Schools Resource

Moving to or within Pittsburgh with kids? Looking for schools in your community?

You've come to the right place! Let’s get started…

I’ve pulled together a group of reputable resources to help you become informed about the Schools within Western Pennsylvania, Allegheny County and more specifically the Pittsburgh Area. Using these tools, you can access district boundaries, test scores, demographics and other information you need to help determine the best school(s) for your family. Call me for a list of homes for sale or rent or for help in determining what schools serve the communities that you are most interested in.

Allegheny County School Districts:

School Boundaries and Reviews

School and District Boundaries Map: Researching schools in your neighborhood is a snap with this interactive map tool. Enter an address to see school attendance and district boundary lines.

To Search by address to find School Attendance Zones or School Boundaries:

Great Schools Ratings (1-5) provide an overview of a school's test performance. The ratings are based strictly on test score performance for that state's standardized tests. The community rating is the overall rating that is submitted by either a Parent/Guardian, Teacher, Staff, Administrator, Student or Former Student.

 
Statistics

These online mapping tool allows users to view maps of states and school districts, while overlaying statistics on population and housing, race and ethnicity, economics and social characteristics. Use this tool to view school district boundaries in the context of a region, other school districts and other types of geography.  And access the National Center for Education Statistics reports here:

 
Rankings and Scores

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, also known as PSSA, measures how well students have achieved in reading, mathematics, science and writing according to Pennsylvania's world-class academic standards. By using these standards, educators, parents and administrators can evaluate their students' strengths and weaknesses to increase students' achievement scores. To access more information about these scores which are used in the PBT Ranking, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Education website.

Top Ranked Western PA School District lists are published annually. The rankings in these guides are based on standardized test scores and answer the question “which school or district has the highest-scoring students?” Check out the Best High Schools List also.

The Pennsylvania School Performance Profile offers a web-based resource for districts/schools to communicate performance results to various constituencies and assist districts and schools in aligning and focusing resources for continuous improvement.

This PA School Performance Profile also serves several other purposes:

• Provides a building level academic score for educators as part of the Educator Effectiveness System as required by 24 P.S. § 11-1123 – Act 82 – 2012
• Provides information used in determining federal accountability status for Title I schools as required by the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act section 1111(h)(1) and (h)2
• Informs the public of the academic performance measures of each school, comprehensive career and technical center, cyber charter and charter school in Pennsylvania
• Provides resources to support schools as they seek to improve academic performance

Additional Resources

Pennsylvania Education Directory

The Pittsburgh Business Times asked a selection of southwestern Pennsylvania high school seniors about their future plans and what unique experience in high school do they think most prepared them for their future in the workforce. Here's how they responded:  Story Here

Private Versus Public - Some differences between public and private schools are obvious. But deciding what's right for your child entails shedding light on the subtle distinctions many parents ignore.

Frequently Used Acronyms in Education: Use this handy guide when you need help decoding the abbreviations and acronyms used in the world of education:

As you visit potential Elementary Schools, take this handy Checklist to be sure you make the most of your visit.

For more information on homes in the schools districts you want the most, please call or email me. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve the information I provide to my clients, I would appreciate your comments and feedback.