Summary:
Zip code 57461 has one middle school, Northwestern Middle School - 02, serving grades 6–8 with 56 students; comparisons are with South Dakota and the Northwestern Area School District 56-7. With no other middle schools in the list, families cannot compare local schools against one another. The most important finding is that the school’s results dropped substantially from the prior year, while its 2025–26 all-grades ELA result was nearly level with the state and its math result was below it.
Northwestern is the only school, so it is neither a meaningful local “top” nor “bottom” performer; its results offer the sole local picture. In 2025–26, all-grades ELA was 49.2%, nearly matching the state’s 49.1%, while math was 42%, 2 points below the state’s 44%; eighth-grade science was 39%, 2 points below the state’s 41%. Grade results varied considerably: seventh-grade math was the strongest relative result, at 55% versus 44% statewide, or 11 points higher. Sixth-grade ELA was the weakest, at 36% versus 48%, or 12 points lower. ELA was also above the state in grade 8, while math was below in grades 6 and 8.
Results fell from 2024–25 to 2025–26 in all three comparable measures: ELA declined 17 points, math 6 points, and eighth-grade science 18 points. State results changed much less over the same period—ELA fell 2 points, math was roughly unchanged, and science fell 2 points. SchoolDigger’s reported percentile also dropped from 86 in 2023–24 to 44 in 2025–26, though the number of schools ranked differed by year. Other context: the student-teacher ratio was 12.5 in 2024–25, and 16% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible that year; chronic absenteeism was 7.5% in 2025–26, close to the district’s 7.9% and below the state’s 19.8%. Because this school enrolls 56 students and is the only one in the list, these data cannot show how it compares with local peers.
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