Mercer Island second in ‘Top Cities to Live and Learn’

Do the most affluent zip codes also cultivate the best schools?

Not necessarily, according to the latest Forbes/GreatSchools second annual “Top Cities to Live and Learn” study that looks at the places in America where housing dollars go the furthest in getting children a great education.

Falmouth, Maine (median home price $351,550) topped the list. Towns with homes costing between $200,000 to $399,000 grabbed more schools in the Top Ten than any other grouping, including the first, fourth and fifth-place finishers as well as schools scoring 13th and 14th. In the over $800,000 category, only Manhattan Beach, California was in the top 10.

Mercer Island ($708,740 median home price) placed second and was the most expensive city ranked in the top five. The survey analyzed 17,589 towns and cities in the 49 states that administer standardized, statewide tests. The study also used results from the most recent National Assessment for Educational Progress data, a federal program that tests randomly selected students in fourth, eighth and 12th grades to provide state-level assessments of learning and educational progress.

By combining the two datasets, GreatSchools calibrated the results of individual cities in a single state with national standards to come up with a score for each city. It then graded on a curve with the highest-ranking city, Falmouth, representing 100.

In addition to leaving out Nebraska (no standard test), GreatSchools eliminated towns with fewer than 10,000 residents or fewer than five schools. And cities with sprawling, unified school districts like Houston and Los Angeles might harbor extremely high-scoring schools whose results are cancelled out by underperforming ones, the survey revealed.