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What tradition at Vandenberg Elementary - 02 should never be changed?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
454
Elementary
DISTRICT 718 · STATE 204
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DOUGLAS SCHOOL DISTRICT 51-1·NCES 461941000436
Vandenberg Elementary - 02
561 Briggs St, Box Elder, SD 57719 · (605) 923-0060 · Pennington County
GRADES 04–05ELEMENTARY31-TOWNTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL454 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 48% of South Dakota public elementary schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+Beats 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
15.3:1
30 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.6:1 · STATE 15.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
41%
184 students
DISTRICT 36% · STATE 42%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 | 244 | 54% |
| Grade 5 | 210 | 46% |
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 54% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Douglas School District 51-1. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
SD Smarter Balanced 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
47.8%
SD avg 50.3% . -4.5pp since 2022
Math
42.3%
SD avg 47.5% . -0.3pp since 2022
What this means: On the SD Smarter Balanced, South Dakota's statewide test, about 48 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 42 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 5 points since 2022, while math scores have held steady.
SD Smarter Balanced results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 47.8% | 42.3% |
| 2023-24 | 55.9% | 48.1% |
| 2022-23 | 52.3% | 42.6% |
% 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
46.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
46.4%
based on SD schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+0.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 46% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 46% 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 Vandenberg Elementary - 02
Vandenberg Elementary - 02's state test result (46.4% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vandenberg Elementary - 02 this school | 454 | 40.5% | 46.4% |
| Rapid Valley Elementary - 12 Rapid City | 486 | 42.2% | 41.5% |
| Grandview Elementary - 06 Rapid City | 431 | 39.2% | 44.7% |
| Valley View Elementary - 13 Rapid City | 605 | 41.2% | 30.8% |
| Jefferson Elementary - 06 Pierre | 377 | 35.5% | 52.9% |
| L. B. Williams Elementary - 03 Mitchell | 438 | 41.3% | 46.3% |
Matched among South Dakota elementary 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 Vandenberg Elementary - 02 ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In South Dakota | In Pennington County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 46.4% | #116 of 193 | #7 of 18 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.3% | #137 of 199 ▼ 26 | #7 of 19 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 47.8% | #115 of 202 ▼ 47 | #6 of 19 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 454 | #38 of 331 | #6 of 19 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.3:1 | #93 of 131 | #8 of 17 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 54.5% | #40 of 131 | #11 of 17 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 40.5% | #81 of 209 | #9 of 19 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -5.4% | #68 of 87 | #11 of 14 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
454
+6 (+1%) vs 2020
+24% since 2000-01, when it was 367
Student : Teacher
15.3:1
was 15.4:1
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 | 454 | 29.6 | 15.3:1 | 41% (184) |
| 2023-24 | 442 | 28.6 | 15.5:1 | 32% (140) |
| 2022-23 | 441 | 29.4 | 15.0:1 | 29% (127) |
| 2020-21 | 448 | 29 | 15.4:1 | 28% (127) |
| 2017-18 | 480 | 29.8 | 16.1:1 | 38% (182) |
| 2015-16 | 451 | 27 | 16.7:1 | 41% (184) |
| 2010-11 | 391 | 27 | 14.5:1 | 33% (130) |
| 2000-01 | 367 | 31 | 11.8:1 | 41% (152) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Vandenberg Elementary - 02.
Since 2017-18: students down 5% (480 to 454); teachers down 1% (29.8 to 29.6).
About Vandenberg Elementary - 02
A high-enrollment elementary school in Box Elder, South Dakota, Vandenberg Elementary - 02 is part of Douglas School District 51-1. It educates 454 students in grades 4 through 5. The school's enrollment is 123% larger than the 204 average for elementary schools in South Dakota.
Douglas School District 51-1 has 4 schools; together they serve 2,808 students.
A majority of students at Vandenberg Elementary - 02, 65%, are White. Next come 13% multiracial, 10% Hispanic, and 10% Native American. The county population is about 79% White. Vandenberg Elementary - 02 has a diversity index of 54%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Federal records show a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.3:1 at Vandenberg Elementary - 02, with 29.6 full-time-equivalent teachers. Elementary schools in South Dakota average about 15.4:1, a similar figure. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, a common measure of family income, is 41%. That is close to the 41% average for public schools in Pennington County.
The allk12 Grade for Vandenberg Elementary - 02 is B-. Compared with South Dakota public elementary schools, the school scored higher than 48% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Vandenberg Elementary - 02 falls in the middle 80% of South Dakota schools: 46.4% actual against 46.4% predicted.
Across Pennington County, median household income is about $74,517, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 35% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 7%. The public schools of Pennington County number 41 and enroll about 16,186.
Douglas High School - 03 is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles away. Counting only straight-line distance, 3 other public schools are within five miles. On proficiency, Vandenberg Elementary - 02 is ahead of the 33.6% nearby average, ranking 2nd of 8.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Town: Fringe: in a town close to an urbanized area.
Enrollment has been fairly stable: 448 in 2020-21 and 454 in 2024-25.
If you have questions about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater at Vandenberg Elementary - 02, you can post them here. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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 Douglas School District 51-1
- Patriot Elementary -06Elementary · 982 students
- Douglas High School - 03High · 739 students
- Douglas Middle School - 01Middle · 633 students
- Douglas Preschool - 08Elementary
Other schools in Box Elder
- Patriot Elementary -06Elementary · 982 students
- Douglas High School - 03High · 739 students
- Douglas Middle School - 01Middle · 633 students
- Douglas Preschool - 08Elementary
Other Vandenberg Elementary schools
2 other US public schools in 2 states are named Vandenberg Elementary. Vandenberg Elementary - 02 is the largest of the 3.
- Vandenberg Elementary SchoolREDFORD, MI · 280 students
- Vandenberg Elementary SchoolSOUTHFIELD, MI · 245 students
Nearby schools
- Douglas High School - 030.2 mi · 739
- Patriot Elementary -060.2 mi · 982
- Douglas Middle School - 010.4 mi · 633
- East Middle School - 305.3 mi · 613
- Valley View Elementary - 135.4 mi · 605
- Rapid Valley Elementary - 126.5 mi · 486
Frequently asked questions
About Vandenberg Elementary - 02What is the total enrollment at Vandenberg Elementary - 02?
Vandenberg Elementary - 02 enrolls approximately 454 students in grades 04-05.
Is Vandenberg Elementary - 02 an elementary, middle, or high school?
Vandenberg Elementary - 02 is an elementary school covering grades 04-05.
How many teachers does Vandenberg Elementary - 02 have?
Vandenberg Elementary - 02 employs 30 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.3:1.
How diverse is Vandenberg Elementary - 02?
Vandenberg Elementary - 02 reports a student body of 65% White, 10% Hispanic, 2% Black, 1% Asian, 13% Two or more.
Who oversees Vandenberg Elementary - 02?
Vandenberg Elementary - 02 is overseen by Douglas School District 51-1 in Pennington County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.