Pittsburgh Area Schools (Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Indiana: chapel, house, to buy)

[rocafeller05]

Good afternoon. Can someone lead me to a site that shows the rankings of the Pittsburgh or (Pennsylvania) area schools? I searched the threads and came up empty handed.
Thanks.

[sr1234]

Check out the Pittsburgh Business Journal. I think it is bizjournal.com. They usually do an annual ranking of all school districts in Pennsylvania.

[tluvpitt]

Pennsylvania Department of Education...may not be a ranking, but it will give you all of the information that you need prior to settling on an area. I used this site to choose where I wanted to buy a house this past summer b/c I was new to the area.

[rocafeller05]

If you dont mind me asking..where did you end up settling in? I plan on making the move next summer and am clueless on where to start looking. Thanks.

Originally Posted by tluvpitt

Pennsylvania Department of Education...may not be a ranking, but it will give you all of the information that you need prior to settling on an area. I used this site to choose where I wanted to buy a house this past summer b/c I was new to the area.

[likepgh]

Bear in mind that the rankings at that site are based entirely on averaging PSSA scores across an entire school.

"1. How does schooldigger.com calculate school rankings?
We rank schools based on the most recently reported test scores. Our ranking system for most states is as follows: we take all the schools that have test scores for Math and English. We take the average Math score across all the grades, and the average English score across all the grades, and add them together to make a combined score. That combined score is then sorted. The highest combined score is ranked #1, the second highest #2, and so on."

[rocafeller05]

Thanks for the handy site there b_hammond. It looks like there are no schools that are "city" schools that have good ratings. Is this correct? From the list these were the top ones..Mt. Lebanon, Chartiers, Montour, Avonworth, North Hills, North gate & Fox Chapel.
Does this seem right you all you? Any other to add or drop from the list?

[rocafeller05]

One more quick question...I currenty live on Long Island. On LI the schools are not only assigned per town but per area as well. For instance there are sometimes more than 1 town that would use a particular school. Is this the case for schools in the Pitts. area such as Mt. Lebo, USC, Fox Chapel, etc. or are the schools only used by that 1 town?
Thanks in advance.

[Copanut]

Depends on the school district. Fox Chapel is used by Blawnox, Indiana, Fox Chapel, Sharpsburg, Aspinwall, and O'Hara. You can live fairly cheaply in Sharpsburg and Blawnox and get a good education.

Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair are single township school districts.

[rocafeller05]

Thanks I appreciate your help. Would you consider all those towns in the Fox Chapel schoold district a desirable/safe place to live?

Originally Posted by COPANUT

Depends on the school district. Fox Chapel is used by Blawnox, Indiana, Fox Chapel, Sharpsburg, Aspinwall, and O'Hara. You can live fairly cheaply in Sharpsburg and Blawnox and get a good education.

Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair are single township school districts.

[onwardandupward]

They would all be considered safe, but desirable depends on your own definition of desirable. In terms of median income, lowest to highest would be Sharpsburg, Blawnox, Aspinwall, Indiana Township, O'Hara Township and Fox Chapel Boro. Each has their own character as well; Sharpsburg, Aspinwall and Blawnox are more compact, with sidewalks and a defined business district. Indiana is more rural. O'Hara is spread out with no sidewalks, and Fox Chapel is like O'Hara but richer. From what you've posted elsewhere of your desires, I would take a look at Indiana and O'Hara.