Northwoods Reporter

There were 30 Black students enrolled in Polk County districts in the 2022-23 school year, 6.3% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Polk County welcomed 6,694 students during the 2022-23 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 0.4% of the student body, making them the second least represented ethnicity in the county districts.

Among the eight districts in Polk County, Amery School District recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2022-23 school year, with a total of 12 students.

The main offices of all districts mentioned in the story are located in cities associated with Polk County.

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.

District	% of Black Students	Total Enrollment
Amery School District	0.9%	1,397
Clayton School District	0.7%	286
Clear Lake School District	0.2%	565
Frederic School District	1.2%	429
Osceola School District	0.3%	1,594
Saint Croix Falls School District	0.2%	1,075
Unity School District	0.3%	954