Lincoln County

Lincoln County has seven schools—five elementary, one middle and one high—serving 3,240 students from elementary through high school. In 2025–2026, elementary results were mixed across schools and subjects, while the middle and high schools scored below the state in every reported subject. The clearest overall finding is that performance varies substantially among the elementary schools, and both secondary schools face consistent gaps with state results.

Hustonville Elementary stands out in mathematics, leading the elementary schools in grades 3, 4 and 5 with 65%, 69% and 53% proficient—22, 26 and 10 percentage points above the state, respectively. Highland Elementary leads reading in all three grades, with 72% to 75% proficient, 23 to 24 points above state results, and leads grade 5 writing at 72%, 37 points above the state. At the lower end, Stanford Elementary had the lowest reported grade 4 math result at 24%, while Crab Orchard Elementary had the lowest grade 4 reading result at 31%. Those results are 45 and 43 points below the leading schools, respectively. Middle-school gaps ranged from 3 to 16 points below state results; high-school gaps ranged from 5 to 14.

Recent trends also distinguish schools: matched elementary results rose an average of 12 points at Highland and 9 at Hustonville, but fell 12 points at Waynesburg Elementary. Secondary results fell an average of 6 points at the high school and 3 at Lincoln County Middle School. SchoolDigger’s rankings rose from percentile 39 to 80 for Highland and 82 to 89 for Hustonville over three years, while Waynesburg fell from 68 to 47. As context, all seven schools reported free/reduced lunch eligible for 2024–2025; the share ranged from 67% at the high school to 87% at Waynesburg. Student-teacher ratios ranged from 10.5 at Waynesburg to 16.2 at the middle school. The high school’s 98% graduation rate exceeded the state’s 94%, but its 34% chronic absenteeism was above the state’s 24%.