Northwoods Reporter

There were seven Black students enrolled in Rusk County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 22.2% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report.

Data showed that Rusk County welcomed 1,614 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 0.4% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the nine schools in Rusk County, Ladysmith High School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of three students.

According to the Nation’s Report Card 2022 results, Black fourth-graders in Wisconsin scored an average of 40 points lower than their white colleagues in both Math and Reading.

Data also showed that Black students were three times as likely to fail the Reading test than white pupils in the state. The gap is even larger in Mathematics, with Black students failing five times more than white students.

School name	% of Black students enrollment	Total Enrollment
Bruce Elementary School	0.5%	200
Flambeau High School	0.7%	141
Flambeau Middle School	0.9%	106
Ladysmith High School	1.2%	245
Ladysmith Middle School	0.6%	169