Northwoods Reporter

There were eight Black students enrolled in Washburn County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 42.9% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report.

Data showed that Washburn County welcomed 2,231 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 17 schools in Washburn County, Spooner High School and Spooner Middle School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of two 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
Bobcat Virtual Academy	5.3%	19
Northwood High/Middle School	0.7%	144
Shell Lake Elementary (3-6)	0.6%	178
Shell Lake Junior/Senior High School	0.3%	311
Spooner High School	0.6%	363
Spooner Middle School	0.7%	277