Green Bay Reporter

There were 36 Black students enrolled in Shawano County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 16.1% more than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Shawano County schools welcomed 4,897 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 0.7% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 17 schools in Shawano County, Brener Elementary School and Shawano Community Middle School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2023-24 school year, with six 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
Birnamwood Elementary School	0.3%	340
Bonduel Elementary School	0.7%	294
Bonduel High School	0.4%	259
Bonduel Middle School	1.5%	201
Bowler High School	0.7%	136
Brener Elementary School	1.5%	399
Gresham Elementary School	0.7%	139
Gresham High School	1.2%	162
Hillcrest Primary School	0.7%	435
LEADS Primary Charter School	1.2%	85
Shawano Community Middle School	1.3%	468
Shawano High School	0.1%	770
Wittenberg Elementary School	1.1%	459
Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School	0.9%	338