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Brookings Rocks ACTs; Spearfish 6th, Madison 62nd

The state Department of Education has posted average ACT scores for South Dakota school districts during last school year. We only get data for schools with ten or more takers, to avoid possibly tying actual scores with individual students. Out of the 120 schools with reportable averages, the top ten and bottom ten schools by this metric are the following:

  1. Brookings
  2. Rosholt
  3. Wall
  4. Groton Area
  5. White Lake
  6. Spearfish
  7. Pierre
  8. Lake Preston
  9. Montrose
  10. Brandon Valley
  1. Langford Area
  2. McIntosh
  3. Mount Vernon
  4. Wolsey-Wessington
  5. Plankinton
  6. Bowdle
  7. McLaughlin
  8. Dupree
  9. Eagle Butte
  10. Todd County

Brookings is duly crowing about its top-of-the-heapedness. So is Spearfish High School, which posted a full-point jump to a 23.70 ACT average, well above the state's 22.02 average and the highest score it's posted over the last decade. Hmm... what changed at Spearfish High School that could have influenced academic performance? Well, they did hire a new French teacher....

In the Northern Hills metro area, Meade (Sturgis) ranked 67th, Lead-Deadwood ranked 81st, and Belle Fourche ranked 96th.

My alma mater Madison ranks 62nd, with a 21.49 average, just one step above Howard at 21.42. Elsewhere in Madison's open-enrollment competition zone, Montrose tied for 8th, Arlington ranked 28th, Tri-Valley ranked 32nd, Colman-Egan ranked 89th, and Chester ranked 105th. Rutland and Oldham-Ramona each had too few takers to report ACT averages.

Then again, the Wall Street Journal notes that 75% of ACT-takers still aren't fully ready for college. Hmm....

Below is the list of 149 South Dakota school districts with students who took the ACT during the 2011-2012 school year (also available in unpleasant, unmanipulable, unnecessarily bandwidthy PDF format from the state Department of Education):

Dist# School ACT avg takers rank (out of 120 reported averages)
99999 SD Avg/Totals 22.02 6015
6001 Aberdeen 22.03 196 47
58003 Agar-Blunt-Onida 21.28 18 72
61001 Alcester-Hudson 22.55 20 25
11001 Andes Central 20.44 16 98
38001 Arlington 22.44 16 28
21001 Armour * 8
4001 Avon 22.06 18 44
49001 Baltic 21.88 26 51
9001 Belle Fourche 20.46 63 96
3001 Bennett County 20.68 25 90
61002 Beresford 22.06 31 44
52001 Bison * 7
4002 Bon Homme 21.55 31 60
26005 Bonesteel-Fairfax * 6
22001 Bowdle 18.55 11 116
49002 Brandon Valley 23.56 178 10
30003 Bridgewater-Emery 20.00 107
45004 Britton-Hecla 20.97 35 80
5001 Brookings 24.45 134 1
26002 Burke * 9
43001 Canistota 21.75 16 54
41001 Canton 20.73 37 87
28001 Castlewood 21.29 14 71
60001 Centerville 22.54 13 26
7001 Chamberlain 20.88 40 84
39001 Chester 20.05 19 105
12002 Clark 22.39 23 31
50005 Colman-Egan 20.69 16 89
59003 Colome Consolidated * 8
21002 Corsica 20.60 10 91
16001 Custer 20.74 35 85
61008 Dakota Valley 22.35 52 34
38002 De Smet 20.45 22 97
49003 Dell Rapids 22.28 60 37
5006 Deubrook Area 22.32 19 36
19004 Deuel 21.83 29 53
56002 Doland * 2
51001 Douglas 22.38 98 32
64002 Dupree 17.35 17 118
20001 Eagle Butte 17.19 36 119
23001 Edgemont * 7
22005 Edmunds Central 21.38 13 65
61007 Elk Point-Jefferson 22.78 46 21
5003 Elkton 20.53 17 94
28002 Estelline 22.35 17 34
17001 Ethan 22.92 13 18
44001 Eureka 20.00 17 107
46002 Faith 20.91 23 83
24004 Faulkton Area 20.42 19 99
50003 Flandreau 22.00 16 48
14001 Florence 20.55 11 93
6002 Frederick Area 20.18 11 103
33001 Freeman 22.06 17 44
49004 Garretson 20.93 27 82
63001 Gayville-Volin 23.09 11 14
53001 Gettysburg 23.55 11 11
25003 Grant-Deuel * 6
26004 Gregory 21.74 27 55
6006 Groton Area 23.98 48 4
27001 Haakon 22.24 25 38
28003 Hamlin 22.23 31 39
30001 Hanson 20.73 11 87
31001 Harding County 20.50 18 95
41002 Harrisburg 22.40 80 29
14002 Henry * 5
10001 Herreid * 8
34002 Highmore-Harrold 21.21 14 74
51002 Hill City 21.13 23 76
56006 Hitchcock-Tulare 23.00 14 15
23002 Hot Springs 21.00 33 79
53002 Hoven 21.55 11 60
48003 Howard 21.42 12 63
60002 Hurley * 3
2002 Huron 20.02 110 106
22006 Ipswich Public 23.00 20 15
13003 Irene-Wakonda 20.40 20 101
2003 Iroquois * 5
37003 Jones County * 7
35002 Kadoka Area 19.94 18 110
7002 Kimball 20.60 15 91
38003 Lake Preston 23.58 19 8
45005 Langford Area 19.88 16 111
40001 Lead-Deadwood 20.95 44 81
52004 Lemmon 21.12 26 77
41004 Lennox 21.61 46 58
44002 Leola * 8
42001 Lyman 20.29 17 102
39002 Madison Central 21.49 63 62
60003 Marion * 9
43007 McCook Central 22.72 25 22
15001 McIntosh 19.83 12 112
15002 McLaughlin 17.50 12 117
46001 Meade 21.37 93 67
33002 Menno 21.20 10 75
25004 Milbank 21.57 63 59
29004 Miller 23.19 21 13
17002 Mitchell 22.98 126 17
62006 Mobridge-Pollock 19.98 48 109
43002 Montrose 23.58 12 8
17003 Mount Vernon 19.71 14 113
51003 New Underwood * 8
9002 Newell 21.24 21 73
56007 Northwestern Area 22.19 16 42
23003 Oelrichs * 7
39005 Oldham-Ramona * 2
60004 Parker 21.40 20 64
33003 Parkston 21.70 37 56
32002 Pierre 23.65 134 7
1001 Plankinton 18.56 16 115
11005 Platte-Geddes 21.32 28 69
51004 Rapid City Area 22.22 556 40
56004 Redfield 21.31 35 70
54004 Rosholt 24.38 16 2
39004 Rutland * 4
55005 Sanborn Central * 4
4003 Scotland 22.40 15 29
62005 Selby 22.69 13 23
49005 Sioux Falls 22.79 1018 20
5005 Sioux Valley 20.41 41 100
54002 Sisseton 21.33 58 68
15003 Smee * 8
40002 Spearfish 23.70 91 6
57001 Stanley County 21.12 25 77
1002 Stickney * 7
54006 Summit * 3
41005 Tea Area 21.38 40 65
20003 Timber Lake 21.70 10 56
66001 Todd County 16.78 36 120
33005 Tripp-Delmont * 7
49006 Tri-Valley 22.38 39 32
13001 Vermillion 22.86 71 19
60005 Viborg 22.12 17 43
11004 Wagner 20.74 34 85
51005 Wall 24.23 13 3
6005 Warner 22.57 14 24
14004 Watertown 21.99 204 49
18003 Waubay * 6
14005 Waverly 21.88 17 51
18005 Webster Area 22.22 27 40
36002 Wessington Springs * 9
49007 West Central 23.31 72 12
1003 White Lake 23.75 12 5
47001 White River * 8
12003 Willow Lake * 9
54007 Wilmot 20.06 16 104
59002 Winner 21.94 36 50
2006 Wolsey-Wessington 19.53 15 114
55004 Woonsocket * 9
63003 Yankton 22.52 153 27
* Averages not reported for schools with fewer than ten test takers

