Education

While most colleges across the country were stung hard by COVID-19 — logistically and financially — the small private college that serves mostly Native American students on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota got a big boost from the pandemic. Like the reservation itself, the Oglala Lakota College in

As part of its in-depth look at the state of higher education in the state, South Dakota News Watch made contact with students who experienced learning during a pandemic close up. Here are three of their stories. Making frugal financial choices Sydney Becker, 19, is a graduate of Lincoln High

The COVID-19 pandemic has further lowered the ability of low-income and minority students in South Dakota, including Native Americans, to enroll in college, obtain a degree and gain the lifelong financial and upward mobility benefits that come with higher education. Education experts in South Dakota and around the country are

Colleges and universities across South Dakota were facing long-range financial, logistical and access challenges even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Enrollment was falling, state financial support for public universities was dropping, and rising tuition led to high loan burdens for many students and reduced access to obtaining a degree for

Editor’s note: This article was produced through a partnership between South Dakota News Watch and the Solutions Journalism Network, a national non-profit group that supports rigorous journalism about responses to problems. This is the final segment of a two-part look at the education of Native American children in South

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts of a look at the status of Native American education in South Dakota amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Part 2, coming Oct. 7, will examine one school district’s successful efforts to build an online education network. The COVID-19 pandemic has

South Dakota public school teachers are largely on their own when it comes to building and installing protective barriers for their classrooms that may reduce the spread of the coronavirus among their students and themselves. With no statewide policy in place, and little or no guidance from individual school districts,