REVIEWING B-H AND LA REPORT CARDS

    The 2023-2024 Report Cards for South Dakota were released late last year, sharing the performance of each of the state’s public schools. The online resource provides data to help parents, educators, and community and state leaders understand how their public schools perform on select metrics. The report looks at each of the state’s 148 districts.
    In the area of ‘student performance,’ South Dakota’s students take the annual state assessments for the subjects of English language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8 and 11, and science in grades 5,8 and 11. ‘Student Performance’ measures how well the students performed on the state assessments. 
    According to this most recent data, statewide, performance numbers are up by a small margin.
There was also a small amount of academic growth in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. The academic assessment indicated that ELA proficiency rates rose by one percentage point, from 50 percent in 2022-23 to 51 percent in 2023-24. Mathematics proficiency rates also rose by one percentage point, from 43 percent in 2022-23 to 44 percent in 2023-24. 
    Science remained unchanged at 43 percent statewide.
    District wide, 44% of students are proficient in English Language Arts (ELA), while the state average sits higher at 51%. 39% of B-H students are proficient in Mathematics. The state average is 44%. 
    For student performance, testing in the high school found, 77% of B-H high school is proficient in ELA, 38% are proficient in math and 58% in science.  For middle school, 37% are proficient in ELA , 29% in math and 41% in science, below the state averages of 51%, 44% and 43% respectively.  In the elementary, 47% of B-H students are proficient in ELA, 42% in math and 42% in science. 
    The report card also shows student progress. This measure shows the progress students have made on the state assessments for English Language arts and mathematics since the prior school year. It is one of many measures the school uses to monitor learning and student improvement.
    On a B-H district level, the results show that 44% of students are progressing in ELA which is under the state average of 54% by 10 percentage points while Math sits at 39% for the district, 11 percentage points below the state average of 50%.  
    The numbers for middle school students in student progress are below the state and district averages with 30% or ELA students on track and 35% of math students on track. 
    B-H Counselor Sheila Anderson pointed out that districtwide scores have remained fairly steady for the last three years but voiced concern that some scores, particularly math and English language arts are below the state average. “It’s not where we would like to be,” she emphasized. “We would like to be higher.”
    Middle and High School Principal Carrie James added that middle schoolers in particular are hard to get motivated when it comes to the assessments. “They don’t always see the value in the test,” she explained. 
    The admins noted that they do have various strategies in place to address and hopefully improve scores. These include continuing and expanding interim testing. They also have supplementary instruction that can help with test taking at the elementary level and hope to expand that to middle school. 
    “We also want to engage the students,” added Anderson. “We try to set goals with them and make it into a healthy competition.” 
    Langford Area School District’s scores are quite similar to B-H’s in several categories. 
    District wide, 44% of students are proficient in English Language Arts (ELA). 36% of LA students are proficient in Mathematics and 39% in science. 
    For middle school, 41% are proficient in ELA, 36% in math, 33% in science, numbers that come in below state averages. In the elementary, 54% of LA students are proficient in ELA, 56% in math and 53% in science, all well above state averages. 
    Due to smaller sample sizes in the high school with small classes, student performance data for LA is unable to be released to protect student privacy. 
    According to LA Principal and Superintendent Shad Storley, “I wasn’t alarmed by the testing. When you get the information, you deal with what you get. If scores are a little lower, we take a hard look why. And I trust my veteran staff to help do what we can moving forward.”
    Another area the Report Card  details is attendance. According to the South Dakota DOE, the attendance rate increased from 86 percent to 87 percent. For B-H, this number was even higher at 93% and 92% for LA. 
    “We are pleased with this positive momentum,” said Secretary of Education Joe Graves when the report was released. “We have emphasized addressing attendance rates over the last few years at the state and district levels. It is promising to see our efforts are working.”
    The chronic absenteeism rate, however, remained unchanged at 21 percent. This includes students who missed 10 percent or more of enrolled days within the school year. At B-H, the absentee rate was only 13% and at LA, it was 12%. 
    84 percent of students in the state graduated on-time or within four years of entering high school. 91 percent of students graduate with a diploma or high school equivalent by the age of 21. Locally, the numbers were significantly higher with 97% of B-H students graduating on time and 100% high school completion. At LA, the data was not available due to the smaller student population.  
    The average ACT score among the students is 21 statewide. Both B-H and LA’s averages were right around that score as well. Anderson noted though that future scores will likely be lower as the state has decided to move to the ACT test for everyone rather than requiring the Smarter Balance test. 
    To view both B-H’s and LA’s Report Cards and all other state school data, visit sdschools.sd.gov/#/home.