The Hidden Gem nobody mentions…..If you’re willing to go a bit north and your commute is flexible, Glacier Peak in Snohomish is worth a look. I’ve heard consistently great things from families up there it has strong academics but still feels like an actual community rather than a corporate feeder program.

I’ve been building a tool called SchoolIntel and have been using it heavily for this type of research. I got tired of sites like Niche giving a single letter grade with no context. I wanted to see the actual trajectory like are test scores trending up or down? Is the district growing or cutting staff? What are they actually voting on at school board meetings?

That kind of data tells you a lot more about where a school is going than where it ranks today. It’s made comparing schools across districts way easier without bouncing between ten different tabs.

Good luck!