WC Wisconsin News

There were 24 Black students enrolled in Trempealeau County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 17.2% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Trempealeau County schools welcomed 5,837 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 0.4% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 21 schools in Trempealeau County, Osseo-Fairchild Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2023-24 school year, with five 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
Arcadia High School	0.5%	430
Blair-Taylor Middle/High School	0.7%	308
Eleva-Strum High School	1%	194
Galesville Elementary School	0.4%	260
Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School	0.2%	415
Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Middle School	0.4%	275
Independence Elementary School	0.5%	189
Independence High School	1.4%	145
Osseo-Fairchild Elementary School	1.3%	372
Osseo-Fairchild High School	0.4%	234
Trempealeau Elementary School	1%	304
Whitehall Memorial Elementary School	0.2%	437
Whitehall Memorial Junior/Senior High School	0.6%	321