Sammamish Schools Rank High on Forbes List - Considered Fifth Best in the U.S. West

The ranking, compiled by San Francisco, Calif.-based nonprofit GreatSchools, Inc., used five economic and educational achievement factors to find "the best places in America where your housing dollar will go the furthest in getting your children a great education." The nonprofit worked in partnership with Forbes to produce the ranking and story.

Forbes ranked Falmouth, Maine, as the best bargain—with high test scores and median home prices around $351,550. Sammamish had a high median home value of $519,060. Schools in the city ranked higher than ones in two California cities - Palo Alto and Piedmont. The highest ranked town in the state was Mercer Island, second nationally and first in the U.S. West.

"We're the most trusted source of (education) performance data in country," said GreatSchools spokesperson Kristan Kirsh. "Based on that we provide tips and advice to parents on schools."

GreatSchools, on its website, gave the following schools in Sammamish a ranking of 10 - with that number being the highest awarded: , , , and .

Public schools in Sammamish are operated by the and school districts.

According to the Forbes story:

"The resulting lists once again demolish the idea that more money equals better schools. Falmouth's performance outshone that of big-dollar school districts like Manhattan Beach, Calif., and New Canaan, Conn., both of which have median house prices above $1.1 million yet scored sixth and 19th, respectively, on an absolute scale."

Forbes and GreatSchools used five sources of data to determine their ranking: 

• Individual school performance data: Departments of education for each state, as of February 2011.
• National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) data: National Center for Education Statistics, 2009.
• Population data: Bert Sperling’s Best Places, 2009.
• Median home value data: Bert Sperling’s Best Places, Q3 2010.
• Unemployment data: Bert Sperling’s Best Places, November 2010

Also, Forbes asked the question: Where will your housing dollars be best spent to get your child a quality education? In the category of homes that have a median value of $400,000 to $599,999, Sammamish placed fourth.

Here's a list of the top-10 ranking by the nation's four geographic regions:

Rank City # Schools  Pop.  Median Home Value Housing Appreciation Unemployment Educational Quality Index 1 Falmouth, ME 5  10,669  $351,550 5.0% 100.00 2 Barrington, RI 6  16,284  $296,010 -20.4% 9.7% 97.96 3 Bedford, NH 6  21,504  $293,730 5.5% 97.96 4 Basking Ridge, NJ 5  24,600  $370,100 3.2% 94.17 5 Jericho, NY 5  12,812  $644,890 -11.8% 7.0% 94.17 6 New Canaan, CT 5  19,952  $1,195,820 6.2% 91.57 7 Belmont, MA 6  23,217  $551,920 -4.7% 5.8% 90.90 8 Winchester, MA 7  21,117  $601,920 -5.1% 6.0% 90.36 9 Madison, CT 6  18,844  $450,350 5.6% 90.06 10 Concord, MA 5  16,846  $611,320 6.2% 89.56 Midwest Rank City # Schools  Pop.  Median Home Value Housing Appreciation Unemployment Educational Quality Index 1 Pella, IA 5  10,475  $148,200 -3.0% 5.3% 98.25 2 Brookfield, WI 10  38,922  $241,260 -4.3% 6.2% 94.10 3 Edina, MN 16  45,744  $317,690 -11.1% 6.1% 93.59 4 Hinsdale, IL 6  16,723  $651,220 -19.8% 8.7% 92.25 5 Mequon, WI 6  22,668  $316,010 1.1% 6.7% 90.22 6 Carmel, IN 16  48,738  $246,910 -2.6% 6.3% 89.42 7 Cedarburg, WI 6  10,993  $240,770 -2.7% 6.7% 88.22 8 Wilmette, IL 7  27,139  $558,660 -10.1% 6.4% 87.52 9 Waunakee, WI 6  11,172  $289,380 -0.8% 5.2% 87.00 10 Ada, MI 7  12,298  $237,800 11.3% 86.91 South Rank City # Schools  Pop.  Median Home Value Housing Appreciation Unemployment Educational Quality Index 1 Parkland, FL 5  25,106  $426,390 -20.5% 9.7% 95.98 2 St. Johns, FL 9  18,063  $181,700 10.3% 95.98 3 Southlake, TX 12  26,297  $476,880 -2.5% 8.2% 95.74 4 Severna Park, MD 7  28,841  $417,090 -5.3% 6.7% 93.22 5 Brentwood, TN 13  29,105  $379,370 -7.5% 7.4% 90.29 6 Potomac, MD 7  44,924  $749,630 -5.7% 5.4% 89.60 7 Niceville, FL 6  12,602  $190,770 -6.1% 7.4% 89.00 8 Mount Pleasant, SC 12  64,087  $296,410 -1.0% 6.4% 87.12 9 Collierville, TN 8  39,040  $266,610 -12.4% 7.2% 86.09 10 Mandeville, LA 15  11,954  $243,540 -1.7% 5.0% 85.95 West Rank City # Schools  Pop.  Median Home Value Housing Appreciation Unemployment Educational Quality Index 1 Mercer Island, WA 5  24,351  $708,740 -23.2% 8.7% 99.12 2 Moraga, CA 5  16,465  $722,010 -9.8% 11.5% 97.69 3 Manhattan Beach, CA 7  37,745  $1,278,980 -11.7% 4.5% 97.69 4 Lake Oswego, OR 13  36,973  $392,040 -16.7% 7.7% 93.74 5 Sammamish, WA 13  41,916  $519,060 -16.7% 7.0% 92.78 6 Lafayette, CA 6  25,035  $811,210 -17.2% 4.2% 89.58 7 Palo Alto, CA 16  59,974  $1,080,980 -4.5% 6.5% 89.23 8 Piedmont, CA 6  10,596  $730,620 -7.1% 11.5% 87.96 9 Los Alamos, NM 5  12,254  $242,150 0.5% 3.1% 87.85 10 Greenwood Village, CO 7  13,762  $552,020 -1.2% 6.6% 87.55

Editor's note: Kendall Watson is the editor of Mercer Island Patch. To see this weekend's open house tours in Sammamish, click here.