Lincolnton Middle

Lincolnton Middle is a public school in Lincolnton, NC, serving 563 students in grades 6–8 as part of Lincoln County Schools. The school currently holds a 2-star rating, ranking 512th of 778 North Carolina middle schools at the 34th percentile — a significant slide from a decade ago when it ranked in the 57th–62nd percentile range. Among the four middle schools in its district, Lincolnton Middle ranks at the bottom: North Lincoln Middle sits at the 79th percentile, East Lincoln Middle at the 72nd, and West Lincoln Middle at the 58th.

The school serves a very high-need population — 99.5% of students qualify for free/reduced-price lunch — and chronic absenteeism runs at 25.9%, well above the district rate of 17.2%. Math and reading proficiency trail district and state averages by roughly 11–15 points in most grade levels; the largest gap is in 8th grade reading, where only 42.9% of students are proficient versus 57.5% for the district. Science is a relative strength: 8th grade science proficiency reached 68.3%, essentially matching the statewide average of 68.6%.

There are bright spots worth noting. African American students at Lincolnton Middle rank in the 57th percentile statewide relative to their peers — considerably stronger than the school's overall ranking — and the school improved noticeably in 2025–2026 after a particularly difficult prior year in math and reading. High poverty alone does not explain the results: nearby West Lincoln Middle, at 98.8% poverty, ranks in the 58th percentile, while Maiden Middle School — about five miles away with 98.9% poverty — ranks in the 57th, with 7th grade reading at 61.6% versus Lincolnton Middle's 44.5%. Even with a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.8, smaller than most neighboring schools, Lincolnton Middle has yet to reclaim the mid-range performance it showed before 2020.