The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in Math. The lowest is 20% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Lincoln Elementary School
Lincoln Elementary is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Toppenish, a small city within the Yakama Indian Reservation in Yakima County. The school sits on North Alder Street in the heart of town, close to the downtown mural district that gives Toppenish its visual character. Heritage University’s main campus is also here, and the Yakama Nation Tribal School operates nearby. The surrounding Yakima Valley is a major agricultural region, particularly for hops and apples, and Legends Casino Hotel is a prominent local employer.
The student body at Lincoln is small for a K-5 school, and its composition reflects the broader Toppenish community. The overwhelming majority of students are Hispanic, with a smaller share identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native. Only a handful of students are white, and none are Asian, Black, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with generally lower household incomes. Housing values in the Toppenish ZIP code are well below the state benchmark, and the local population has been essentially flat over the past few decades, with no major new developments identified in available sources.
Academically, Lincoln Elementary’s state assessment results from a recent year show proficiency rates that place the school below the midpoint among Yakima County districts. In mathematics, proficiency among third graders was at a level that is higher than the performance seen in fourth and fifth grades, where rates were considerably lower. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: third graders reached proficiency more than twice as often as fourth and fifth graders. In science, only a modest share of fifth graders met the proficiency bar. Because only a single year of testing data is available from the state, there is no trend information to show whether these results are improving or declining. The data also does not include information on the share of students with individualized education programs or English learner status, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the supports available for those groups.
Like all elementary schools in the Toppenish School District, Lincoln does not have a graduation rate because it does not serve high school grades. The district brief turned up no recent major changes such as boundary adjustments, curriculum overhauls, or facility measures that would affect families at this school.
The school’s setting in a small, compact city with a walkable downtown and a strong agricultural economy means that most daily errands and services are close by. The city’s population has been essentially flat, and the housing stock is compact with very low vacancy rates, so the local housing market has not experienced the rapid growth seen in parts of western Washington. For a family considering Lincoln Elementary, the picture is of a small, high-poverty school with a homogeneous student population by race and ethnicity, set in a stable and culturally distinct community. The academic results on state tests are below the county midpoint, especially in the upper elementary grades, and a parent would want to understand what interventions and instructional strategies the school uses to address that. The lack of multi-year data makes it hard to judge direction of travel, and the absence of program and staffing details means those are topics to discuss with the school directly.
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