Northwoods Reporter

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

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, making them the second least represented ethnicity in the county districts.

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

The main offices of all districts mentioned in the story are located in cities associated with Rusk 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
Bruce School District	0.2%	410
Flambeau School District	0.4%	461
Ladysmith School District	0.5%	743