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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.

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