[blindlaw] ABA panel considering making the LSAT optional

[Sarah Clark]

Does anyone know which law schools already have waivers from the ABA for the 
LSAT?

Sarah

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ckrugman at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
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 repealed," said Polden, noting that about 10 law schools already have 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
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blindlaw:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/goldflash9%40sbcglobal.net