Northwoods Reporter

There were 95 Black students enrolled in Douglas County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 24.6% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Douglas County schools welcomed 5,504 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 1.7% of the student body to be the fourth most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 16 schools in Douglas County, Superior High School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2023-24 school year, with a total of 22 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
Bryant Elementary School	2.6%	305
Cooper Elementary School	2.9%	308
Great Lakes Elementary School	1.7%	358
Northern Lights Elementary School	4.7%	452
Northwestern Elementary School	0.4%	502
Northwestern High School	1.5%	393
Northwestern Middle School	0.4%	282
Superior Community Preschool	2.2%	92
Superior High School	1.7%	1,290
Superior Middle School	2%	908