Avoid Misleading School Rankings. Find Better Homes.

Illinois Top 30 School Search

Discover YOUR Best Public Schools Based on Your Real Estate And Transit Requirements.

Step 1: Expect more balanced and diverse school ranking analysis.

Step 2: Use our Service to find your best home, school and commute in one easy search

Step 3: Save on commute times and property costs. Spend more time with your family.

Sign-up For Full Access to all SchoolSparrow Features

Find Out-Performers First

You see the best homes near good schools that all the other searches missed.

Save $$ in high potential areas

You save thousands on average by considering homes in the attendance boundaries of great socio-economically diverse schools.

We’ll donate 5%

When you buy with a Sparrow Agent, we donate 5% to your school and another local underprivileged school.

Get Notified

Turn on email notifications when new properties (and schools) populate in your Top 30 School search.

Save Money

After you register, redeem your coupon with any of our partner education consultants for up to 50% off their regular hourly rate.

Free Search Page

Your own private page where you can save and compare schools or properties. Get access to additional school search tools and resources, and detailed property data segemented by school.

Register FREE to Access These Features

And Receive Our Guide to Illinois Public Schools

How are we different?


  • SchoolSparrow ranks schools by normalizing test scores for parent income, which illuminates schools that have diversity, sometimes located closer to the urban core with shorter commutes, more affordable real estate, and more diversity. Our ranking uncovers great schools that you would have overlooked because the average test score is lower, but sometimes this reflects the socio-economic diversity of the school, not the quality of the school.
  • Our competitors primarily rank schools by straight test scores, but research has proven that test scores are highly correlated to parent income, not the quality of the school.
  • As a result, people are being steered to privileged neighborhoods with high real estate prices, often in the suburbs with longer commutes, and very little diversity.
  • Parents are spending less time with their kids due to longer commutes. If spent wisely, we think and extra hour a day at home overcomes any incremental difference between any two schools.

  • Parents today are overly influenced by faulty ranking systems, and as a result they are focused on schools in expensive areas. With SchoolSparrow, you have a unique dataset that is pointing you towards out-performers.
  • Just because a school has, on average, lower scores than other schools doesn't actually mean anything unless you also have the context of parent income. A score of 7 for a school in a privileged area is not impressive compared to a 7 or even a 5 or 6 for a school in a socio-economically diverse area.
  • Most Parents rely on word of mouth when considering school options for their kids, but these schools are located in the most expensive areas, and more importantly, these 4 or 5 schools represent a very myopic view of all your options. SchoolSparrow provides an unbiased list of schools you would have otherwise never heard of.

  • Enter your real estate parameters (#beds, max price, etc), how close you need to be to a train, and generally where you want to live on a county level. We then show you the Top 30 Schools that have homes for sale, right now, that match those requirements.
  • All listings are in the attendance boundaries of the schools. You will be able to view all real estate listings that match your requirements in the Top 30 Schools.
  • You have more power than your agent to find listings. No real estate agent can conduct this search, unless you are using a SchoolSparrow partner agent.
  • SchoolSparrow provides a list of schools you will not hear about from your friends/colleagues/real estate agent/education consultant.

  • Grade segmentation allows you to see how every grade is doing at a school.
  • You can identify schools that are improving.
  • You can idenitfy schools that are consistent.
  • You have more data at your fingertips to evaluate your options.

  • A buyer's circle of friends or colleagues all know of the same 4 or 5 schools that are "good". The circle of friends is an echo chamber: the same schools come up over and over again. This creates a confirmation bias.
  • Given the fragemented information out there, no wonder most people rely on word of mouth when it comes to school choice. But word of mouth is not a comprehensive view of all the school options that could work for a family. SchoolSparrow delivers an unbiased list of schools, ranked by test scores normalized for parent income.

Karen G.

"SchoolSparrow helped me find a great home in the attendance boundaries of the school we wanted. I would recommend SchoolSparrow to anyone who is looking for a home where Public Schools are a factor."

We Want To Hear From You

Ask Us About Our Ranking System, Schools, Real Estate, Anything.

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