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81 N.C. L. Rev. 1463 (2002-2003)
Segregation and Resegregation in North Carolina's Public School Classrooms

handle is hein.journals/nclr81 and id is 1477 raw text is: SEGREGATION AND RESEGREGATION IN NORTH CAROLINA'S PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOMS* CHARLES T. CLOTFELTER, HELEN F. LADD, AND JACOB L. VIGDOR° Although many studies have used information at the school level to measure the degree of racial segregation between schools, the absence of more detailed data has limited the analysis of segregation within schools. Using a rich set of administrative data on North Carolina public schools, we examine patterns of enrollment both across and within schools, allowing us to assess the comparative importance of segregation of each type and how they interact. To examine patterns in upper as well as lower grades, we perform separate tabulations for 1st, 4th, 7th, and l0th grades. The data make possible what we believe to be the most comprehensive study of within-school segregation undertaken in two decades, one that covers schools in all 117 districts of a large and racially diverse state. Using data for 1994/95 and 2000/01, we find marked increases in segregation over the period. In addition, we find that within-school segregation was much less important in the elementary grades than in 7th and 10th grades and that segregation of both types tended to be greatest in districts with nonwhite shares between 50 and 70%. * Study prepared for a conference, The Resegregation of Southern Schools?: A Crucial Moment in the History (and the Future) of Public Schooling in America, held at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, August 29-30, 2002, and sponsored by the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina School of Law. ** Charles T. Clotfelter is Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies and Professor of Economics and Law at Duke University; Helen F. Ladd is Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University; and Jacob L. Vigdor is Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University. We are grateful to Thomas Ahn and Roger Aliaga for research assistance, to Philip Cook and seminar participants at Georgia State University for helpful comments on an earlier draft, to the Duke Educational Data Center and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for providing data, and to the Spencer Foundation for financial support. The views reflected here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization.