Summary:
Martin, South Dakota, has three schools serving 442 students from prekindergarten through grade 12: Bennett County Elementary (PK–5), Bennett County Middle (grades 6–8), and Bennett County High (grades 9–12). The clearest shared academic concern is math: Elementary and Middle averaged 19% proficiency in 2025–26, compared with 44% statewide, a 25-point shortfall; their average ELA result was 33%, 16 points below the state. Chronic absenteeism was also higher than the state rate at both schools where reported. Overall, the widest area-wide academic gap is in math.
Middle has a notable grade-specific strength: eighth-grade ELA was 51.6%, just under 1 point above the state’s 51.5%. Elementary fifth-grade ELA was 48%, 3 points below the state, the smallest shortfall among the listed below-state school-grade ELA results. For all-grades math, Elementary scored 24%, compared with Middle’s 15%, a 9-point difference. High has the clearest concerns in its supplied high-school indicators: graduation was 68% versus 88% statewide, while dropout was 6% versus 2%. Its 11th-grade ACT ELA result was 17%, 32 points below the state. SchoolDigger places High at the 1st percentile with 0 stars; Elementary is at the 12th percentile with 1 star, and Middle at the 9th percentile with 0 stars.
Recent progress has been stronger in ELA than in math. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, all-grades ELA proficiency rose 7 points at Elementary and 9 at Middle; math rose 5 points at Elementary but fell 1 point at Middle. Absenteeism was 29% at Elementary and 36% at Middle, compared with 20% statewide. The 2024–25 student-teacher ratios were 10.1 at Elementary, 11.6 at Middle, and 8.8 at High. All three schools report “All students receive free meals” through Community Eligibility for sy2024–2025, so that shared measure does not distinguish them. These figures describe different school and grade profiles, rather than showing that any one factor caused the results.
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