The top reported proficiency rate is 83% in Social studies. The lowest is 50% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lincoln Elementary School
Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Lake, Indiana, serves kindergarten through second grade, making it an entry-point school within the Hanover Community School Corporation. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. The enrollment is moderate for a primary school of this grade band, and the student body is predominantly white, with a smaller but visible Hispanic population, followed by smaller shares of Black students and students who identify as two or more races. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is modest, indicating a relatively low level of economic disadvantage in comparison to many other public schools.
Although Lincoln Elementary only serves the earliest elementary grades, state assessment data appears in the record. This may reflect testing of students in a different grade configuration at the time of the assessment or a data reporting artifact; a parent may want to clarify with the school exactly which students were tested and how these results were generated. As reported, the results show that a strong majority of tested students met or exceeded state standards in math, a majority did so in English language arts, and about half did so in science. Older social studies results also showed a high passage rate. When these test results are taken together into an overall proficiency index, the school’s performance ranks in the top quartile among districts within Lake County. This is an unusual position for a K-2 school, and it underscores the need to understand the context behind the numbers.
The school sits in Cedar Lake, a town that has been growing steadily and is largely a suburban commuter community for the Chicago area. The town’s namesake lake remains a central recreational asset, with public access and a town complex that includes parks, lakeshore, and civic buildings. There is no traditional walkable downtown; civic life and services are concentrated at the town complex and at a separate library branch. Housing values in the area are above the state average, and the town has seen sustained population growth in recent years, which implies ongoing residential development. No major local employers were identified in available sources, consistent with the commuter character.
The district itself, Hanover Community School Corporation, operates Lincoln and one other elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. A search for recent district-level changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or construction projects turned up nothing of lasting impact over the past several years, so the district context appears stable for now.
For a family considering Lincoln Elementary, the picture that emerges is that of a primary school serving a community with relatively low economic need, in a growing suburban town that balances lake recreation with commuter life. The school’s academic standing, based on available test data, appears strong, though the gap between the school’s K-2 grade band and the reported assessment results is a detail worth investigating. The school likely feeds into Jane Ball Elementary for upper grades and then into Hanover Central Middle and High School. The commuter nature of Cedar Lake means many residents travel to Chicago or other employment centers, and the school’s schedule and support services may or may not align with that rhythm. The absence of program offerings or staff-to-student ratio data in the record limits a fuller picture of what day-to-day classroom life is like, but the core information suggests a school that largely serves a stable, middle-income residential population in a growth context.
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