East St Louis-lincoln Middle Sch, East Saint Louis IL

Original Research by School Decision on East St Louis-lincoln Middle Sch

East St. Louis-Lincoln Middle School serves grades five through eight in a mid-sized school with attendance spread across four grade levels. The enrollment is almost entirely Black, with a small number of white students; state demographic data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special education and English learner populations was not available. The school is part of East St. Louis School District 189, which in recent years has launched substantial workforce-readiness initiatives at the high school level, including a major Career and Technical Education facility expansion under construction and expanded dual-credit pathways with Southwestern Illinois College. The district has also implemented AVID strategies districtwide and created a College and Career Pathway Endorsements program.

Testing results paint a picture of substantial academic challenge. The most recent state assessment data, from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness and Illinois Science Assessment, shows proficiency rates that are markedly low across math and English language arts. In math, fifth-grade proficiency stands in the single digits, while sixth grade is at just above two percent and seventh grade around three percent; eighth grade is highest at roughly thirteen percent. English language arts proficiency is somewhat higher: fifth-grade students reached roughly twenty-nine percent, sixth grade around twenty-one percent, seventh grade roughly thirty-one percent, and eighth grade about twenty-eight percent. Science proficiency in fifth and eighth grades is similarly low, in the mid-range to low teens. State assessment cut scores changed in the 2024-25 school year, so direct year-over-year comparison with prior performance is not possible from the data on hand. Participation rates in these assessments were consistently high, ranging from roughly ninety-seven to one hundred percent, indicating the school is successfully getting students tested.

The broader context is important to understand these results. East St. Louis is a small city on the Mississippi River, predominantly Black and economically stressed, with a poverty rate above the state average and a population in ongoing decline. Housing values in the area are substantially below state and national medians; the median home value is low, and rental affordability is relatively strong but reflects the lower cost of living in a distressed market. The school sits in a community where family economic resources are limited, which historically correlates with lower standardized assessment outcomes.

Among the districts in St. Clair County, Lincoln Middle School's overall proficiency index—an average across all tested subjects and grades—places it in the bottom quartile of county schools. This is a concrete signal that academic attainment here is significantly below the county typical.

Whether this school is the right fit depends on family circumstances and expectations. A parent looking for strong baseline proficiency in traditional academics, particularly math, would likely want to explore other schools or look into after-school or supplemental support. A parent living in East St. Louis with fewer immediate relocation options should understand the academic headwinds the school faces and, ideally, engage directly with school leaders about intervention and support strategies being used to move proficiency upward. The district's recent investments in college and career readiness at the high school level suggest institutional attention to student outcomes, though impacts on middle school performance are not yet evident in the data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 8% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 62%

School 2% · District 4% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 74%

School 4% · District 6% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 7% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 28% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 27% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 30% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 14% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 13% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

This schoolEast St Louis SD 189, 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.