Central Wisconsin News

There were 164 Black students enrolled in Portage County schools in the 2023-24 school year, the same number as the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Portage County schools welcomed 9,224 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 1.8% of the student body to be the third least represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 30 schools in Portage County, Stevens Point Area Senior High School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students in the 2023-24 school year, with a total of 27 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
Amherst Elementary School	0.6%	351
Amherst High School	1.1%	354
Amherst Middle School	1.1%	270
Bannach Elementary School	1.3%	373
Benjamin Franklin Junior High School	2%	812
Charles F. Fernandez Center Alternative Learning	2.9%	69
Jefferson Elementary School	1.9%	265
Kennedy Elementary School	0.6%	171
Madison Elementary School	6.5%	339
McDill Elementary School	0.9%	335
McKinley Center	3.1%	361
P. J. Jacobs Junior High School	3.3%	700
Plover-Whiting Elementary School	1.7%	459
Point 4 the Future	1.9%	425
Roosevelt Elementary School	1.9%	519
Rosholt High School	0.7%	155
Stevens Point Area Senior High School	1.9%	1,458
Washington Elementary School	2.7%	474