Bennett County Elementary School - 03

Bennett County Elementary School - 03 is a public elementary school located in Martin, South Dakota, serving grades PK-5 with 229 students. The school is part of the Bennett County School District 03-1, which is ranked 140 out of 147 districts in the state and has a 0-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Bennett County Elementary School - 03 consistently ranks in the bottom 25% of South Dakota elementary schools, with proficiency rates in Smarter Balanced Assessments for English Language Arts and Mathematics significantly below the state averages, ranging from 16-25% proficient compared to the state's 40-50% proficiency. The school also has very high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 20-36% over the past few years, which is significantly higher than the state average. However, the school's student-teacher ratio has decreased from 12.8 to 11.3 over the past few years, indicating a relatively small class size.

Interestingly, while the overall school performance is low, some student subgroups, such as Asian and Native American students, show relatively stronger performance compared to their peers in the state. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, Asian students at Bennett County Elementary School - 03 ranked 7th out of 58 South Dakota elementary schools, with a 4-star rating. Native American students also performed better than the state average, ranking 95th out of 152 schools with a 2-star rating. The nearby Batesland School - 01 and American Horse School also serve predominantly Native American student populations and have similarly low academic performance and high chronic absenteeism rates.