South Dakota Department of Education’s 2020-21 Report Card “incomplete” due to COVID-19

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The South Dakota Department of Education released its 2020-21 report card Thursday on how students and schools performed.

The state department of education says this year’s report card is incomplete due to the number of students who did not take state assessments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the report, only 53% of students met or exceeded the expectations on the state’s English Langauge Arts assessment and only 43% of students met or exceeded expectations on the state’s math assessment.

The department of education says the data reiterated data from last summer’s COVID-19 Impact Report, which suggests that COVID-19 impacted school attendance, which in turn impacted learning.

According to the report card, 88 percent of students during the 2020-21 school year attended at least 90 percent of school days. Annual attendance typically averages about 92 percent.

Data from last summer’s COVID-19 impact report shows approximately 6.4% of public school students missed 30 or more days of school during the pandemic, which is nearly double from the previous school year.

Dakota News Now’s Beth Warden spoke with Secretary Sanderson and educators about the report card. You can watch that story on Dakota News Now at 6:30 pm on KDLT.

The report is available at sdschools.sd.gov.