North Carolina public schools turn more segregated

CDC VIA UNSPLASH

A report published by UCLA based on a study by North Carolina State University researchers found North Carolina's public schools continue to re-segregate based on race and family income. The researchers found 13.5% of campuses were intensely segregated by race.

North Carolina’s public schools are becoming more segregated by race and poverty, according to a new study.

The report, “Can Our Schools Capture the Educational Gains of Diversity? North Carolina School Segregation, Alternatives and Possible Gains,” published last week by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA in collaboration with North Carolina State University researchers, found enrollment has become less racially diverse. White students account for less than half of the state’s enrollment, while schools are less diverse. One in four Black students and almost one in five Hispanic students attend a segregated school of color.

“As we reflect on the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, it’s essential that we understand where our state has been and where we are today,” said Jennifer Ayscue, assistant professor at NCSU and the report’s co-author with doctoral candidates Mary Kathryn Oyaga, Victor Cadilla and Cassandra Rubinstein. “In many ways, North Carolina was a leader in desegregation efforts, and in some places of the state, that work continues. However, as a whole, our state has allowed resegregation to take hold, similar to the rest of the nation.”

Despite enrolling an increasingly multiracial student body, the report shows students of all races are isolated in disproportionately same-race schools. Of all racial groups surveyed, Black students, who account for a fourth of the state’s enrollment, had the least exposure to white students. Students of color are also more likely to be double segregated by race and poverty.

“What we see in this report is the unrealized potential to desegregate North Carolina’s schools,” Cadilla said. “Recent policies emphasize unregulated school choice that poses significant hurdles to creating diverse schools and promoting equitable educational opportunities for North Carolina’s students.”

Among the report’s findings:

• From 1989 to 2021, North Carolina public school enrollment increased by more than 41% and became increasingly diverse. In 2021, enrollment was 45% white, 25% Black, 20% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 4% Asian, and 1% indigenous.

• By 2021, despite an increasingly diverse student body, patterns of segregation intensified as students of all racial groups were enrolled in schools with disproportionately high shares of same-race peers.

• Black students had the least exposure to their white peers, with the typical Black student attending a school with 28.3% white enrollment.

• Although they accounted for 45% of the state’s enrollment, 68.6% of white students attended majority white schools.

• Over the past three decades, the percentage of schools that enroll 90-100% students of color increased such that in 2021, 13.5% of the state’s public campuses were intensely segregated by race.

• In 2021, within intensely segregated schools of color, 82.6% of the students were eligible for free and reduced-price meal, indicating a double segregation by race and poverty.

• Cities had the largest share of intensely segregated schools of color at 30.6%, while rural communities had the largest share of intensely segregated white schools 4%.

“Since the late 1990s, North Carolina steadily lost much of the gains made in desegregation,” Rubinstein said. “With an increasingly diverse student population, North Carolina has a critical opportunity to renew its commitment to Brown’s promise instead of re-isolating students in segregated schools.”

The report made recommendations to support desegregation, including controlled-choice plans or multi-factor student attendance policies with diversity goals; redrawing attendance boundary lines with diversity as a priority, developing magnet schools, pairing elementary schools, and consolidating multiple school districts within the same county. Increased federal funding for the Magnet Schools Assistance Program and the Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Grant Program could expand support to make desegregation easier to accomplish.

“North Carolina made major gains during the civil rights era, and its countywide school districts offer possibilities for lasting diversity that many states lack,” said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “As research shows, including studies by important North Carolina scholars, there are lifelong benefits of attending integrated schools both for students and for the state’s future – it’s time for strong leadership from Tar Heel educators.”

The report identifies efforts in urban districts, including Wake and Cumberland counties and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, that earned federal grants to support desegregation and equity. Other districts, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Durham County, were also cited for initiatives to mitigate segregation.

“The demographic shifts and sociopolitical trends impacting school segregation in North Carolina are not unique to the state,” Oyaga said. “The forces that contribute to segregation, on the one hand, and those that support desegregation, on the other, must be understood if we are to move towards equity and justice in public education.”

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