Best Schools in Lincoln, Illinois

Lincoln's public school landscape spans 8 ranked schools with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10 — a solid baseline for a small central Illinois city. Five of those eight schools, or 62%, score 7 or higher. That concentration matters: it means parents have multiple above-average options rather than one outlier pulling up the mean.

The elementary tier leads the city. Chester-East Lincoln Elementary tops the rankings at 8.0 out of 10, the highest score in Lincoln's public system. West Lincoln-Broadwell Elementary follows at 7.9, and Central Elementary scores 7.6. Three elementary schools clustered between 7.6 and 8.0 gives families real choice at the most foundational level. Adams Elementary, rated 7.0, also clears the 7-point mark — meaning four of Lincoln's five listed elementary schools sit in the city's upper performance tier.

The path into middle school holds consistent. Lincoln Junior High scores 7.6, matching Central Elementary and placing it in the upper half of the city's ranked schools. In smaller districts, middle school quality often dips relative to elementary. Lincoln doesn't show that pattern. Students moving up from the higher-rated elementary schools can expect comparable performance at the secondary level.

Parents comparing Lincoln to other small Illinois cities should weight the 62% figure carefully. When the majority of ranked schools in a district score 7 or better, the risk of landing in a below-average school is lower than in districts where one or two strong schools skew the citywide average. The city mean of 6.8 reflects some drag from the lower-ranked schools, but the distribution skews positive. Families beginning their search should put Chester-East Lincoln Elementary and West Lincoln-Broadwell Elementary at the top of their visit list — both score within 0.1 points of each other and represent the strongest academic options available in the city.