1,721,488 research outputs found
Priming the Pump: How Pipeline Programs Seek to Enhance Legal Education Diversity
No full textAccessLex Institute has developed this research brief to provide an overview of legal education pipeline programs in the U.S. – the channel by which we, as stakeholders in legal education, can improve access to law school. The prevalence of these programs and their components are discussed in detail. The brief also takes preliminary steps towards assessing their impact and effectiveness. The immediate goal is to provide useful information to aspiring students, their advisors, and others concerned about legal education diversity. The ultimate goals for future research are to identify components shared by the most effective and impactful pipeline programs, and to encourage other programs to adopt those best practices.AccessLex Institut
Law School Applicants by Degrees: A Per Capita Analysis of the Top Feeder Schools
Full text linkIn this research publication, AccessLex Institute explores applicant concentration at the top 240 feeder schools, as published in the Law School Admission Council\u27s (LSAC) Top 240 Feeder Schools for ABA Applicants list. The resulting per-capita figures help contextualize the feeder school trends
From the Bachelor\u27s to the Bar: Using College Completion Data to Assess the Law School Pipeline
Full text linkThe story of declining law school applications is well known among the legal education community. Over 100,000 individuals applied to law school for admission in fall 2004, but demand for legal education has since declined — only 54,000 applicants sought admission in fall 2015. Accesslex Institute examined college completion data to determine whether undergraduate interest in fields most popular among law school applicants has also waned in recent years. In particular, this research brief summarizes bachelor’s degree completion in the top 10 law school feeder majors over the last 10 years, and compares degree production in these fields to those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
Priming the Pump: How Pipeline Programs Seek to Enhance Legal Education Diversity
Full text linkAccessLex Institute has developed this research brief to provide an overview of legal education pipeline programs in the U.S. – the channel by which we, as stakeholders in legal education, can improve access to law school. The prevalence of these programs and their components are discussed in detail. The brief also takes preliminary steps towards assessing their impact and effectiveness. The immediate goal is to provide useful information to aspiring students, their advisors, and others concerned about legal education diversity. The ultimate goals for future research are to identify components shared by the most effective and impactful pipeline programs, and to encourage other programs to adopt those best practices
A Framework for Thinking About Law School Affordability
Full text linkThis research report, authored by Sandy Baum, Ph.D., explores the most constructive ways to think about the affordability of legal education in the context of trends in law school enrollment, prices, debt and employment. However, the report cautions that law school affordability cannot be evaluated through simple metrics; it must be measured by taking into account the lifetime value of the investment. The report was commissioned by AccessLex Institute to add to the public discourse about what makes law schools affordable for students in different circumstances
2020 AccessLex Legal Education Research Symposium Presentations
No full textPanel 1: Research and Dissertation Fellows Discussion Nicholas A. Bowman, University of Iowa, Promoting the Representation and Success of Students from Minoritized Racial Groups at U.S. Law Schools Willis A. Jones, University of South Florida, Examining the Determination, Consistency, and Variation of Law School Cost of Living Estimations Kelly Rosinger, Penn State University, Exploring the Impact of Test-Flexible Admissions on Law School Diversity and Selectivity Krista M. Soria, University of Minnesota, The Role of Financial Factors in Graduate, Professional, and Law Students’ Mental Health, Time to Degree, and Career Interests
Panel 2: Empirical Insights on Academic and Bar Exam Performance Jessica D. Findley, University of Arizona College of Law John Mayer, CALI Jason Scott, AccessLex Institute Derek T. Muller, University of Iowa College of Law Christopher J. Ryan, Jr., Roger Williams University School of Law
Panel 3: Expanding Support for Underrepresented Populations Elaine Chiu, St. John\u27s University School of Law Kamille Dean, St. John\u27s University School of Law Jessica D. Findley, University of Arizona College of Law Elizabeth Mertz, University of Wisconsin Law School Aida Vernon, St. John\u27s University School of Law
Panel 4: Discussion with the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project Meera E. Deo, Thomas Jefferson School of Law Danielle M. Conway, Penn State Dickinson Law Danielle Holley-Walker, Howard University School of Law Kimberly Mutcherson, Rutgers University Law School Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Boston University School of Law Carla D. Pratt, Washburn University School of La
Examining Value, Measuring Engagement: A National Study of the Long-Term Outcomes of a Law Degree
Full text linkBy 2019, over 3 million Americans will be enrolled in a graduate program. This is an important and difficult choice for most students, given the time, money and uncertain job prospects associated with advanced degrees. The decision to attend law school is particularly challenging, as student loan burden and job market competitiveness have increased significantly since the end of the Great Recession. Furthermore, as noted by the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, the legal profession is “at a crossroads” caused by a dwindling market share, waning public confidence and mental health issues among lawyers. These challenges call for a closer examination of the value of a law degree and its unique offerings compared with other advanced degrees.
