The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Math. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Colman Elementary - 03
Colman Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Colman-Egan School District 50-5, a small public district rooted in the rural community of Colman, South Dakota. The school sits along South Loban Avenue in a town that the city's own economic development materials describe as actively welcoming new residents and businesses, with residential and commercial lots listed for sale on the east side of Highway 34. Colman is a fully rural place in Moody County, small in population and low in density, organized around a modest grid with Main Avenue as its civic spine. Nearby lakes including Brant Lake, Lake Madison, and Chester give the area a recreational identity that public sources point to as a regional draw. The town is auto-oriented for nearly every practical need, with a thin commercial cluster and no transit system identified.
The school's enrollment is small for its grade band, with roughly two dozen students per grade in most years, though a few grades run smaller. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic, Native American, and multiracial students. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, well below what many rural South Dakota schools report. Data on individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
On state assessments, Colman Elementary's results tell a mixed but largely solid story. In math, roughly half to a slight majority of tested students in grades three through eight reached proficient or above on the SBAC assessment. English language arts results were similar, with just over half of students clearing the proficiency bar. Science, tested in a narrower grade band with a much smaller group, showed a lower share of students reaching proficiency. Participation was full across all three subjects. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. Average scale scores were also missing from the source data. A parent considering this school may want to ask how the school supports students who are approaching but not yet reaching proficiency, particularly in science.
Because Colman Elementary ends at sixth grade, there is no graduation rate, no ACT or college-readiness data, and no high school course offerings to report. Those measures belong to the secondary grades in the district, which fall outside this school's scope. The same is true for AP, dual-credit, and career pathway programs, none of which appear in the data for this elementary building. Program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline data, and attendance figures were not provided, so those dimensions cannot be assessed.
The housing picture in Colman's zip code shows values running above the South Dakota state benchmark but somewhat below the national benchmark. Recent year-over-year appreciation has been strong relative to both the state and national averages, which may reflect the town's growth push and the broader appeal of lake-adjacent rural living in the region. Estimated monthly mortgage costs sit at a level that, against national median household income figures, suggests a relatively accessible market for families with steady incomes, though local wage data was not available to make a precise affordability claim for Colman itself.
The Colman-Egan district brief returned little about recent strategic changes, referendums, or curriculum shifts. What public sources show is routine operational information rather than a documented reform agenda or facility plan. Families looking for a sense of the district's direction will likely need to contact the district directly, as the available record does not describe one.
Taken together, Colman Elementary is a small, rural elementary school with a homogeneous peer environment, modest economic need, and middle-of-the-road state test results that lean stronger in math and ELA than in science. It sits in a town that is openly courting growth, near recreational lakes, with housing that has been appreciating but remains within reach for many families by national standards. The absence of data on staffing, programs, discipline, and special populations leaves real gaps in the picture. A parent evaluating this school would do well to visit and ask about those areas directly, particularly how the school supports science instruction and what the transition into the district's upper grades looks like.
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