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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Lincoln Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
463
Elementary
DISTRICT 454 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WATERLOO COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 193048001729
Lincoln Elementary School
302 Cedar Bend St, Waterloo, IA 50703 · (319) 433-1990 · Black Hawk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL463 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 22% of Iowa public elementary schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B-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 Iowa public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
38 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.2:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
81%
375 students
DISTRICT 73% · STATE 41%
Community
5
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 32 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 75 | 16% |
| Grade 1 | 82 | 18% |
| Grade 2 | 81 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 72 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 64 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (75) is 17% larger than its 5th grade class (64).
Student demographics
71%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · STATE 48% · 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
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
57.7%
IA avg 73.6% . +11.1pp since 2023
Math
61.3%
IA avg 70.9% . +0.8pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 58 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 61 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores are up about 11 points since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 57.7% | 61.3% |
| 2023-24 | 46.6% | 60.5% |
% Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: ISASP. 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
51.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
51.4%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+0.4pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 52% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 51% typical for Iowa 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 Iowa'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 Lincoln Elementary School
Lincoln Elementary School's state test result (51.8% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Elementary School this school | 463 | 81.0% | 51.8% |
| Prescott Elementary School Dubuque | 352 | 81.5% | 31.8% |
| Madison Elementary School Davenport | 318 | 80.5% | 27.8% |
| Van Buren Elementary School Cedar Rapids | 429 | 83.7% | 43.7% |
| Cedar River Academy at Taylor Cedar Rapids | 355 | 76.1% | 37.0% |
| Jefferson Elementary School Davenport | 384 | 71.1% | 24.2% |
Matched among Iowa 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 Lincoln Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Black Hawk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 51.8% | #494 of 564 | #18 of 21 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 61.3% | #469 of 564 ▼ 1 | #18 of 21 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 57.7% | #467 of 564 ▲ 49 | #17 of 21 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 463 | #131 of 705 | #9 of 21 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.1:1 | #122 of 561 | #5 of 21 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 70.7% | #41 of 561 | #6 of 21 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 81.0% | #38 of 666 | #4 of 21 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -17.6% | #119 of 359 | #6 of 13 |
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
463
-11 (-2%) vs 2020
+58% since 1990-91, when it was 293
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
was 11.8:1
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 | 463 | 38.4 | 12.1:1 | 81% (375) |
| 2023-24 | 492 | 33.2 | 14.8:1 | 88% (432) |
| 2022-23 | 471 | 38.1 | 12.4:1 | 86% (406) |
| 2020-21 | 474 | 40 | 11.8:1 | 85% (402) |
| 2017-18 | 562 | 41.2 | 13.6:1 | 64% (357) |
| 2015-16 | 502 | 38 | 13.2:1 | 88% (442) |
| 2010-11 | 461 | 36 | 12.8:1 | 87% (403) |
| 2000-01 | 209 | 15 | 13.9:1 | 78% (163) |
| 1990-91 | 293 | 13 | 22.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Lincoln Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (562 to 463); teachers down 7% (41.2 to 38.4).
About Lincoln Elementary School
Lincoln Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school based in Waterloo, Iowa. It is open to students in pre-K through 5 and enrolls 463 students. It has 42% more students than the average for elementary schools in Iowa (about 325).
Lincoln Elementary School is among 18 schools run by Waterloo Comm School District, which serves 10,484 students.
Black students account for 45% of enrollment at Lincoln Elementary School, more than any other group. The remaining students are 22% White, 14% multiracial, 12% Hispanic, and 5% Pacific Islander. Among people living in Black Hawk County, the Black share is about 9%. The diversity index for Lincoln Elementary School is 71%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
The school had 38.4 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 12.1:1. By comparison, the average for elementary schools in Iowa is 13.7:1. The school reported 81% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. That rate is above the 52% average among public schools in Black Hawk County.
Lincoln Elementary School earns a C- on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 22% of Iowa public elementary schools.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Lincoln Elementary School would score about 51.4%. It scores 51.8%, within a point of that figure.
For Black Hawk County, Census Bureau data show median household income comes to about $66,417, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 30%, and roughly 9% of residents are in poverty. The county has 35 public schools and about 18,224 students.
Lincoln Elementary School is about 1.2 miles from George Washington Carver Academy, its nearest public school. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Among its closest neighbors with test data, Lincoln Elementary School is 5th of 9 on proficiency.
The school's federal locale classification is City: Small.
Lincoln Elementary School had 474 students in 2020-21 and 463 in 2024-25, nearly the same.
This page is set up for the Lincoln Elementary School community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Black Hawk County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
131,049
Census ACS
Median income
$66,417
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
30%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
9%
Below federal line
Schools in county
35
18,224 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Waterloo Comm School District
- West High SchoolHigh · 1,696 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,016 students
- Hoover Middle SchoolMiddle · 848 students
- Kittrell Elementary SchoolElementary · 576 students
- Expo Alternative Learning CenterHigh · 561 students
- Lowell Elementary SchoolElementary · 538 students
Other schools in Waterloo
- West High SchoolHigh · 1,696 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,016 students
- Hoover Middle SchoolMiddle · 848 students
- Kittrell Elementary SchoolElementary · 576 students
- Expo Alternative Learning CenterHigh · 561 students
- Lowell Elementary SchoolElementary · 538 students
Other Lincoln Elementary schools
213 other US public schools in 37 states are named Lincoln Elementary. Lincoln Elementary School is the 49th largest of the 214.
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolSpencer, IA · 442 students
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolCedar Falls, IA · 416 students
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolOsage, IA · 405 students
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolCharles City, IA · 280 students
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolDubuque, IA · 257 students
Nearby schools
- George Washington Carver Academy1.2 mi · 455
- Fred Becker Elementary School2.1 mi · 501
- East High School2.1 mi · 1,016
- Cunningham School2.2 mi · 443
- Irving Elementary School2.4 mi · 353
- Central Middle School2.5 mi · 469
Frequently asked questions
About Lincoln Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Lincoln Elementary School?
Lincoln Elementary School enrolls approximately 463 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Lincoln Elementary School serve?
Lincoln Elementary School serves grades PK-05.
How many teachers does Lincoln Elementary School have?
Lincoln Elementary School employs 38 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.1:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Lincoln Elementary School?
At Lincoln Elementary School, the student body is approximately 22% White, 12% Hispanic, 45% Black, 1% Asian, 14% Two or more.
Who oversees Lincoln Elementary School?
Lincoln Elementary School is overseen by Waterloo Comm School District in Black Hawk County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.