The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in Science. The lowest is 45% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Cardington-lincoln Middle School
Cardington-Lincoln Middle School serves students in grades five through eight in a small rural setting in Morrow County. The school sits in Cardington, a quiet village anchored by a compact downtown and surrounded by farmland, where most working residents drive outside the community for employment. The broader region is seeing modest growth as Columbus-area commuters seek more affordable housing, supported by proximity to Interstate 71, though Cardington itself remains a small-town nucleus with a handful of major local manufacturers and a working-class base.
The middle school has an enrollment of just under three hundred students, distributed relatively evenly across the four grades. The student body is predominantly white, with very small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data and information about students receiving special education services or English language support were not available.
On Ohio's state assessments most recently administered, proficiency rates sit in the lower-to-middle range. In English language arts, slightly less than half of tested students performed at proficient or above. Mathematics proficiency is similar, at a comparable level. Science shows the school's stronger performance, with about half of tested students meeting proficiency. Reading the proficiency index across these subjects, the school is positioned in the bottom quartile among the five districts in Morrow County. Only one year of test data is available; trend information that would show direction of change is not yet present.
The school participates in state assessments with very high participation rates, indicating reliable measurement. Testing logistics and completion do not appear to be barriers here.
Cardington-Lincoln Local Schools, the parent district, faces a financial constraint that parents considering the area should weigh carefully. The district has now placed a permanent improvement levy on the ballot three times and failed each time to gain community approval, most recently in May. Permanent improvement funds typically cover facility maintenance, bus replacement, capital repairs, and infrastructure upkeep. When those levies do not pass, those costs shift onto the general operating fund, reducing money available for classroom instruction and staff. This structural pressure on budgets is an ongoing condition rather than a temporary one, and it shapes what the school can offer and sustain.
The school itself does not report data on its own programs, course offerings, staffing levels, or specialized academic pathways, so those details are not available in this profile. The community context shows modest residential growth tied to commuter interest from Columbus, scattered small subdivisions, and a stable manufacturing base, but no large-scale economic expansion or planned major campus improvements that would offset the funding question.
For a family considering enrollment, the key takeaways are the school's rural, tight-knit setting and small-town peer environment; the lower-to-middle academic proficiency picture compared to county neighbors; and the district's repeated inability to pass capital improvement funding, which is likely to constrain resources over time. A parent may want to look into the district's long-term financial planning and specific school programs directly with the administration to understand how these constraints are being managed.
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