An examination of the matriculation outcomes of the Geier mandated pre-university programs

Laurie B Witherow, Tennessee State University

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of the Geier pre-university program in achieving the stated goal of increasing the matriculation of African-American high school students to the historically white Tennessee Board of Regents schools. The researcher examined the matriculation records of 161 African-American students who attended the pre-university programs at Austin Peay State University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Tennessee Technological University. The Geier case was first filed in federal court in 1968. After more than ten years of litigation, in 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered that the University of Tennessee Nashville and Tennessee State University merge their institutions. Since the federal court's decision to merge Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee Nashville, the state of Tennessee has been under the guidelines of Geier v. Sundquist and its many court-ordered stipulations to eradicate all vestiges of de jure segregation. The 2001 Consent Decree for the Geier case mandated the creation of summer enrichment programs for African American high school students. The programs were to be held at the historically White Tennessee Board of Regents institutions. All statistical analyses were conducted at the p > .05 level of significance. The researcher found that the participants in the summer enrichment programs had significantly higher rates of matriculation than the rate for Tennessee African-American high school graduates though rates were not consistent across the programs. Neither gender nor grade level completed at the time of program attendance had an effect on matriculation rates. Continued study of the participants in the program should be conducted to determine if differences can be found in the matriculation of students who attend the Geier pre-university program earlier in their high school careers.

Subject Area

Higher education|Bilingual education|Multicultural education|African Americans

Recommended Citation

Laurie B Witherow, "An examination of the matriculation outcomes of the Geier mandated pre-university programs" (2005). ETD Collection for Tennessee State University. Paper AAI3172005.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI3172005

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