The top reported proficiency rate is 63% in English language arts. The lowest is 48% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Lincoln Elem
Lincoln Elementary occupies a red-brick building in a residential part of Hays, a small city that functions as the commercial, educational, and healthcare hub of northwestern Kansas. The school serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade, and its roughly 250 students draw from the surrounding neighborhood. Families in the area have access to a traditional downtown with the county courthouse and a collection of shops, the Fort Hays State University campus integrated into the city’s southwest side, and Frontier Park as a civic anchor. The community’s Volga German heritage remains visible in local culture. Housing costs in the zip code are below the national average but close to Kansas’s state figure, and rents are modest, making homeownership relatively affordable for families in the area.
Academically, Lincoln’s state test results show a pattern that varies by grade and subject. Third graders performed well in both math and English language arts, with a strong majority meeting Kansas’s proficiency standard in reading and a solid majority doing so in math. By fourth grade, those shares dropped noticeably: just over half of students were proficient in ELA, and two in five hit the mark in math. Fifth graders posted similar results, with a little over half proficient in ELA, and two in five in math; on the science assessment, about half of fifth graders met the standard. Kansas changed its cut scores for these tests in the same year the data was collected, so the current figures are not directly comparable to results from prior years — a parent should keep that technical shift in mind when evaluating trends.
When placed alongside the other districts in Ellis County, Lincoln’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top tier. That county-level comparison, which includes three other districts, suggests that Lincoln is among the stronger performers in the region. Still, the step down between third grade and the upper elementary grades is something a family may want to explore further with the school.
The student body is diverse in family income: a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced‑price lunch. Racially, the school is predominantly white, with a significant minority of Hispanic students and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Data on special education enrollment and English learner services was not available in the records we reviewed, so a parent interested in those supports would need to contact the school directly. Similarly, there was no information released about discipline rates, staffing ratios, or chronic absenteeism, so those dimensions of school climate remain unmeasured in this profile.
Lincoln is a traditional public elementary school within the Hays district. The district itself, from what we found, has not had any major publicly reported changes in recent years that would reshape the schooling landscape for incoming families. For a parent weighing whether Lincoln fits, the academic picture is one of solid early‑grade foundations and a noticeable dip in the upper elementary years, set against a favorable county‑wide position. The school’s moderate size, its mix of family backgrounds, and the affordable housing in a stable regional center all add up to a straightforward, no‑frills elementary option. Families who want to dig deeper into instruction in grades four and five, or who need specific special‑education or language services, will need to ask the school directly, since the available data does not speak to those questions.
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