Which is South Dakota's Best Public High School?

We'd all love to think that we graduated from the best high school, but only one can actually claim that title.

As it does about this time every year, U.S. News has partnered RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm, to rank the roughly 17,840 public high schools in America.

Schools are scored on a number of different factors, including reading and math proficiency, student-to-teacher ratios, college readiness, and graduation rates.

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Based on the numbers, the top public high school in South Dakota is Hill City High School in Hill City.

The school has an enrollment of 168 students in grades 9-12 with a student-to-teacher ratio of 14:1. The graduation rate at the school is 97 percent.

Three Sioux public high schools made the state's top ten list: Washington (#3), Lincoln (#5), and New Technology High School (#10).

Lincoln, the largest school in the top ten (2,117 students) has the highest College Readiness score, which is measured by the proportion of a school's 12th graders who took and earned a qualifying score on AP exams.

Brandon Valley had the highest graduation rate among the top ten (98%), while Arlington boasted the best student-to-teacher ratio (10:1) as well as the top math (71%), reading (94%), and science (71%) proficiency rates in the state.

BEST HIGH SCHOOLS IN SOUTH DAKOTA (U.S. News & World Report)

Hill City High School - Hill City
Stevens High School - Rapid City
Washington High School - Sioux Falls
Arlington High School - Arlington
Lincoln High School - Sioux Falls
T.F. Riggs High School - Pierre
Dakota Valley High School - North Sioux City
Brookings High School - Brookings
Brandon Valley High School - Brandon
New Technology High School - Sioux Falls

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