Summary:
Brandon, South Dakota, has five public schools serving elementary through high school, with enrollment ranging from 542 to 1,381 and 4,239 students overall. SchoolDigger ranks the Brandon Valley School District 49-2 second of 126 districts, in the 98th percentile, with five stars. Across the four schools with 2025–2026 all-grades results, the average was 74% proficient in ELA and 71% in math, compared with 49% and 44% statewide. The most important finding is that every reported all-grades result was well above its state comparison, though performance varied among schools.
Brandon Valley Middle School had the strongest all-grades ELA result at 78%, while Brandon Elementary led in math at 76%. At the other end, Robert Bennis Elementary had the lowest ELA result, 67%, and Brandon Valley Intermediate had the lowest math result, 68%; both remained above state results. Grade-matched elementary results add useful context: Brandon Elementary led in three of four 3rd- and 4th-grade comparisons, but Bennis was ahead by 5 points in 4th-grade math. At the high school, the 2025–2026 ACT results were above state levels in ELA, math and science, and the graduation rate was 96% versus 88% statewide.
Results improved on average from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: the four-school ELA average rose 3 points and math rose 4 points. Changes differed by school: Brandon Elementary gained 11 ELA points, while Bennis fell 3; Intermediate also fell 1 ELA point. SchoolDigger’s 2025–2026 school rankings placed Middle and Brandon Elementary sixth statewide, Bennis 18th and the high school sixth. Reported free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–2025 ranged from 10% at Bennis to 30% at Brandon Elementary; these are context, not an explanation for results. Student-teacher ratios ranged from 15.1 at Brandon Elementary to 20.4 at the high school. All-grades results cover different grade spans, so the shared-grade elementary comparison is a more direct school-to-school measure.
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