Northwoods Reporter

There were 327 American Indian students enrolled in Sawyer County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 10.7% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Sawyer County schools welcomed 2,116 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, American Indian students comprised 15.5% of the student body to be the second most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 12 schools in Sawyer County, Hayward High School recorded the highest enrollment of American Indian students in the 2023-24 school year, with a total of 112 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 American Indian students enrollment	Total Enrollment
Hayward Center for Individualized Learning	2.1%	244
Hayward High School	21.9%	512
Hayward Intermediate School	18.2%	346
Hayward Middle School	18.9%	344
Hayward Primary School	16.1%	403
Northern Waters Environmental School	4.8%	42
Winter Elementary School	5.8%	103
Winter High School	6.4%	78
Winter Middle School	9.1%	44