How do you find out which areas of town are zoned for good schools?

August 4, 2009 6:50 PM

So just over a year ago we had a baby, and eventually she is going to want to go to school. Are there websites with maps of cities that have information about schools?

I would like my daughter to go to public school, and I know that there are ways to send your kid to a school you aren't zoned for, but we are going to need to move sometime in the next few years, and I would like to move to a home zoned for a good school. Is there a website where I can look at a map of my town (Columbia, South Carolina) and the different areas of town are labeled as to what school each area is zoned for and then the educational ranking of that school is given? Thanks in advance for your help.

posted by ND¢ to education (5 comments total)

I like greatschools.net.

WHne you go house shopping, the MLS listings should indicate the school district.
posted by Ostara at 6:58 PM on August 4

Isn't Columbia part of Richland and Lexington County? If so, that complicates things, 'cause Lexington has 4 school districts, while Richland has 2.

Anyway, have you seen this map?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:02 PM on August 4

A google search for "map columbia south carolina schools" revealed a zoomable map with the schools for Richland districts one and two, broken down by elementary, middle and high schools. It has has few schools in Lexington, but doesn't break them down by district.

Melissa Data hints that they have this info, but it's for sale and expensive. However there are free trials and downloads you could investigate.

Play with this data map from Dept of Education, it seems to be closest to what you're looking for. It's pretty neat, let's you layer districts and schools along with maps and roads.

None of them seem to apply educational rankings, you might need to get that separate and match it with the maps.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:30 PM on August 4

Thanks BB.
posted by ND¢ at 1:39 AM on August 5

Isn't Columbia part of Richland and Lexington County? If so, that complicates things, 'cause Lexington has 4 school districts, while Richland has 2.

Don't overlook District 5, which looks like it is now part of both counties (used to be just Lexington). When I was a kid Lexington District 5 was the best in the area -- no idea if that's true anymore though. I went to Nursery Road 1982-1983 and Harbison West 1983-1986 and when I moved to NYC for seventh grade, I was way overprepared and ahead of my classmates.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:30 AM on August 5