Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dustin Fulton

Date

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Higher & Adult Education

Committee Chair

Donna Menke

Committee Member

Donna Menke

Committee Member

Edith Gnanadass

Committee Member

Karen Kitchens

Abstract

The United States has a storied history in terms of race, equality, and acceptance of minority populations. Racial constructs have caused division in America since its inception and there has been a long journey in terms of equal opportunity in education for minority populations. From the establishment of higher education in America until current time, race has had a great impact on access for African Americans. Even beyond undergraduate education, there are potential obstacles for African American student success. Obstacles related to the matriculation and success of African American students extends to graduate education such as medical school. As a result, African Americans continue to be underrepresented in medical education and the physician workforce. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine admissions data for a medical school in the Southeast United States given state-specific efforts to increase minority participation in education. A single research question guided this study: Did the Geier Consent Decree of 2001 impact the rate of admissions of African Americans to the college of medicine at a large, public university in the state? A quantitative analysis was conducted to determine if African Americans tended to get into medical school at the same rate as applicants in the White and Other race categories. A subsequent analysis was conducted to determine statistically significant differences of GPAs by racial groups. Findings suggest that there was an increase in acceptance rates across all race categories during the years of the state-specific provision. However, the proportion of African Americans accepted was not statistically significant over time. Additionally, there were statistically significant differences in GPA across race categories.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

Notes

embargoed

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