Jackie GardinaMar 3, 2023

@nytimes has an article on #lawschool rankings. It asks the question what should replace US News rankings.

I am just spitballing here so bear with me. What if we didn't rank law schools. What if we made consistent consumer information available and that's it. What if it is wasn't the quality of who they selected (uGPA, LSAT) but the quality of the lawyer they produced (skilled, competent, and ethical).

#lawfedi #lawprofs #lawyers

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/03/us/us-news-rankings-law-schools.html

Defending Its Rankings, U.S. News Takes Aim at Top Law Schools

The publication accuses Yale and other schools of trying to evade accountability — and sidestep a likely end to affirmative action — by opting out of its ratings.

The New York Times
Show threadL.S. Views & Rankings ReportMar 3, 2023

@jackiegardina

Alas, there will always be rankings. A unique problem with U.S. News is the outsized influence it has had on legal education due to the lack of competition.

But this year could be different. All of the public data US News might rely upon for its next #lawschool rankings is already available. The only thing USN will add is its "kind of a joke" reputation scores.

So why treat USN rankings as definitive?

We don't think anyone should. Below are our alternative rankings. #LawFedi

Show threadJackie GardinaMar 3, 2023
@lsvrr thanks for sharing. Like budgets, rankings are moral documents that identify what “we” value. It is one of the reasons I think they are ill-suited for the complexities of training for the legal profession. What does a high score on an LSAT communicate about what and, more importantly, who we value?
Show threadL.S. Views & Rankings ReportMar 3, 2023

@jackiegardina

On LSAT, note that we use the 25th percentile in our rankings rather than the median. One thing law schools should value is their graduates being able to enter the profession. The LSAT, despite all its flaws, is the best pre-enrollment predictor of bar passage, and the higher a school's 25th percentile, the fewer 1Ls it is likely to have who will ultimately fail the bar (or drop out before getting that far).

Show threadJackie GardinaMar 3, 2023
@lsvrr I will now stand on my soap box labelled "bar exam" and rant about whether a high stakes, two day exam that requires memorization is a good measure of who will become a skilled, competent and ethical attorney. Especially since we now know that #AI is very close to passing it. But alas, I know it is how we currently license so I will step off my soap box and work to change that reality.
Show threadL.S. Views & Rankings Report

@jackiegardina

All for folks pressing to make changes to the bar exam and licensing process.

But until those changes are made, it would seem that one key moral question for law schools before enrolling students and taking their tuition dollars is whether they have a good chance of passing the bar as it currently exists.

Mar 3, 2023 at 7:50pmWeb
Show threadJackie GardinaMar 3, 2023

@lsvrr I agree. The question becomes are there alternatives to the LSAT that provide indicators of the potential for success. Few law schools get to experiment with this question because of the LSAT requirement & rankings.

Some scholars attempted to do this research and provide an alternative. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23011885