Best Public Schools in Zip Code 57745

ZIP code 57745 has three schools serving prekindergarten through grade 12: Hill City Elementary (PK–5), Hill City Middle (6–8), and Hill City High (9–12); together, they enroll 520 students. Results are not uniformly strong across grades and subjects, so families may want to look beyond each school’s overall figures. The clearest current academic standout is Hill City Middle in English Language Arts (ELA).

Hill City Middle leads the elementary and middle schools in all-grades ELA: 68% are proficient, 18 percentage points above the state’s 49%. Its math result is 46%, about 2 points above the state, but grade 8 math is a concern at 31%, 12 points below the state. Hill City High also compares favorably with the state on its 11th-grade ACT results, especially ELA (74% versus 48%, a 25-point advantage) and science (55% versus 45%, a 10-point advantage); math is essentially level. At Hill City Elementary, all-grades math is 2 points above the state, but third grade is the clearest weak spot: ELA is 12 points below the state and math 20 points below. The high school’s ACT results are not directly comparable with the elementary and middle schools’ results.

Recent trends favor Hill City Middle: from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, its all-grades ELA rose 12 points and math rose 11; SchoolDigger’s statewide ranking climbed from the 48th to the 80th percentile. At Hill City Elementary, ELA fell 7 points while math rose 1, and SchoolDigger’s ranking moved from the 45th to the 39th percentile. The high school’s ranking went from the 82nd percentile to the 96th and then the 78th. Reported student-teacher ratios are 13.3 at the elementary, 21.1 at the middle, and 13.0 at the high school. For 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 32% at the elementary, 29% at the middle, and 19% at the high school; these figures are context, not an explanation for results.