Abraham Lincoln Elem School, Belleville IL

Original Research by School Decision on Abraham Lincoln Elem School

Abraham Lincoln Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Belleville, a mixed-use county seat and southeastern St. Louis suburb that functions as a residential and commercial hub for the Metro East. The school enrolls a small to moderate-sized cohort, with a student body that is predominantly Black, alongside meaningful representation of white, multiracial, and Hispanic students. The enrollment reflects the diversity of its immediate community.

The school's academic standing reveals a pattern worth understanding closely. In English language arts, proficiency climbs noticeably across grades: third-graders show modest proficiency, but by fourth grade the rate rises markedly, and fifth and sixth graders demonstrate proficiency at a level approaching or exceeding half the cohort. Mathematics tells a different story. Proficiency rates in grades three through five are low, ranging from very low to modest, before improving in sixth grade. Science proficiency, tested only in fifth grade, sits below English but above the lower math results. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among the county's districts, meaning academic attainment here is notably below the median. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly what intervention or support structures are in place for math and early-grade reading, and what trajectory the school is pursuing.

The disparity between English and mathematics performance, and the upward trend in ELA as students advance, suggests the school may be stronger in literacy instruction or student engagement in language arts than in numeracy. The school's data does not report free-and-reduced-price lunch rates, chronic absenteeism, special education or English learner population figures, or discipline information, so a parent seeking more granular understanding of needs and demographics would need to contact the school directly.

Belleville as a place is anchored by a downtown historic district with preserved 19th-century architecture, local shops, and restaurants, alongside military and government employment tied to nearby Scott Air Force Base. The broader county real estate market shows moderate activity, with housing valued in the low hundreds of thousands and rents in the low thousands monthly. The district itself has reported a historic surge in property valuations, the largest in decades, allowing officials to lower tax rates while maintaining revenue—a concrete financial advantage for families purchasing or renting in the area.

The school sits within Belleville SD 118, a regular public school serving the city. The data does not include the school's course offerings, staffing ratios, or attendance rates, which would further illuminate the learning environment and resource allocation. For families considering this school, the key takeaway is that English language arts is a clearer strength, mathematics proficiency lags substantially and warrants direct conversation with school leadership about curriculum and support, and the broader community offers a stable, historically rooted residential setting with improving property values and lower relative tax burden than many comparable Midwestern suburbs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 33% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 36% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 22% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 30% · ▼ 6 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 32% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 50% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 53% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 55% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 34% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

This schoolBelleville SD 118, 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.