Northwoods Reporter

There were 71 Black students enrolled in Burnett County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 2.9% more than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Burnett County schools welcomed 2,741 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 2.6% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 10 schools in Burnett County, iForward recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2023-24 school year, with a total of 64 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.

These achievement gaps are also reflected in graduation rates. According to recent US Census data, nearly 95% of white students in the state successfully graduated in 2021.

Meanwhile, graduation rates for Black and multiracial students lagged behind white students by 10%. Even further behind, only 71.6% of Hispanic students completed their high school education during the same period, one of the lowest graduation rates in the state.

School name	% of Black students enrollment	Total Enrollment
Grantsburg Elementary School	0.6%	174
Grantsburg High School	0.4%	263
Grantsburg Middle School	1%	306
Siren Elementary School	0.5%	192
Siren High School	0.5%	207
iForward	7.3%	881