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If you know me, you know I have been saying this was coming for some time. According to the test scores published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle School Guide, Walton High School is no longer the highest testing high school in Metro Atlanta. The new testing champion is Northview High School (tied with Walton last year) serving parts of Johns Creek and Duluth and the new number 2 is Alpharetta High, which, basically serves zip code 30005. That drops the vaunted East Cobb school from first to third in test scores in one year!

***Disclaimer: Test scores do not inherently make a school "better" and you need to look at much more than the test scores from schools to determine if you want to live within a certain school district. If that's all you are considering as your parameters, you need to do more research. Go to the schools, talk to the principal, take a tour, etc...

Disclaimer aside, as a real estate professional I realize that schools drive buying decisions for many people relocating and one of the first questions asked of me or search parameters given to me is based around finding a home with "good schools." While I can not (and absolutely will not) tell anyone what is a "good" school, test scores are public information. Important public information. There is FAR more to consider including what schools feed into other schools, is the housing stock in my price point in a school district something that I would like to buy, where you work, how long is the commute, what are property taxes, etc, etc..so to only look at test scores is too narrow of a focus to stand on its own merit as a single parameter for selecting a new home.

In any event, I just picked up a large stack of school guides to include in our relocation packages and I always sift through them to see how my school district stacks up. I thought this was newsworthy as Walton has been king for so long. I'll post the 5 highest scoring elementary, middle...