Summary:
Zip code 62703 has three middle schools in Springfield School District 186: Jefferson Middle School, Washington Middle School and Lincoln Magnet School. All serve grades 6–8, and enrollment ranges from 300 students at Lincoln to 517 at Jefferson. In 2025–26, the schools’ unweighted averages were below state results in all three subjects: 41% in ELA versus 56% statewide, 20% in math versus 40%, and 39% in eighth-grade science versus 52%. The most important distinction is that Lincoln stands far above the other two schools academically.
Lincoln Magnet School led the group in ELA, math and eighth-grade science, with 88%, 52% and 78% proficient, respectively; each result was above the state. Its lead over the next-highest school was 70 percentage points in ELA, 47 in math and 57 in science. Jefferson Middle School and Washington Middle School were well below state results in all three measures and close to each other in ELA and math. SchoolDigger ranked Lincoln 159th of 1,126 schools, at the 86th percentile with four stars in 2025–26; Jefferson ranked 1,119th and Washington 1,120th, both at the 1st percentile with zero stars.
Results improved overall from 2024–25 to 2025–26: the schools’ average rose 7 points in ELA, 3 in math and 7 in science, while the average gap to the state narrowed by 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively. But the pattern was not shared by every school: Jefferson’s ELA rose 2 points and science rose 4, while its math result slipped slightly; Lincoln and Washington improved in all three subjects. SchoolDigger placed Lincoln at the 86th percentile in each of the three listed years, while Jefferson and Washington were at the 1st percentile in 2025–26. As context, 2024–25 free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 38% at Lincoln, 81% at Jefferson and 80% at Washington; student-teacher ratios were 12.0 at Lincoln and Jefferson and 10.3 at Washington. These figures describe differences among schools but do not explain them.
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