Summary:
Colman, South Dakota, has three schools in the Colman-Egan School District 50-5, serving prekindergarten through grade 12: Colman Elementary - 03, Colman-Egan Junior High - 02, and Colman-Egan High School - 01. The clearest finding is that the latest elementary results are considerably stronger than the junior high’s: in 2025–2026, elementary proficiency was 21 percentage points higher in English language arts (ELA) and 25 points higher in math.
Colman Elementary stands out among the two schools with all-grades Smarter Balanced results: 58% were proficient in ELA and 54% in math, respectively 9 and 10 points above state rates. By comparison, Colman-Egan Junior High had 38% proficiency in ELA and 29% in math—11 and 15 points below the state. The elementary advantage was not uniform across grades: grades 3–5 were above state in both subjects, while grade 6 was below. Colman-Egan High School had low latest grade-11 ACT results relative to the state: 20% proficient in ELA, 15% in math, and 30% in science, with gaps of 28, 19, and 15 points. Its graduation rate was a stronger 94%, versus 88% statewide.
Results improved overall at the elementary and junior high between 2024–2025 and 2025–2026: their equal-school average rose 10 points in ELA and 7 in math, though it remained 1 point below the state in ELA and 3 points below in math. SchoolDigger ranked the elementary 74 of 203 (3 stars), the junior high 123 of 151 (1 star), and the high school 126 of 130 (0 stars). Context measures offer observations, not explanations: 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch eligibility was 23% at the elementary, 33% at the junior high, and 18% at the high school; student-teacher ratios were 13.7, 10.9, and 14.5, respectively. Junior high science proficiency was suppressed, and the high school’s latest ACT results cannot be read as a comparable year-to-year change from its prior-year results.
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