The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in English language arts. The lowest is 48% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Orland Colony Elementary - 04
Orland Colony Elementary - 04 sits in the Montrose School District 43-2, serving kindergarten through eighth grade in a rural stretch of McCook County, southeastern South Dakota. It is a very small school, with an enrollment that fills a handful of classrooms across nine grade levels. The student body is entirely white, and the school draws from the surrounding agricultural community near Montrose, a compact farming town along the I-90 corridor about an hour and a half southwest of Sioux Falls. The town's motto, "What You Need When You Need It," captures the scale of the place: a Main Street with City Hall and a community center, a campsite for travelers, and the Porter Sculpture Park just outside town. There is no public transit, no walkable commercial district, and no separate civic campus. Residents rely on personal vehicles for nearly everything.
On state assessments, the school's English language arts results stand out as a clear strength. A substantial majority of tested students in grades three through eight scored proficient or above on the SBAC, a result that suggests the school is doing solid work in reading and writing instruction. Math proficiency was more mixed, with roughly half of tested students reaching proficiency, a level that a parent may want to look into further with the school to understand how instruction is paced and supported across the grade bands. Science results were suppressed, likely because the number of tested students was too small to report reliably, a common situation for schools of this size rather than a signal of weak performance. Participation was full among the students who were tested. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or declining over time.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and that gap reflects the grade band rather than a missing outcome. Free or reduced-price lunch data was not reported, nor were Individualized Education Program rates or English learner counts. Without these figures, it is hard to characterize the economic and special-needs composition of the student body beyond what the enrollment and racial demographic data show. Discipline data, course access information, staffing levels, and attendance figures were also absent, so we left those out rather than guess.
Montrose itself is experiencing very slow growth. The town has added only a modest number of residents since the 2020 census, and no major housing developments or commercial construction projects were identified. The housing market in the school's zip code sits above the statewide benchmark, with typical home values notably higher than the South Dakota median and modestly above the national figure. Estimated monthly mortgage costs reflect current interest rates in the mid-six range, which shapes what families moving into the area can afford. Rental data was not available for this zip code. The local economy runs on agriculture and farming, with healthcare cited as a secondary industry. Specific major employers were not documented in available sources, and the municipal workforce is small.
We looked for recent district-level changes that would matter to parents, such as curriculum shifts, property tax referendums, or pedagogy updates, but found little in available sources. The district brief returned no specific parent-relevant changes, so rather than speculate, we note that gap. No neighbor comparison data was provided for positioning this school against others in the county, and no program offerings such as AP, dual credit, or career pathways were listed, which is consistent with a small rural elementary and middle school where such offerings typically would not apply.
What this school appears to offer is a tight-knit, homogeneous rural learning environment with strong reading results and room for growth in math. Families considering the area are looking at a quiet agricultural community with limited amenities, slow growth, and housing costs that run somewhat above the state norm. The peer environment is small by design, which can mean close teacher attention and a family-like setting, but also limited exposure to a broader range of classmates and perspectives. A parent weighing this school should ask about math support, what enrichment or intervention is available for students working above or below grade level, and how the district handles the transition to high school, since Orland Colony tops out at eighth grade.
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