A4HB Homebuyer's Blog

As a former educational researcher, Norris is often appalled by the information that home buyers use in evaluating schools and how they use it. He promotes these few rules of thumb: Rule One: Don’t rely on real estate agents or other parents. In a previous lifetime, I did research in several primary schools in the school district where my children were enrolled. The research involved videotaping full days of interaction between teachers and students and interviewing the teachers about what they were trying to accomplish. I was struck by the lack of correspondence between what was “known” in the community about

In addition to providing comparative data on public schools, The Colorado Department of Education site contains information on other schools and school districts in Colorado and on private schools and home schooling. It is also an important source for information on test results in schools across the state: CSAP Results — results from Colorado educational testing program ACT Results — results from national college admissions testing Accountability Reports — reports of performance of individual schools The National Center for Education Statistics is the best single source information on schools, school performance, and the demographic composition of communities and schools. If you go to their list of Data

Wikipedia is a great place to start when you’re looking for information on communities and schools in connection with a home search. They have basic data on all of the counties, communities and school districts in the state of Colorado. In addition to linking to the official school district sites, we’ll also link to the relevant Wikipedia pages for each district. One of the best web sites in Colorado focused on performance stats, financing, and developments in Colorado education is Chalkbeat. There are two public school districts in Boulder County, the Boulder Valley School District in the south half of the county and the St. Vrain School District in the north.

Schools in Boulder County, Broomfield County & Jefferson County The quality of community schools is consistently ranked as one of the most important factors in parents’ decisions about where to buy a home. School quality is also important for home buyers who have no children since it has a significant impact on housing values and the ease of selling homes in various communities. In this section, we provide links to information on local schools and how they compare to schools across the country. As a first step, to locate schools in Boulder County, try these links: BVSD School Locator or