SW Wisconsin News

There were 38 multiracial students enrolled in Lafayette County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 2.6% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Lafayette County schools welcomed 2,658 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, multiracial students comprised 1.4% of the student body to be the third most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the 17 schools in Lafayette County, Darlington Elementary/Middle School recorded the highest enrollment of multiracial students in the 2023-24 school year, with 10 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 multiracial students enrollment	Total Enrollment
Argyle Elementary School	6.1%	147
Argyle High School	2.6%	77
Argyle Middle School	1.7%	60
Belmont Elementary School	2.2%	224
Belmont High School	1.8%	163
Benton Elementary School	3%	132
Benton High School	1.7%	59
Darlington Elementary/Middle School	1.6%	633
Darlington High School	0.4%	257
Pecatonica High School	0.5%	214
Shullsburg Elementary School	0.8%	133