The top reported proficiency rate is 64% in Math. The lowest is 54% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Stone City School District 25-1
Big Stone City School District 25-1 is a very small rural district in northeastern South Dakota, sitting in Grant County near the Minnesota border. It operates three schools: an elementary building, a middle school, and a program listed as Contract-02. The district is authorized to serve pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, but its current enrollment is concentrated entirely in the early and middle grades. There are no students registered in grades nine through twelve, which means families of high-school-age children are almost certainly sending them elsewhere, likely through a cooperative or tuition arrangement with a neighboring district. Because the district has no enrolled high school students, there is no graduation rate to report, and that absence reflects the district's current enrollment pattern rather than any shortcoming.
Academically, the district's state assessment results for grades three through eight are a genuine bright spot. In math, well over half of tested students reached proficiency or above on the SBAC assessment. English language arts results were similarly strong, with a clear majority of students proficient. Science, assessed through the South Dakota Science Assessment, showed a smaller share of students reaching proficiency, sitting closer to the middle of the range. Full participation across all three subjects means these results reflect the entire tested cohort, not a partial sample. The tested group is small, which is inherent to a district of this size, so a single student's performance shifts the picture more than it would in a larger system. Still, the math and ELA results stand out as solid for a rural district, and parents can take real confidence in them.
Enrollment across the district is tiny, with only a handful of students per grade level. Pre-kindergarten is the largest single grade. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a few students identifying as two or more races. The district did not report free-or-reduced-price lunch data, nor did it report special education or English learner counts, so those gaps cannot be filled here. A parent wanting to understand the socioeconomic mix or the level of specialized support available would need to ask the district directly.
We looked for information on program offerings, advanced coursework, career pathways, staffing ratios, discipline data, and school environment measures such as attendance or locale classification. None of that was available in the provided data. The district brief turned up no evidence of recent referendums, curriculum changes, property tax shifts, or other parent-relevant developments. This is a quiet district in the public record, and the absence of news may simply reflect stability, but it also means a family will need to call the district office for details on what is taught and how.
Housing in Big Stone City is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the South Dakota state median and considerably below the national figure. Home prices in the area have been climbing at a healthy rate recently, though, so the market is not stagnant. The price-to-income ratio is low, meaning a family earning a typical income could manage a mortgage here more easily than in most of the country. Rental data was not available, so renters should look locally for current options. Broadly, this is a place where housing costs are unlikely to be a barrier to attending the district.
What Big Stone City offers is a very small, intimate school environment where children are known individually and where the elementary and middle-grade academic results are strong in core subjects. The tradeoff is that the district does not currently operate a high school program for resident students, and the available data does not speak to extracurriculars, advanced courses, or specialized services. Families with children in the early grades will find a compact, academically sound setting. Families with teenagers will need to investigate where those students complete high school and what that pathway looks like day to day.
See more original research from School Decision →