[blindlaw] ABA panel considering making the LSAT optional
Sarah Clark
goldflash9 at sbcglobal.net
Thu Jan 13 18:13:59 UTC 2011
Does anyone know which law schools already have waivers from the ABA for the
LSAT?
Sarah
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Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 5:52 AM
Subject: [blindlaw] ABA panel considering making the LSAT optional
> ABA panel considering making the LSAT optional
> Karen Sloan
> January 12, 2011
>
>
> The Law School Admissions Test is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers,
> but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the
> American Bar Association's law school accreditation standards.
>
> The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule
> that law schools require J.D. applicants to take a "valid and reliable
> admission test," chairman Donald Polden, dean of Santa Clara University
> School of Law, said on Wednesday.
>
> "A substantial portion of the committee believes that provision should be
> repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have
> waivers from the ABA allowing them to admit some students who haven't
> taken the LSAT.
>
> Much of the committee's LSAT debate has focused on the proper role of the
> ABA in the regulation of law school admissions, said Loyola University
> Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen, who sits on the standards review
> committee.
>
> "I think an accrediting body ought to ensure that law schools are
> producing students who can enter the practice," he said, noting that he
> personally is on the fence about the LSAT requirement. "Is taking a
> standardized test the only way to determine if someone should be able to
> go to law school? Schools ought to be able to decide how they want to
> admit students."
>
> Yellen said committee members have also questioned whether the ABA should
> be making rules that financially benefit the Law School Admission
> Council-the organization that administers the LSAT.
>
> "It's a wealthy institution," Yellen said. "So many people take the LSAT.
> Why is the ABA ensuring its future success?"
>
> The admission council has not taken a position on the committee's
> proposal, said spokeswomen Wendy Margolis, but council President Daniel
> Bernstine did address the committee during a meeting last year. "It would
> be inappropriate and premature of us to comment before a decision has been
> made by the committee," Margolis said.Dropping the LSAT requirement would
> be unlikely to prompt many schools to abandon the test. Both Polden and
> Yellen believe that most schools would continue to require the LSAT, in
> part because it is the most reliable way to measure applicants against
> each other and make merit-based financial aid decisions.
>
> "I think most schools would keep it," Yellen said. "It gives you an
> indication of how prepared people are for law school. On the other side,
> getting rid of the test would be yet another way for law schools to game
> the U.S. News rankings, but I don't think the ABA should take U.S. News
> into account when making these decisions."
>
> The committee is still in the relatively early stages of discussing the
> LSAT. It is closer to finalizing its recommendations in several other
> areas, including so-called "student learning outcomes." Law schools would
> be evaluated based on what students learn rather than input measures, such
> as the size of law libraries or faculty-to-student ratios. That matter was
> discussed during a two-day committee meeting last weekend.
>
> The learning outcomes standards should be ready for presentation to the
> ABA's Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in the summer,
> Polden said. That council must approve all changes to the accreditation
> standards.
>
> The committee is still debating other controversial topics, including
> security of position and tenure for faculty and law school governance.
>
> The draft standards would require law schools to define their educational
> mission and learning goals for graduating students-a significant departure
> from the existing standards, which rely on more easily quantifiable
> measures such as bar passage rates. The draft would require schools to
> develop assessment methods that would "provide meaningful feedback to
> students." The schools would assess whether students are attaining the
> stated educational goals, although the proposal does not specifically
> define what those goals should be or how they should be measured.
>
> "We are trying to make sure that as we move into this very different way
> of evaluating schools by assessing student learning outcomes, that we give
> them a lot of flexibility," Polden said. "The provision is quite general,
> but the idea is for schools to have leeway."
>
> Too much leeway could be a problem, said Ian Weinstein, the associate dean
> for clinical programs at Fordham University School of Law and the
> president of the Clinical Legal Education Association. The association has
> advocated for stronger, more detailed standards for the learning outcomes
> of individual students. The committee draft places more focus on the
> effectiveness of the law school as a whole, rather than on individual
> students, he said.
>
> "The current version gives schools a lot of room to define mission and
> outcomes," Weinstein said. The clinical association "has expressed real
> concern about that all along. In our view, we'd like those learning
> outcomes to be considerably more specific."
>
> Weinstein believes it would be imprudent to move too far from the existing
> measures such as faculty-to-student ratios if the new standards don't
> create strong enough output requirements.
>
> One change the association supports is beefing up the existing requirement
> that all students take at least one externship, clinic or simulation
> course.
>
> The committee is still working on the standards that pertain to tenure and
> security of position, but members largely agree that tenure should be
> encouraged if not required by the ABA, Polden said. The committee has
> interpreted the existing accreditation standards to mean that tenure is
> not a requirement, although many legal academics disagree with that
> interpretation.
>
> The committee is struggling with changes to law school governance
> standards, Polden said. It is considering a new standard that law schools
> require full-time faculty members to participate in governance and
> decision-making. This would help to eliminate the exclusion of some
> clinical, legal writing and other non-tenure track positions from hiring
> decisions and other governance issues, he said.
>
> The committee will hold a public hearing on all of these proposals during
> its next meeting April 2 in Chicago. Those proposals are posted on the
> ABA's Web site. Individuals and groups wishing to comment will be asked to
> register ahead of time to speak during the three-hour public comment
> session, Polden said.
>
> Karen Sloan can be contacted at ksloan at alm.com.
>
>
> http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticlePrinterFriendlyNLJ.jsp?id=1202477851996
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