It's very hard to quantify what makes a good school. There will always be people that have good experiences in what is perceived as a bad school, and people that have bad experiences in good schools. But, if you are looking for a listing of South Dakota schools in a countdown format, the website Niche has come to the rescue.

Their ranking system is based on "analysis of academic and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education along with test scores, college data, and ratings collected from millions of Niche users."

For private high schools, Niche used "analysis of key statistics and millions of reviews from students and parents. Ranking factors include SAT/ACT scores, the quality of colleges that students consider, student-teacher ratio, private school ratings, and more. Data sourced from the U.S. Department of Education, Niche users, and the schools directly."

You can learn more about their system here.

After all that compiling, they came up with this list of the 10 Best High Schools in South Dakota:

  1. Freeman Academy, Freeman (Private)
  2. O'Gorman High School, Sioux Falls (Private)
  3. Brandon Valley High School, Brandon Valley School District
  4. Lincoln High School, Sioux Falls School District
  5. Brookings High School, Brookings School District
  6. Washington High School, Sioux Falls School District
  7. Stevens High School, Rapid City Area School District
  8. Roosevelt High School, Sioux Falls School District
  9. Sioux Falls Christian High School, Sioux Falls Christian Schools (Private)
  10. St. Thomas Moore High School, Rapid City Catholic School System (Private)

Now, to be fair, there are a number of differences between a public high school and a private one. So, to be fair, here is a list of the Top 5 Public High Schools...

  1. Brandon Valley High School, Brandon Valley School District
  2. Lincoln High School, Sioux Falls School District
  3. Brookings High School, Brookings School District
  4. Washington High School, Sioux Falls School District
  5. Stevens High School, Rapid City Area School District

And the Top 5 Private High Schools...

What do you think of the results?

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