Summary:
Wolsey, South Dakota, has three schools serving 316 students: Wolsey Wessington Elementary - 02 for PK–5, Wolsey Wessington Middle School - 03 for grades 6–8, and Wolsey Wessington High School - 01 for grades 9–12. Enrollment ranges from 75 students in middle school to 145 in elementary. The clearest shared concern is math in the elementary and middle schools: their all-grade proficiency rates average 24%, compared with 44% statewide, a 20-point gap.
The high school stands out for its grade 11 results: ELA proficiency is 57% versus 48% statewide, and math is 43% versus 34%; science is the exception, at 43% versus 45%. Elementary grade 5 is another bright spot, with ELA at 60% versus 51% statewide and science at 45% versus 41%. The middle school has the weakest results in several grades: grade 6 math is 10% versus 42% statewide, grade 6 ELA is 19% versus 48%, and grade 8 science is 12% versus 41%. SchoolDigger ranks the high school at the 66th percentile, ahead of the elementary school at the 23rd and middle school at the 13th; these rankings are not test scores. The high school’s ACT results are not directly comparable with the younger schools’ Smarter Balanced results.
Recent trends offer a mixed picture: average all-grade ELA proficiency for the elementary and middle schools rose from 36% in 2024–2025 to 37% in 2025–2026, and the average gap with the state narrowed from 15 to 12 points. Math moved the other way: the average fell from 27% to 24%, while the gap widened from 17 to 20 points. Science also split by grade: elementary grade 5 rose 21 points over two years, while middle grade 8 fell 16 points. Both younger schools have lower chronic absenteeism than the state—4% and 8%, versus 20%—despite their academic gaps. In 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 29% at elementary, 32% at middle, and 41% at high school; student-teacher ratios ranged from 11.3 at the high school to 13.1 at the middle school.
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