Northwoods Reporter

There were 26 Black students enrolled in Ashland County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 8.3% more than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report.

Data showed that Ashland County welcomed 2,460 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 1.1% of the student body to be the third least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 11 schools in Ashland County, Mellen Public School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of seven 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
Ashland High School	1%	626
Ashland Middle School	0.5%	398
Chequamegon Middle School	3.1%	129
La Pointe Elementary School	8.3%	12
Lake Superior Elementary School	1%	603
Mellen Public School	2.6%	270