The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in Math. The lowest is 12% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lincoln Academy
Lincoln Academy is a single-grade school serving only sixth graders in Forrest City, Arkansas, within the Forrest City School District. Because it covers just one grade level, there are no graduation rate data and no measures for high school outcomes — that is simply a function of its grade span.
The school draws its students from Forrest City, the county seat of St. Francis County, a community perched on Crowley’s Ridge in the eastern Arkansas Delta. The city developed as a commercial center for cotton, rice, and soybean farming and later added manufacturing in electronics, heating and air conditioning components, and rubber products. Major employers include a federal correctional complex, the post office, an electric cooperative, and a community college. The local economy has faced headwinds: the population has been declining over several decades, poverty is widespread, and median household income is below both state and national benchmarks. The housing market reflects that strain — home values are modest and have recently fallen.
Lincoln Academy itself is small, with about that many students for a single grade. The student body is predominantly Black, with small shares of white, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a high level of economic need across the school.
Academic performance on the state’s ATLAS assessments is weak. In math, less than a quarter of sixth graders scored at or above proficient. In English language arts and in science, roughly one in nine students met that bar. When compared with other school districts in St. Francis County — a set of three districts, two of which had proficiency data available — Lincoln Academy placed in the bottom quartile on an overall proficiency index. That is a difficult starting point for families evaluating the school.
No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, or course access were available for this school. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes publicly reported, such as boundary adjustments, new programs, or major initiatives. The school’s own website was listed but did not provide additional program descriptions or a mission statement in the data we received.
For parents considering Lincoln Academy, the picture is straightforward. It is a single-year standalone school whose students come from a high-poverty community. Proficiency rates across all three tested subjects are low relative to the rest of the county. There is no information on support services for students with disabilities or English learners — those counts were missing from the data — so families with children in those groups may want to ask the school directly about available resources. The school does not have any charter or magnet designation, and it is not identified as a Title I school in the available data, though the universal free lunch eligibility suggests it likely qualifies for federal support.
A parent looking at Lincoln Academy will want to examine not just this school but the full middle school progression in the district, since sixth grade is a single year before students move on. The academic foundation laid here matters for what comes next, and the current results indicate room for growth. Without staffing or attendance figures, it is hard to assess classroom conditions. The community context of population loss and economic strain is real, but it does not define the school’s potential — only its starting point.
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