Fiscal Facts: Public school enrollment down for 10th straight year

Wisconsin Policy Forum

Statewide public school enrollment in Wisconsin declined for the tenth straight year in 2023-24, with the nearly 9,000-student decline representing the second biggest one-year drop in the last decade.

Wisconsin’s statewide rate of student chronic absenteeism declined slightly in 2022-23 but remained highly elevated relative to pre-pandemic levels, with nearly one in five students missing more than 10% of school days.

Meanwhile, student scores on several key tests, including the Forward and ACT exams, increased slightly in 2022-23, the most recent year for which they are available — but still continued to lag their pre-pandemic levels.

These are among the key findings of the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s updated School DataTool. The most recent available data are used for each metric, going through the 2022-23 school year for some indicators and 2023-24 for others.

Statewide public school enrollment declined in 2023-24 to about 814,000 students, down from about 823,000 students the year prior. This decrease was primarily driven by declining numbers of white students (-2.1% from 2022-23). Decreases also were recorded for Black and American Indian students. Enrollment for all other racial and ethnic student groups increased slightly in enrollment this year, including most prominently Hispanic students (up 2.0%) and students identifying as two or more races (up 3.0%).

The statewide chronic absenteeism rate was 19.5% in 2022-23, a slight decline from the year earlier, when it reached a ten-year high of 22.7%. Still, it was the second-highest rate the state has seen in over ten years. The statewide chronic absenteeism rate is the share of students who were absent (excused or unexcused) for more than 10% of school days. In most school districts, this means missing at least 18 days of a school year.

The statewide graduation rate has hovered around 90% for the past six years; after a slight drop in 2020-21, it has since returned to pre-pandemic levels. Most racial and ethnic groups saw little change in 2022-23 but, notably, the graduation rate for American Indian students dropped by nearly seven percentage points.

In the 2022-23 school year, the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the Forward exams in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) increased from the previous year across all grade levels (third through eighth), except for fifth grade ELA. In most cases, proficiency still lagged behind pre-pandemic levels, but a few grades – including third grade ELA and fifth grade math – achieved a full recovery.

Comparing ACT scores across years remains challenging given that the average non-testing rate continues to hover around 9%. Some student groups did not test at rates significantly higher than this: for example, 27.0% of Black students in Wisconsin did not take the ACT in 2022-23. In 2022-23, the average composite ACT score in Wisconsin increased by 0.1 points for the second year in a row to 19.3, which remains below pre-pandemic levels.

This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.