5 Comments

  1. Carl Fahrenwald 2012.09.27

    Cory- huge factor missing here. You need to have a column for "percentage of test takers". There is too much room here for schools to inflate their average by not encouraging the lowest academic performers to take the test. Typically these students are bound for vocational school or the job market and thus are not likely to take the ACT unless encouraged by counselors or other school personnel. I think there is some value to having all high school graduates take the ACT. Yes it is a college placement test but also is a summary test of the high school curriculum. I have information posted about this and previous year's ACT test on my wikipage at this link:
    https://rutlandsupt.wikispaces.com/REPORT+CARD

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.09.27

    That's a very good point, Carl. Does the DoE update that release with such a column? If not, why not?

  3. Carl Fahrenwald 2012.09.27

    This is all very political. The DOE was trying to build a % of test takers factor into their new accountability formula. Under such a plan the schools with a higher percentage of ACT test takers would have been recognized in the new accountability formula for this "handicap". But a coalition of my peers successfully fought this and got it taken out so we are going to use ACT scores for accountability and compare ACT scores between schools with no recognition of the percent of students taking the test. You could easily find out the number of graduates from each high school in 2012. Then divide your "takers" column by the number of total graduates for each school to get your percentage. If we are running a academic foot race here then don't compare average ACT for a school testing 80 % of graduates with a school such as Rutland who had 100 % of our graduates take the test in 2012. What percent of Brookings graduates took the ACT compared to Madison graduates? If we are comparing then let's be sure and compare "apples to apples". Schools testing a higher percentage of their graduates are at a disadvantage and this is not being recognized.

  4. Carl Fahrenwald 2012.09.27

    A more comprehensive system for tracking and comparing the performance of SD high schools based on the performance of their graduates has has been implemented for many years now by the SD Board of Regents. This is the "High School Transition Report" that tracks several different academic indicators and the actual performance (college GPA) of high school graduates completing their first year at SD BOR institutions. So you can compare ACT scores, college GPAs and many other interesting things all at once- all info tied back to the high school that the students graduated from. Here is the link:
    http://www.sdbor.edu/mediapubs/highschool/index.htm
    This is "old news" as famed Pierre Journalist Bob Mercer and the Argus Leader have done stories on this. The data from many years of the BOR High School Transition Report has been largely favorable toward Rutland and small high schools in general as reported by myself and these other (more objective) sources.

Comments are closed.