The Gallup-AccessLex Institute study of Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree holders provides important insights for educators, employers, law school alumni and prospective students about the factors that contribute to great jobs, lives and experiences for law school graduates. A law degree is one of the most valuable advanced degrees as evaluated by law graduates and other degree holders. As described in the key findings, most law graduates strongly agree that they would still get a J.D. if given the opportunity to go back and do it all over again. Furthermore, nearly half strongly agree that their degree was worth the cost. While many recent law graduates have negative views of the J.D., graduates who are more advanced in their careers tend to have higher levels of well-being and more positive assessments of the value of a J.D
Analyzing First-Time Bar Exam Passage on the UBE in New York State
Full text linkThis report is the culmination of three years of work to collect, analyze, summarize, and interpret data on the experiences and outcomes of first-time and second-time New York State Bar candidates. After careful collaboration and review between AccessLex Institute and the New York State Board of Law Examiners to finalize this publication, a release date was anticipated for Spring 2020 to share its findings publicly and to provide recommendations for how the legal education community could build on efforts to equitably and effectively prepare law school graduates for first-time bar exam passage. Of course, at the time nobody had any idea a public health crisis was about to override those best laid plans.
With little to no warning, the New York State Court of Appeals, the New York State Board of Law Examiners, along with other bar examiners and courts, law graduates, and law schools nationwide, faced the daunting task of determining how to respond and adapt to a global pandemic that made conventional testing and learning conditions unsafe and traditional timelines impractical. As a result, it was decided to hold off on releasing this report so that both the New York State Board of Law Examiners and AccessLex Institute could address the most critical and immediate needs facing their respective constituents.
A year later, at a time when the world as we once knew it seems more within reach, and lessons learned over the last year are sparking new ideas about the world to come, this report is being released in its pre-pandemic final form. Anticipating the return to bar exam business as usual and contemplating the implications of forthcoming changes to the bar exam itself in four to five years, the results and recommendations of this report are all the more relevant to the research and discussion of bar exam success. The pandemic and bar exam changes notwithstanding, law graduates are better served passing the bar exam on their first attempt, and so the goal of this report is to provide a first step in identifying ways to promote strategies and support systems to help narrow first-time performance gaps among bar exam candidates, now and into the future
Tuition Discounting Study of Private Law Schools 2016
Full text linkThe 2016 NACUBO/AccessLex Tuition Discounting Study of Private Law Schools was commissioned by AccessLex Institute in part to provide more recent information on tuition discounting practices at law schools, and to measure the effects of discounting on law schools’ finances. The use of institutional grant aid to attract and retain law students has become even more important, as many programs have had to grapple with declines in their numbers of applicants and enrollments. This challenging context has prompted law schools to implement a variety of practices and policies to raise their enrollments, including increasing their financial aid expenditures. The data in this brief are based on a tuition discounting survey NACUBO sent to 113 U.S.-based private nonprofit law schools, all accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). Because only 36 of these schools responded to the survey, the findings should be interpreted in context and with caution towards applying them too broadly. Nonetheless, the results provide compelling data for discussion of tuition discounting and other financial aid practices at law schools and present a foundation for future discussion and research efforts
Exploring the Role of Institutional Research in Graduate and Professional Education
Full text linkA small study to learn more about the interactions between the institutional research community and graduate and professional schools
- …
