The last two decades have witnessed the creation of a “New Latino Diaspora” which includes Charlotte, North Carolina, and the broader Mecklenburg County area. This new population segment introduces new challenges for public services, especially public school districts. Using a technique employed by other researchers at the national level, this study creates indices representing the five dimensions of segregation, and leverages those metrics as predictor variables to establish a link to the grade level proficiency of African-American and Hispanic, or “Carolatino,” students in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools district. To our knowledge, this is the first study that uses this spatial approach to understand student achievement in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. We find that, while segregation can be used as a predictor for African-American students’ proficiency, there is no evidence that the same is true for Carolatino students across the entire district of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. Further research, using a multi-scalar approach, shows a significant relationship between segregation and Hispanic high school students, but not for Hispanic middle school or elementary school students. The same multi-scalar approach produces robust results for the African-American students which is consistent with the district-wide model.
