WC Wisconsin News

There were 118 Black students enrolled in Monroe County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 6.3% more than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Monroe County schools welcomed 6,983 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 24 schools in Monroe County, Tomah High School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2023-24 school year, with a total of 15 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
Brookwood High School	1.8%	274
Cashton Elementary School	0.3%	292
Cashton Middle/High School	1.2%	327
Herrman Elementary School	1.5%	604
Innovations STEM Academy	3.4%	88
La Grange Elementary School	1.7%	406
Lemonweir Elementary School	1.5%	275
Miller Elementary School	3.4%	239
Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton Elementary School	1.2%	330
Robert Kupper Learning Center	2.7%	37
Southside Early Learning Center	2.7%	298
Sparta Alternative Independent Learning School	4.8%	63
Sparta High School	1.6%	854
Sparta Meadowview Middle School	1.4%	706
Sparta Montessori School	1.7%	181
Timber PUPS Learning Center	5.7%	35
Tomah Area Montessori School	4.8%	63
Tomah High School	1.7%	902
Tomah Middle School	2.1%	681