The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in Math. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Freedom Elementary - 06
Freedom Elementary sits in Harrisburg, a bedroom community south of Sioux Falls that has been absorbing rapid population growth for years. The Harrisburg School District, publicly reported as the fastest-growing in South Dakota, has responded by adding schools and facilities, and Freedom is one of three elementary buildings inside the city limits. For a family weighing this school, the setting is suburban and automobile-oriented, with a young population and a historic commercial stretch along Railroad Avenue, though most daily life flows toward Sioux Falls for work, shopping, and services.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade, with a large kindergarten cohort relative to the upper grades, which reflects the growth pressures the district is managing. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary school in this band. The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Hispanic, multiracial, Black, and American Indian students. The free and reduced-price lunch rate is low compared with many public schools, pointing to a community where most families sit above the income threshold for that designation. Housing in the surrounding zip code carries typical home values near the national benchmark and above the South Dakota state benchmark, with rents that run lower than a monthly mortgage payment at current rates. For families renting, the area is relatively affordable; for buyers, the price-to-income ratio sits above the national midpoint, which is worth weighing against the income profile of the community.
On state assessments, Freedom Elementary's proficiency results are moderate. In math, roughly three-eighths of tested students reached proficient or above on the SBAC. English language arts results came in just below that mark. Science, assessed through SDSA 2.0, was the softest of the three subjects, with fewer than a third of tested students demonstrating proficiency. Participation was essentially full across all subjects, so the results reflect the enrolled population rather than a skewed subset. A parent may want to look into how the school supports students who are approaching proficiency, particularly in science, and what the district's instructional priorities are for the upper elementary grades. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible from this data to say whether these results are improving, stable, or declining.
Several pieces of information that would help round out the picture were not available. Individualized education program rates and English learner rates were not reported, so the special-population context is incomplete. Title I status, staffing ratios, discipline data, attendance figures, and course or program offerings were also absent from the available data. The school's locale classification was not provided, though the community description makes clear this is a suburban setting. No neighbor comparison was available to position Freedom against other schools in the area. Civil rights data was not included. Because this is an elementary school serving only through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate and no state testing for grades below third, which is expected for this grade band and not a gap in the school's reporting.
What a family can take from this is a picture of a growing suburban school in a district under steady expansion pressure. The community is affluent relative to many public school populations, the housing market is active, and the district has been investing in facilities to keep pace. Academic proficiency is moderate across subjects, with science the area most worth asking about. For a family already drawn to Harrisburg for its proximity to Sioux Falls and its residential character, Freedom is one of the in-town elementary options, and the absence of richer program or staffing data means a visit or a conversation with the school would be the next step to fill in what the numbers here do not cover.
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