Schools in Presho, SD

Presho, South Dakota, has two schools serving grades 6–12: Lyman Middle School - 02 (grades 6–8, 84 students) and Lyman High School - 01 (grades 9–12, 80 students), both in Lyman School District 42-1. The schools have similar enrollments, but serve different grades. The most important signal for families is the middle school’s recent ELA decline: proficiency fell 17 percentage points, leaving it 20 points below the state in 2025–2026.

The high school’s clearest bright spot is 11th-grade science, where 52% were proficient in 2025–2026, 7 points above the state; its ACT math result was a notable weakness at 20%, 14 points below the state. At the middle school, the largest shortfall was all-grades ELA: 29% proficient versus 49% statewide, a 20-point gap. Math was also below the state, 34% versus 44%, while 8th-grade science was closer at 38% versus 41%. Neither school stands out as uniformly strong across subjects.

The middle school’s ELA result fell from 46% in 2024–2025 to 29% in 2025–2026, while the state result slipped only 2 points; the school’s gap widened by 16 points. Its math gap widened by 3 points, and its 8th-grade science position shifted 6 points toward a shortfall. The high school’s ELA results moved from above the state in 2024–2025 to below it in 2025–2026, but the assessment changed, so this is not a like-for-like trend. SchoolDigger gives both schools one star, ranking the middle school 121st of 151 and the high school 92nd of 130. In 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 51% at the middle school and 41% at the high school; student-teacher ratios were 15.1 and 8.0, respectively. These are context differences, not explanations for achievement.