Best High Schools in South Dakota

A teacher and two students give a thumbs-up in a classroom.

Find the best South Dakota high schools with SchoolDigger.com! Focused on test scores for accurate rankings, our user-friendly site simplifies your search. Empower your decisions by exploring top-rated schools, only on SchoolDigger.com - the ultimate guide to K-12 schools!

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish South Dakota test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the Smarter Balanced Assessments test scores by the South Dakota Department of Education. The most recent update was on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

Be the first to know when we post new test scores and rankings!

School															Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2023)							Ranking (2024 vs 2023)
ID	Rank (of 141)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Average Standard Score (2024)	Average Standard Score (2023)	Rank (2023)	Rank Change from 2023	SchoolDigger Rating (2024)
461812000165	101	Dell Rapids High School - 01	Public	9-12	1216 N Garfield Ave	Dell Rapids	57022	Minnehaha County	Dell Rapids School District 49-3	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 428-5473	290	20	14.5	11.7%	274 (94.5%)	0 (0.0%)	8 (2.8%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	7 (2.4%)	$10,240			$760			$9,480	32.9	52	74	27
461230001269	102	Chester Area Cyber School - 92	Public, Virtual	9-12	500 5th St	Chester	57016	Lake County	Chester Area School District 39-1	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	No	(605) 489-2411	123	6	21.1	2.4%	123 (100.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	$9,985			$526			$9,459	32.5	29.2	103	1
461941000174	103	Douglas High School - 03	Public	9-12	420 Patriot Dr	Box Elder	57719	Pennington County	Douglas School District 51-1	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 923-0030	749	45	16.7	22.2%	535 (71.4%)	15 (2.0%)	67 (8.9%)	7 (0.9%)	58 (7.7%)	1 (0.1%)	66 (8.8%)	$10,596			$767			$9,829	32.1	63.2	48	55
460004601163	104	Hitchcock-Tulare High School - 01	Public	9-12	401 4th Ave	Tulare	57476	Spink County	Hitchcock Tulare School District 56-6	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 596-4171	56	7	8.1	21.4%	54 (96.4%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (1.8%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (1.8%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	$16,752			$392			$16,360	31.3	21	114	10
466518000569	105	Scotland High School - 01	Public	9-12	711 4th St	Scotland	57059	Bon Homme County	Scotland School District 04-3	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 583-2237	81	10	8	23.5%	77 (95.1%)	0 (0.0%)	3 (3.7%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (1.2%)	$14,354			$549			$13,804	31.2	28.2	105
461958000803	106	Jones County High School - 01	Public	9-12	404 Jackson Ave	Murdo	57559	Jones County	Jones County School District 37-3	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 669-2258	51	6	8.9	27.5%	41 (80.4%)	0 (0.0%)	2 (3.9%)	0 (0.0%)	3 (5.9%)	1 (2.0%)	4 (7.8%)	$15,362			$769			$14,592	30.8	83.4	15	91
463049000256	107	Philip High School - 01	Public	9-12	330 Scottie Ave	Philip	57567	Haakon County	Haakon School District 27-1	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 859-2680	101	8	12.1	7.9%	91 (90.1%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (1.0%)	1 (1.0%)	2 (2.0%)	0 (0.0%)	6 (5.9%)	$13,192			$693			$12,499	30.7	60.7	55	52
460207000003	108	Central High School - 01	Public	9-12	2200 S Roosevelt St	Aberdeen	57401	Brown County	Aberdeen School District 06-1	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 725-8100	1,388	81	17.1	27.8%	1,073 (77.3%)	27 (1.9%)	93 (6.7%)	51 (3.7%)	79 (5.7%)	6 (0.4%)	59 (4.3%)	$9,561			$622			$8,939	30.6	62.1	52	56
460005301239	109	Sisseton High School - 01	Public	9-12	516 8th Ave W	Sisseton	57262	Roberts County	Sisseton School District 54-2	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 698-7613	296	18	16.7	51.4%	86 (29.1%)	0 (0.0%)	16 (5.4%)	1 (0.3%)	168 (56.8%)	0 (0.0%)	25 (8.4%)	$11,825			$1,975			$9,850	29.8	7.5	130	21
462439000206	110	Flandreau High School - 01	Public	9-12	600 W Community Dr	Flandreau	57028	Moody County	Flandreau School District 50-3	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	No	(605) 997-2455	210	16	13.2	1.4%	94 (44.8%)	0 (0.0%)	42 (20.0%)	3 (1.4%)	63 (30.0%)	2 (1.0%)	6 (2.9%)	$11,982			$681			$11,301	29.6	36.8	95	15

Sign up for updates!

Be the first to know when we update our rankings!

Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for South Dakota

Elementary Schools Middle Schools High Schools Districts Cities

New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for SD student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Hispanic Students Native American Students White Students Multi-racial Students Special Education Students Low Socio Economic Status Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on Smarter Balanced Assessments English Language Arts, Smarter Balanced Assessments Mathematics, Smarter Balanced Assessments Science test scores released by the South Dakota Department of Education.
These rankings were last updated on October 17, 2024, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the South Dakota Department of Education, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the South Dakota Department of Education.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

Charter Schools vs Regular Public Schools: Understanding the Key Differences

Student-Teacher Ratios and their Impact on Class Sizes & School Selection

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the South Dakota Department of Education.