North Carolina’s public schools are quietly climbing a list no state wants to top. A new national analysis finds the state ranks among the nation’s most economically segregated, with poor students heavily clustered in high‑poverty schools. On average, a low‑income student in North Carolina attends a school where the poverty rate is about 30 percentage points higher than that of a non‑poor classmate. Using 2023–24 school‑year data, the report places North Carolina seventh in the country for economic segregation and 33rd for racial segregation.
The findings come from "States of Segregation," an analysis released this week by Brown's Promise. The report relies on measures from the Segregation Tracking Project, a UCLA–Stanford collaboration. Brown's Promise lists North Carolina’s economic segregation index at 0.303, roughly mirroring that 30‑point poverty gap, and estimates that about 63 percent of the state’s economic segregation happens within districts rather than between them. The Segregation Tracking Project’s methods underpin the state rankings and are built on school‑level data from the 2023–24 school year.
Where North Carolina Lands In The Rankings
According to The News & Observer, only the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Nevada, Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut show higher levels of economic segregation than North Carolina. The paper also notes that researchers find U.S. public schools are about as segregated today as they were in the 1970s, a sobering pattern that state researchers have tracked in more recent local studies.
Why The Divide Keeps Growing
Scholars trace the trend to decades of policy decisions that have made it tougher to maintain integrated student assignment plans. A pivotal moment came in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Parents Involved v. Seattle sharply limited how districts can use race in K–12 student assignments. Researchers with the Segregation Tracking Project argue that those legal constraints, layered on top of an expanding menu of school choice options and other state policy changes, have reshaped enrollment patterns and helped concentrate poverty inside individual schools.
What Advocates Say Could Fix It
Brown's Promise outlines a five‑part state policy agenda that it says could dial back concentrated poverty in schools. The recommendations range from resource‑sharing agreements and interdistrict transfer plans to expanding magnet programs and adopting countywide approaches to school assignment. The group also points to targeted demonstration grants and state funding levers as tools to make integration workable in places where housing patterns and local politics cut against it. Advocates present these ideas as practical options state lawmakers can use to mix student bodies and resources without waiting on federal action.
Local Leaders Call It A ‘Reckoning’
At a virtual press conference, Ann Owens, a sociology professor and co‑director of the Segregation Tracking Project, said, "We remain a very, very segregated nation, 72 years now, after Brown v. Board," according to The News & Observer. Ary Amerikaner, a Brown's Promise co‑founder, called the data "a moment of reckoning and a window of opportunity" in a news release, while Rep. Bobby Scott warned that recent political pushes to roll back diversity efforts are making state‑level progress harder, the paper reports.
For parents and school leaders across North Carolina, the report throws fresh fuel on long‑running debates over district boundaries, funding formulas and the expanding role of school choice. Researchers and advocates argue that the most powerful tools for reducing segregation now sit with state policymakers. Whether lawmakers choose to pick them up will determine how quickly, or slowly, any change reaches actual classrooms.
