Lincoln Elem School

Set in Sterling, Illinois, Lincoln Elem School is a low-enrollment elementary-level community, operated by Sterling CUSD 5. It hosts 277 students across grades 3 through 5. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 27% below typical.

Within Sterling CUSD 5, which oversees 6 schools and 3,253 students, Lincoln Elem School is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Lincoln Elem School lists that 58% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder looks like 31% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 2% Black. By comparison, Whiteside County as a whole is about 85% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.6:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. An estimated 70% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Whiteside County (around 55%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Lincoln Elem School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 30.9%; this one delivers 40.8%.

In the surrounding community, census data for Whiteside County shows the typical household earns roughly $67,500 per year, 21% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Lincoln Elem School is one of 50 public schools in Whiteside County (combined enrollment of about 8,445 students).

Nearest neighbor: Jefferson Elem School, around 0.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Lincoln Elem School. On composite proficiency, Lincoln Elem School comes 3rd of 7 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 38.2%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Lincoln Elem School has shrank 17%, going from 334 students in 2018 to 277 in 2025. Class-load math has narrowed: from 19.6:1 in 2018 to 12.6:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the feed for Lincoln Elem School typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.