School District Ratings Comparison in East & Central VA
- Adam Garrett
- Nov 7, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
If you're considering school district ratings in your home purchase decision, what are some of the best resources for narrowing things down? Below I relate a few of those as well as some tips on using them effectively. I also share the above spreadsheet with some historic data, which is helpful when considering how consistently a school has kept high marks.
Public Schools
Virginia Wide:
Niche's Rankings for Best Public Traditional Schools in Virginia
Public School Review Best Virginia Public Schools including Map
Example:
SE Virginia:
Private Schools & Homeschool
Private School Rankings:
Niche's Rankings for Best Private Schools in SE Virginia (I attended Hampton Roads Academy, one of the top 10 rated schools by Niche in SE VA as of 6/4/25, in case you have any questions about it)
Homeschool:
Niche.com (public & some private schools)
Niche has some solid customizable options for school rankings.
Positives:
There are more filter categories to choose from. While Greatschools has 8 categories of options
Option to filter by grade individually out of academics, teachers, diversity, and sports. That said, this filtering is of a lower range than on Greatschools.
Drawbacks as of 3/1/25:
Instead of rankings of 1-10, like on Greatschools, it uses an A-D scale, & there are some substantial problems with it, particularly regarding easy grading on a smaller scale than it would appear in some cases, giving prospective parents less to go by:
With teachers & sports, there are no schools at all with a D throughout America. That's despite the fact that some schools have no sports teams. Only 1% of the schools rated for diversity are rated a D. With academics, only .6% of the schools with an academics rating have a D.
If you filter by something like sports, keep in mind that only 17% of schools in the US have a sports rating, so you'll be filtering all of the unrated options out. Unrated doesn't necessarily mean bad. 87% of schools have a diversity rating. 73% have an academics rating. 75% have a teachers rating.
There's also a disproportionately high number of A's and B's in a case like sports, where only 2604 schools in the US get a C, vs 19,157 for A's and B's. That's 13.6% of the rated schools with a C.
GreatSchools.org (best overall rating scale for public schools)
They might have private school filters, but unlike Niche, they don't have their own overall grade for the private schools in places like SE VA as of 3/1/25.
Schooldigger.com (public schools)
They might have private school filters, but unlike Niche, they don't have their own overall grade for the private schools in places like SE VA as of 3/1/25.
They do have a ranking list of the best counties for public schools, i.e. in VA.
They also have a ranking list of the best individual public schools, i.e. elementary schools in VA
Unrated schools include some public schools, i.e. in Isle of Wight County, which can throw off an attempted filtering process.
There's a number of elements about schools that you can check on the Virginia Department of Education's website:
Spreadsheet Basics
In this spreadsheet I go over historic information on the Great Schools Ratings of Public School Districts. This spreadsheet can be helpful for someone looking to narrow down which home they are looking to purchase who have school districts as a top priority. For those who plan to put their children in public schools, I highly recommend at least viewing school district ratings prior to purchase. When considering value, resale, and rental prospects, school districts still matter & should be considered.
Related:
Should Those Not Considering Schools for Their Own Kids Narrow by School Districts?
I typically don't recommend that purchasers heavily consider school districts if they don't have children and don't plan to have children, since typically you can get a lower price for a home in a worse school district than in a top school district, all other factors the same.
That said, the question is a debatable one. In non-rural SE VA, lower tax rates often mean higher property values & better-rated schools in suburban areas.
Year & Up to Date Information
Keep in mind as well the year(s) that are present when I input the data, & that these ratings vary over time. For the most up-to-date information, see the website(s) directly. Also keep in mind that algorithms vary, whether looking at Great Schools, Niche's school ratings, School Digger, or otherwise.
Not all of SE VA Included
Also, keep in mind that I don't have all of SE VA on here. If you're working with me considering a purchase and you'd like to see your cities/counties of choice on here &/or updated, feel free to let me know.
Regional Tabs at Bottom
Be sure to note the tabs at the bottom for selecting the region that you'd like to focus on.
Related: