The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Science. The lowest is 12% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Belmont Elementary School
Belmont Elementary School serves students in prekindergarten through grade five as a regular public school in Lincoln, Nebraska. It sits within the Lincoln Public Schools district, the largest public school system in the state, and serves a student body of substantial size for an elementary building.
The school community is racially and ethnically diverse. Families describing themselves as white make up the largest group, followed by Hispanic and Black families, with smaller shares of Asian, multiracial, and American Indian or Alaska Native students. This mix gives the school a peer environment distinct from many of Lincoln’s more homogeneous elementary schools. Information on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, who receive special education services, or who are English learners was not available; a parent interested in those support profiles would need to ask the school directly.
Academically, Belmont’s state test results show a pattern that warrants a close look. In both English language arts and mathematics, proficiency rates across the tested grades of three through five clustered in a range that falls well below the midpoint for elementary schools in Lancaster County and ranks in the bottom quartile on an overall proficiency index. For instance, third-grade reading proficiency was below half of students meeting the bar, and fourth-grade reading was near half. Math results were similar, with fifth-grade math the lowest of the three tested grades. Fifth-grade science was a brighter spot, with a majority of students scoring proficient, but that single result does not change the broader picture. Across the most recent data, Belmont’s academic performance is a soft spot, and a family should consider what academic support structures and interventions the school offers for students who are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks. The data does not include a multi-year trend, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent a stable pattern or a recent shift.
The school is housed in a regular public school building that draws from its attendance area in north Lincoln. The neighborhood is largely residential and sits within a stable part of the city. Housing values in the school’s zip code have risen modestly and are roughly in line with the statewide median for Nebraska, though still below the national average. Rents have also increased, and for a renter, the estimated rent-to-income ratio is around one-fifth, meaning housing costs are manageable for a typical household but not cheap.
The district context matters here. Lincoln Public Schools has been in a period of expansion and change. A large bond issue passed in 2020 funded two new comprehensive high schools, which opened in 2022 and 2023, and a new elementary school, reshaping attendance boundaries across the city. At the elementary level, the district began implementing a science-of-reading approach to early literacy in 2023, a shift in how reading is taught in all its elementary schools. Belmont families are affected by these changes: the boundary adjustments may have altered the neighborhood assignment for some families, and the reading instruction is now aligned with evidence-based methods district-wide. A parent specifically interested in literacy support may want to ask how far along Belmont is in that implementation and what classroom materials and teacher training are in place.
What is missing. There are no data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, or course offerings beyond the core tested subjects. Since the school serves only through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. The absence of data on special education and English learner enrollment is a gap; a family with a child who may need those services should confirm what the school provides.
This is a school where the academic results are below those of most other elementary schools in the county, set against a backdrop of a district that is investing heavily in new facilities and in changing how it teaches reading. A family would want to understand the specific supports and instructional strategies Belmont has in place for students who are still developing foundational skills, and whether the recent district-wide literacy shift is yielding results at this building. The peer environment is diverse and the neighborhood is stable, but the academic picture is the central consideration.
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