× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

It’s very bad news that Wisconsin’s graduation gap between black and white students is the largest in the country.

However, it is encouraging to know that gap can be reduced. Kenosha schools have demonstrated that.

Statewide, 92.9 percent of white students graduate from high school in four years, while the four-year graduation rate for black students is 64 percent.

In the Kenosha Unified School District, the four-year graduation rate for white students is 92.2 percent while the same rate for black students is 76.5 percent. The difference, 15.7 percentage points, is significantly lower than the state gap of 28.9 percentage points.

Kenosha has made significant progress closing the black-white graduation gap, but that has not been the case statewide.

As recently as the 2011-12 school year, the gap in the Kenosha school district was 22.7 percentage points. The rate for black students then was 64.5 percent and for whites, 87.2 percent.

There’s no question there has been a concerted effort made to close the gap.