The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in Math. The lowest is 11% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lincoln Elementary School
Lincoln Elementary School is a regular public elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the New Brunswick School District, the county seat of Middlesex County. The school sits in a densely populated, urban small city that is a major transit and employment hub, anchored by Rutgers University’s main campus, two large hospital systems, and the global corporate headquarters of Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. The neighborhood around the school reflects the city’s character: a traditional street grid, high walkability, and a mix of university buildings, medical facilities, older residential blocks, and new high-rise development near the NJ Transit Northeast Corridor train station, which offers a direct commute to New York City. A parent considering this school should understand the place as a high-density, ethnically diverse city that blends college-town energy with a concentration of healthcare and pharmaceutical employment, not as a suburban or rural setting.
The school’s enrollment is large for an elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade, and the student body is heavily Hispanic, with very small percentages of Asian, Black, white, and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, which is a gap a parent may want to follow up on with the school, as those populations often influence the support services a school provides.
On the 2024-25 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, Lincoln’s results were soft across the board. In math, proficiency rates were modest in third and fourth grades and fell significantly by fifth grade, dropping to a very low level. In English language arts, proficiency rates were low across all three tested grades, hovering in a narrow range. In fifth-grade science, proficiency was also low. These results place the school’s overall proficiency index in the bottom quartile relative to other schools within Middlesex County, a large and diverse set of 30 districts. The state testing data provides a clear picture of academic challenge, and a parent looking for high test scores would want to look into this further with the school or district to understand what interventions and supports are in place.
Because Lincoln serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report here; that metric applies to high schools. Similarly, data on chronic absenteeism, course access, staffing, and discipline were not available in the materials reviewed.
The district itself is a former Abbott district, now designated an SDA district, meaning the state covers all school construction and renovation costs, a structural feature that removes the need for local bond issues for facilities. This does not directly affect the elementary experience but shapes the district’s fiscal context. The district operates the P-TECH public-private partnership, which allows select students to earn a high school diploma and an associate degree in engineering simultaneously, and New Brunswick High School organizes itself around themed career institutes and preparatory academies. These are features for families planning through high school, but they do not reach the elementary level.
For a family or resident evaluating Lincoln, the central facts are its urban setting in a hub city with strong transit and employment anchors, a student body that is predominantly Hispanic and low-income, and state assessment results that are below the midpoint for the county. The school’s small-grade-band structure means no high school metrics apply, and several data fields common to elementary schools were missing, leaving parts of the picture incomplete. A parent with a child entering kindergarten or moving into the district may want to contact the school directly to learn about reading and math support programs, English language services, and class size, as those details were not available in the reviewed data.
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