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How has Southwest Middle School - 38 changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
614
Middle
DISTRICT 571 · STATE 187
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·RAPID CITY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT 51-4·NCES 465982000457
Southwest Middle School - 38
4501 Park Dr, Rapid City, SD 57702 · (605) 394-6792 · Pennington County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE13-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL614 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 93% of South Dakota public middle schools
- A+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded South Dakota public middle schools
Student : Teacher
16.3:1
38 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
13%
79 students
DISTRICT 48% · STATE 42%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 205 | 33% |
| Grade 7 | 209 | 34% |
| Grade 8 | 200 | 33% |
Student demographics
40%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 61% · STATE 53% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
SD Smarter Balanced 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
68.5%
SD avg 50.3% . -2.0pp since 2022
Math
67.1%
SD avg 47.5% . +6.8pp since 2022
What this means: On the SD Smarter Balanced, South Dakota's statewide test, about 69 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 67 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all South Dakota schools, those numbers are about 50 and 47. Reading and writing scores are down about 2 points since 2022, while math scores are up about 7 points.
SD Smarter Balanced results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 68.5% | 67.1% |
| 2023-24 | 69.1% | 63.6% |
| 2022-23 | 70.5% | 60.3% |
% Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: SD Smarter Balanced. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
65.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
57.8%
based on SD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+7.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 66% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 58% typical for South Dakota schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among South Dakota's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Southwest Middle School - 38
Southwest Middle School - 38's state test result (65.6% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Middle School - 38 this school | 614 | 12.9% | 65.6% |
| Spearfish Middle School - 05 Spearfish | 545 | 17.8% | 47.9% |
| Dakota Valley Middle School - 03 North Sioux City | 345 | 12.5% | 57.5% |
| Harrisburg South Middle School - 03 Harrisburg | 519 | 20.2% | 54.8% |
| Harrisburg North Middle School - 08 Sioux Falls | 534 | 15.9% | 55.9% |
| George S. Mickelson Middle School - 02 Brookings | 780 | 21.5% | 41.1% |
Matched among South Dakota middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Southwest Middle School - 38 ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In South Dakota | In Pennington County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 65.6% | #4 of 64 | #1 of 7 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 67.1% | #3 of 64 ▲ 1 | #1 of 7 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 68.5% | #8 of 65 ▼ 3 | #1 of 7 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 614 | #14 of 165 | #3 of 9 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.3:1 | #35 of 42 | #6 of 6 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 39.6% | #21 of 42 | #6 of 6 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 12.9% | #64 of 65 | #7 of 7 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.0% | #18 of 26 | #6 of 6 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
614
-76 (-11%) vs 2020
+8% since 2000-01, when it was 566
Student : Teacher
16.3:1
was 18.2:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 614 | 37.8 | 16.3:1 | 13% (79) |
| 2023-24 | 665 | 37.1 | 17.9:1 | 11% (74) |
| 2022-23 | 660 | 34.5 | 19.1:1 | 13% (87) |
| 2020-21 | 690 | 38 | 18.2:1 | 13% (87) |
| 2017-18 | 660 | 38.1 | 17.3:1 | 13% (84) |
| 2015-16 | 678 | 38 | 17.8:1 | 16% (110) |
| 2010-11 | 482 | 34 | 14.2:1 | 11% (51) |
| 2000-01 | 566 | 38 | 14.9:1 | 7% (38) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Southwest Middle School - 38.
Since 2017-18: students down 7% (660 to 614); teachers down 1% (38.1 to 37.8).
About Southwest Middle School - 38
Students in Rapid City, South Dakota, attend Southwest Middle School - 38, a large middle-grades school. The school had 614 students in grades 6 through 8 in 2024-25. An average school in this group (middle schools in South Dakota) has about 187 students.
Rapid City Area School District 51-4 is the local district for Southwest Middle School - 38. It runs 26 schools with 12,610 students.
At Southwest Middle School - 38, White students make up 77% of the student body. It is also 10% multiracial, 6% Hispanic, 4% Native American, and 3% Asian. For comparison, Pennington County is about 79% White. Pick two students at random and there is a 40% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Southwest Middle School - 38 employs 37.8 full-time-equivalent teachers. That gives a ratio of about 16.3:1. The school has more students per teacher than the 13.4:1 average for middle schools in South Dakota. Southwest Middle School - 38's free or reduced-price lunch eligibility rate is 13%. The rate at public schools in Pennington County averages 41%, higher than here.
Southwest Middle School - 38 is graded A by allk12, scoring above 93% of South Dakota public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 57.8% for Southwest Middle School - 38. The school posts 65.6%, 7.8 points above the prediction.
Pennington County has about 113,512 residents, and the median household income is $74,517, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 35% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. In all, Pennington County has 41 public schools and roughly 16,186 students.
The nearest other public school, Corral Drive Elementary - 21, is less than a tenth of a mile away. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Southwest Middle School - 38 is 1st of 7 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
For locale, NCES codes Southwest Middle School - 38 as City: Small.
Southwest Middle School - 38's enrollment declined from 690 in 2020-21 to 614 in 2024-25. Students per teacher fell from 18.2 in 2020-21 to 16.3 in 2024-25.
The discussion area below is open to posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Pennington County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
113,512
Census ACS
Median income
$74,517
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
35%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
41
16,186 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Rapid City Area School District 51-4
- Central High School - 41High · 1,998 students
- Stevens High School - 42High · 1,771 students
- South Middle School - 36Middle · 618 students
- East Middle School - 30Middle · 613 students
- Valley View Elementary - 13Elementary · 605 students
- West Middle School - 37Middle · 591 students
Other schools in Rapid City
- Central High School - 41High · 1,998 students
- Stevens High School - 42High · 1,771 students
- South Middle School - 36Middle · 618 students
- East Middle School - 30Middle · 613 students
- Valley View Elementary - 13Elementary · 605 students
- West Middle School - 37Middle · 591 students
Other Southwest Middle schools
14 other US public schools in 10 states are named Southwest Middle. Southwest Middle School - 38 is the 8th largest of the 15.
- SOUTHWEST MIDDLEORLANDO, FL · 1,290 students
- Southwest Middle SchoolCharlotte, NC · 1,205 students
- SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOLPALM BAY, FL · 997 students
- SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOLSEARCY, AR · 913 students
- Southwest MiddleGastonia, NC · 832 students
Nearby schools
- Corral Drive Elementary - 210.0 mi · 439
- Meadowbrook Elementary - 101.7 mi · 478
- Canyon Lake Elementary - 042.2 mi · 297
- Stevens High School - 422.4 mi · 1,771
- West Middle School - 372.5 mi · 591
- South Canyon Elementary - 153.0 mi · 274
Frequently asked questions
About Southwest Middle School - 38How large is Southwest Middle School - 38?
Southwest Middle School - 38 enrolls approximately 614 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Southwest Middle School - 38 serve?
Southwest Middle School - 38 serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Southwest Middle School - 38?
Approximately 16.3:1 students per teacher at Southwest Middle School - 38.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Southwest Middle School - 38?
At Southwest Middle School - 38, the student body is approximately 77% White, 6% Hispanic, 1% Black, 3% Asian, 10% Two or more.
Who oversees Southwest Middle School - 38?
Southwest Middle School - 38 is overseen by Rapid City Area School District 51-4 in Pennington County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.