Seattle neighborhoods with top-rated K-12 public schools

As if the process of purchasing a home were not tricky enough, selecting a neighborhood requires a balancing of many essential factors.

At the top of the list of neighborhood decision factors is the question about local public schools. In general, the Seattle area is fortunate in its number of high-quality school districts.

According to the U.S. News & World Report’s current ratings, the top three school districts within Washington state for college readiness are Mercer Island (58%), Bellevue (55.8%) and Lake Washington (35.6%). While these three are standouts, a few other school districts deserve additional attention. These include Shoreline (20.9%), Issaquah (19.3%) and Seattle Public Schools (14.8%) specifically.

Niche recently published it's comprehensive list of Best School Districts in the Seattle Area for 2021. Niche found the Mercer Island School District and Bellevue School District rate first and second with Bainbridge Island School District at third. Rounding out the top five are Lake Washington School District and Issaquah School District. Seattle Public Schools is 12th with two other districts that deserve attention. These are Northshore School District at sixth and Shoreline School District at ninth.

As with any averaging system, the final results do not tell the whole story. For example, Mercer Island School District contains only one high school. That high school happens to rate eighth in the state. Compare this to the Lake Washington School District where the Tesla STEM High School and International Community School rate first and second, followed by Bellevue School District’s Interlake Senior High School, Bellevue High School and Newport Senior High School rounding out third, fourth, and fifth schools in the state. Note that both Tesla STEM and International Community are magnet schools — public schools with specialized courses or curricula. Looking strictly at public schools, the Bellevue School District has the top three high schools in the state.

While a lot of public attention focuses on high schools and college readiness, for many, it’s more important to consider elementary schools as this is where the process starts.

Again, Mercer Island deserves special attention. West Mercer Elementary, ranked the best elementary school in the Seattle area, is also considered top-rated in the state.

All in all, if looking for the top-rated schools is your only consideration for where to purchase a home, the three-way lineup of schools from Redmond through Bellevue and Mercer Island is where you should focus your attention.

But if only it were that simple. There are too many variables that affect what makes up the best school for any given family. This perspective is limited to the averaged evaluations by Niche and U.S. News & World Report’s evaluations.