Lincoln Elementary, Tulare CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Lincoln Elementary

Lincoln Elementary is a small school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Tulare, a mid-sized agricultural city in California's Central Valley. The school sits at a critical juncture: it serves a community with very high economic need and shows academic performance well below the state baseline across the board.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a very substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is small, a few hundred students distributed across six grades. English learner enrollment data was not available in the school records; this is a gap worth asking the school directly about, given the demographics and the city context.

Academically, Lincoln's proficiency results are low across tested grades and subjects. In mathematics, proficiency ranges from around one-tenth of students at the upper grades to roughly one-quarter at grade four. In English language arts, the rate sits in the mid-to-high twenties across grades three through five, with grade six at about one-quarter. Science proficiency, tested in grade five, is below one-fifth of students. When placed against other districts in Tulare County, Lincoln's overall proficiency index falls squarely in the bottom quartile. The school has only one year of comparable data, so trend direction is not yet visible.

The Tulare City School District adopted a uniform mathematics curriculum in 2023, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt "Into Math," across all K-8 schools, paired with online tools like Waggle and Imagine Math Facts. This means Lincoln's math instruction follows the same framework and materials as other district elementary schools, though implementation and student response will vary by school and classroom.

Tulare itself is one of California's most affordable housing markets. The community is deeply rooted in agriculture and food processing, with a historic downtown but predominantly car-dependent neighborhoods. The city is growing modestly and adding housing. For families considering Lincoln, the practical reality is that this school serves students in genuine economic strain, teaches them to a low baseline by state measures, and may ask families to think carefully about what additional academic support or tutoring they might provide at home or seek beyond the school day.

A parent may want to ask the school about English learner support specifically, given the student composition, and about what steps the school is taking to move proficiency upward now that the core math curriculum is standardized across the district.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 37% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 30% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 18% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 610%

School 10% · District 16% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 36% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 36% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 32% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Science

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 19%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

This schoolTulare City, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.