The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Terry Redlin Elementary - 11
Terry Redlin Elementary sits on the east side of Sioux Falls, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Sioux Falls School District. The school draws from a city that has grown rapidly over recent decades, transforming from an industrial base into a regional hub for healthcare, finance, and retail. Sioux Falls spreads across rolling hills at the junction of two interstate highways, and while its downtown core has active street life with public art, festivals, and a riverfront trail system, the broader city is largely car-dependent. Terry Redlin sits within that spread-out pattern, a neighborhood school embedded in a residential area rather than near the civic center.
The student body is one of the more diverse in the district. White students make up the largest single group, but the school also enrolls substantial Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations, along with smaller Asian and multiracial cohorts. Three quarters of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which positions the school as serving a predominantly low-income community. The data does not include counts for English learners or students with individualized education programs, so those populations are not visible here. A parent looking for a racially and economically mixed peer environment will find one at Terry Redlin, though the missing special-population figures may be worth asking the school about directly.
On state assessments, the most recent results show proficiency levels that are low across all three tested subjects. In math, roughly one in six tested students reached proficiency. In English language arts, about one in five did. Science results, which cover a smaller tested group, landed in a similar range. Participation was strong across all subjects, so the scores reflect nearly the full student body rather than a skewed subset. These are sobering numbers. They do not tell you why proficiency is low, and they do not capture what happens in younger grades that are not tested. But they are the clearest academic signal available, and a parent considering this school would want to understand what supports and interventions the staff uses to move students toward grade-level work. Asking the principal or district about tutoring, small-group instruction, and how growth is tracked year to year would be a reasonable next step.
The wider district context matters here. Sioux Falls School District is the largest in South Dakota, operating dozens of schools across the city and continuing to grow. A new elementary school, Susan B. Anthony, recently opened to help absorb rising enrollment, and capacity decisions are ongoing. That growth affects boundary assignments and resource allocation across the district, including at Terry Redlin. The district's scale means students here are part of a large system with multiple middle schools and high schools feeding from the elementary ranks, which can broaden pathway options later even if the elementary program itself is focused on the basics.
Housing in the surrounding zip code is relatively affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit below the South Dakota statewide figure and well below the national one, and rents are modest. The cost of owning is higher than renting in this area, with estimated monthly mortgage payments running above typical rent by a meaningful margin, largely driven by current interest rates. For families weighing where to live, this neighborhood offers a lower-cost entry point into the Sioux Falls market, though property values have been rising slowly.
The data does not include information on disciplinary practices, course access, staffing ratios, attendance patterns, or specific program offerings at Terry Redlin. Title I status was also not reported, though the high free-or-reduced-price-lunch rate would typically make a school eligible. These gaps mean the picture here is incomplete. What is visible is a school serving a diverse, largely low-income student population in a growing, affordable corner of Sioux Falls, with state test results that point to real academic challenges in the tested grades. Families drawn to the neighborhood's affordability and diversity will want to sit down with school staff and ask how the building supports students performing below grade level and what the day-to-day classroom experience looks like for children at different skill levels.
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