Comments on: It’s All Coming Together http://bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org/2009/03/11/its-all-coming-together/ A Vision and a Road Map Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:24:42 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Roy Stuckey http://bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org/2009/03/11/its-all-coming-together/#comment-1018 Roy Stuckey Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:20:52 +0000 http://bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org/?p=794#comment-1018 The Shultz and Zedeck study that Bob writes about has the potential to transform legal education. Shultz and Zedeck do not call for replacing the LSAT, but to supplement it with tests that will provide much more information about people applying to law schools -- information that is more related to how they might perform as lawyers. The 100 page report, executive summary, and appendixes are posted at www.law.berkeley.edu/admissions_study.htm Happily, one of their conclusions [#8, p. 59] is that the new predictors showed no practical differences among race or gender subgroups. On page 82, they discuss reasons to add professional predictors: "Scholars and commentors on legal education have urged that the current criteria of merit for admission to law school, expecially the LSAT, are too narrow in aim. Many would agree that assessing professional potential before admission would be a good idea, but no one has had a method to propose. Indeed, the prevailing view has been that the task is so difficult as to be flatly impossible. The research we report here explored ways to assess and predict many dimensions of professional effectiveness and has yielded a rich harvest." Hopefully, the LSAC will move quickly to more fully explore the feasibility of predicting more dimensions of professional effectiveness. At the same time, law teachers, expecially those who teach professional skills and values, should explore the implications of the Shulz/Zedeck work for assessing professional effectiveness. The Shultz and Zedeck study that Bob writes about has the potential to transform legal education. Shultz and Zedeck do not call for replacing the LSAT, but to supplement it with tests that will provide much more information about people applying to law schools — information that is more related to how they might perform as lawyers.

The 100 page report, executive summary, and appendixes are posted at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/admissions_study.htm

Happily, one of their conclusions [#8, p. 59] is that the new predictors showed no practical differences among race or gender subgroups.

On page 82, they discuss reasons to add professional predictors: “Scholars and commentors on legal education have urged that the current criteria of merit for admission to law school, expecially the LSAT, are too narrow in aim. Many would agree that assessing professional potential before admission would be a good idea, but no one has had a method to propose. Indeed, the prevailing view has been that the task is so difficult as to be flatly impossible. The research we report here explored ways to assess and predict many dimensions of professional effectiveness and has yielded a rich harvest.”

Hopefully, the LSAC will move quickly to more fully explore the feasibility of predicting more dimensions of professional effectiveness. At the same time, law teachers, expecially those who teach professional skills and values, should explore the implications of the Shulz/Zedeck work for assessing professional effectiveness.

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