The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Old Elm Spring Colony Elementary - 03
Old Elm Spring Colony Elementary sits at a rural address outside Parkston, South Dakota, and serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the Parkston School District 33-3. The school's name and isolated location point to a colony school, a model tied to Hutterite communities that is common across rural South Dakota. These schools are intentionally small, built to serve a close-knit religious community on its own land, and they carry a distinctly different character from a typical town elementary.
The enrollment here is tiny, with just a handful of students spread across every grade. Some grades have no students at all in a given year. The entire student body is white, and nearly every child qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting the communal, agriculturally rooted economy of the colony rather than conventional urban poverty. Data on special education and English learner populations was not reported, so there is no picture of those services from what was provided.
On state assessments, the school's results are available for math and English language arts but should be read with the understanding that only a small group of students was tested. In math, the proficiency rate was low, with just a few students reaching the proficient mark. English language arts was stronger in relative terms, with a meaningful share of tested students demonstrating proficiency. Science results were suppressed, which often happens when the number of tested students is too small to report without risking identification. Participation was full among those tested. A parent trying to judge academic quality from these numbers should keep in mind that in a school this small, the performance of one or two children can shift the picture dramatically. This is a case where a conversation with the school about instruction and expectations would tell a family more than the testing data alone.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. That gap reflects the grade band, not a missing outcome. No program offerings, course access, staffing, discipline, or attendance data was available in the material provided, and the district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, referendums, or facility plans. What the district does or does not offer beyond the basics could not be confirmed from this data.
Parkston itself is a small rural town in Hutchinson County with a traditional grid centered on Main Street, where the library, city hall, and post office sit together. The surrounding land is agricultural, and the town has a manufacturing sector alongside its medical, retail, and educational services. The population is edging downward slightly, and no major housing developments or commercial construction projects surfaced in public sources. A historic one-room country school is preserved as a museum in the east park, a reminder of the area's long tradition of small-scale rural education.
Housing in the area is modestly priced compared with both state and national benchmarks, and values have been rising at a steady pace recently. For a family considering the area, the cost of ownership sits below what most South Dakota communities command and well below national levels. Rental data was not available.
What this school offers is a very specific environment. A family living on the colony would send children here as a matter of course. A family outside that community would likely find that the cultural and religious context does not fit their needs, and the school is not structured to serve a general enrollment population. The academic results are mixed and drawn from very few students, so they are hard to interpret with confidence. Anyone wanting to understand what happens day to day in these classrooms would need to go directly to the district and ask.
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