2005 Annual Report

Student Achievement and College Readiness

South Dakota students routinely perform well on assessments. In 2004, students showed progress on the Dakota STEP (State Test of Educational Progress) in both reading and math in nearly all grade spans. This progress indicates that classroom efforts to focus on core content areas is working. South Dakota students also scored better than their peers on several national assessments. This section also includes indicators related to college readiness, including dropout rate and ACT scores. While South Dakota students scored above the national average on the ACT, there is room
for growth. According to the South Dakota Board of Regents, 34.2 percent of South Dakota college students enrolled in remedial math or English (or both) courses in 2003.