Schools

Are youth who are disengaged from school more likely to enter the juvenile justice system – and does this vary for youth of different races and ethnicities? That was the question UNC Charlotte professor Dr. Susan McCarter set out to answer. Using data from the Institute for Social Capital, an integrated data system that’s part […]

As charter school enrollment has more than doubled across the U.S. over 10 years, demographic data are showing that charter schools are more segregated than traditional public schools. Nationally, 2.5 million students were enrolled in charter schools in 2013 across the U.S. Just 10 years prior, enrollment was less than 1 million.[1] Despite that growth, […]

Around 80,000 students in Mecklenburg County choose to attend a school other than their neighborhood public school. But what might that mean for the type of education the students are receiving? The answer appears to be, at least for now, “It depends.” School choice generally refers to any student assignment policy that lets parents and […]

With students heading back to school Monday, Aug. 24, at most Charlotte-area public school districts, school buses are already rolling as drivers practice their routes. (Nearby S.C. schools mostly opened this week.) School buses constitute the state’s largest public transit system. An estimated 13,400 buses will carry some 800,000 N.C. youngsters to school and back […]

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is providing weekly maps and data dashboards to highlight relevant statewide education statistics for EducationNC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news source aiming to create a bipartisan, statewide conversation about public schools. Learn more about this new initiative here. This week’s EdMap allows you to explore the prevalence of Title I schools […]

The Council for Children’s Rights has partnered with the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute to create a locator map of “out-of-school-time” programs in Mecklenburg County. The interactive map allows users to identify programs based on a specific neighborhood location by zooming in on the map. Users can also select programs by location, program name, zip code […]

EducationNC – a nonpartisan, nonprofit news source aiming to create a bipartisan, statewide conversation about public schools – launched Jan. 12. EdNC.org will provide online data, research, news, information and analysis about major trends, issues and challenges facing N.C. schools. On Mondays, Zach Szczepaniak and Claire Apaliski of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute – building […]

The past year has been a tough one for Charlotteans. We witnessed the public firing of our county manager, the incarceration of our mayor, and the forced resignation of our public school superintendent. We’ve experienced leadership transitions at every level of government and in many of the nonprofits that serve the most vulnerable residents of […]

This multimedia presentation shows the results of research into dropout behavior in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools from school years 1995-1996 to 2009-2010. It shows how concentrated poverty at a school makes the dropout situation worse for black and Hispanic/Latino students. It also shows how positive academic climate at a school lowers the chances of dropping out for […]

It’s a simple concept: Focus on fewer goals and bigger results. That’s the idea behind the Collective Impact approach United Way of Central Carolinas (UWCC) has adopted. For United Way that goal for the next 10 years is to increase the graduation rate among the more than 13,000 at-risk children who receive services from 16 […]