South Dakota High School Journalists Earn Top Scores
Students across the state received honors for their newspaper and yearbook work at the 2026 press convention.
Updated on Oct. 20, 2026 in Secondary Education
South Dakota high school students showcased their journalistic skills during the 2026 State High School Press Convention at South Dakota State University. The event featured competitive contests for both individual students and school publications.
Why it matters
These competitions highlight the academic and extracurricular rigor of state journalism programs, offering students a platform to refine reporting and production skills. High scores in these events can serve as benchmarks for student achievement and publication quality within the South Dakota secondary education landscape.
Participating schools and students received performance scores, including an 88 for Sioux Falls Lincoln in the newspaper content category and a 72 for Clark High School in yearbook production. Individual competitors also saw top performance scores of 49 in news writing.
The players
South Dakota State University
The public research university that hosted the state's high school journalism convention.
Sioux Falls Lincoln
A high school recognized for achieving a high score in newspaper content.
Clark High School
A high school recognized for its performance in the yearbook competition.
The details
Students participated in both individual and publication-focused contests at the university setting. Judges evaluated the work submitted across various media formats, assigning numerical scores to determine the winners of each category. These scores serve as a final measure of technical proficiency and content quality for the individual entries and school teams.
Timeline
October 19, 2026: The High School Press Convention took place.
The Home Front
These results follow the national trend of using formalized scoring to maintain academic standards in high school media programs. Such conventions align with established publication critique frameworks used to assess student-led journalistic output.
Families with students interested in journalism can look into these competitive scoring metrics to understand the requirements for school publication excellence. Parents should check their local high school's student media board or advisor for information on upcoming state-level journalism opportunities.
The takeaway
The event underscores the value of student-led media in developing critical communication skills for the modern classroom. Families interested in these programs should keep an eye on student newspaper credits and yearbook production roles as they become available for the next school cycle.
Further reading
Learn more about local academic initiatives in South Dakota Secondary Education.
Source note: This article includes information reported by SDPB.
