Bellevue school district? (Shoreline, Highland: rental, income, zoned)

[GraceKrispy]

I had heard great things about Bellevue school district, and we're looking at a rental in the Interlake area. But when I look up the schools around that area, they get really poor scores compared to other Bellevue schools. Our preference was Shoreline area, and those schools had much higher ratings all around. What's the deal? Is Bellevue not the stellar district I've heard? I've looked at a few sources, which seem to concur.

ETA- It looks like the "poor" ratings really are somewhat specific to the elementary school and possibly the middle school to which the rental is zoned-- Ardmore El and Highland Middle. I would have one in 5th, one in 6th and one in 8th next year. All three kids are qualified for gifted programs in our current location, but would not qualify next school year in Bellevue (because we missed or will miss the testing window, and the tests used to qualify them here are not within a year, as required by the Bellevue district.

I know ratings aren't all they're cracked up to be, sometimes, but why are those schools particularly low? One of the reasons we considered Bellevue was the great school district!

[Inkpoe]

This has been discussed before.

You're looking at an area that has a high immigrant/ESL students and lower income students, which is a factor that can bring down the scores. They are still good schools regardless and there been posters who mentioned having their kids go through those schools and still being satisfied with the quality of their education.

[GraceKrispy]

Thanks for the response. I tried searching the forum, but couldn't come up with that specific question/answer.