http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/rather_than_accept_more_entrance_exams_some_law_school_deans_favor_eliminat?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=navigation&utm_campaign=most_read
More Ways to Get Into Law School: On July 13, the ABA Journal published a Stephanie Francis Ward article entitled “Why should law schools have to require LSAT or GRE? Law deans ask the question.” Focus on the portion below:
“The Newton, Pennsylvania-based Law School Admission Council, which administers the LSAT, also submitted a statement (PDF) ahead of the hearing. Law schools have relied on the test for more than 50 years to set a common standard for candidate evaluation, according to the LSAC, and the test is based on solid research and evaluated on a continuing basis. The statement was signed by Christina B. Whitman, chair of its board of trustees, and Kellye Y. Testy, its president and chief executive officer.
If another admissions test is as good as the LSAT, the statement reads, the LSAC has no objection to law schools using it, and the organization “does not seek a monopoly” in legal education.
“Today, many law schools are experiencing economic stress as they adjust to changes in the admission and employment markets stemming from structural change in the profession as well as from continuing challenges to the rule of law in society,” the statement reads. “It is tempting during such times of stress to seek to reduce standards of quality, and often these reductions in standards come forward as arguments for innovation and deregulation.”
“Like the council, and I think everyone in this room, we support equality and fairness in legal education,” Joan E. Van Tol, the LSAC’s general counsel, said at the hearing. “If other tests meet those goals, we support those as well, but we urge the council to set high standards for both validity and reliability.”
David Yassky, the law school dean at Pace University, is opposed to the proposed revision to Standard 503. “Serious law school applicants,” he wrote in his statement (PDF), will likely continue taking the LSAT, and most if not all law schools will continue to accept it as an entrance exam.” [Emphasis mine]
The law schools are tired of getting drilled for their declining admi$$ion$ “standards.” Law School Transparency has detailed reports on each ABA-accredited diploma factory. Applicants can see that the toilets keep accepting lower LSAT scores. Foolishly, some may be happy that a 143 score might get into a dozen cesspools.
http://abovethelaw.com/2017/07/in-the-lsat-v-gre-battle-should-the-aba-get-involved/?rf=1
Other Coverage: On July 13, 2017, Kathryn Rubino posted an ATL entry labeled “In The LSAT v. GRE Battle, Should The ABA Get Involved?” Check out this opening:
“There’s a battle brewing between the LSAT and the GRE. After years of being the only game in town, the LSAT is now feeling pressure as some law schools have made a move to accept the GRE in lieu of the law school standard. The trend started with Arizona Law, citing decreased barriers to entry, which coincidentally coincides with a decrease in applications, particularly for lower-tier law schools (and some argue that lower barriers aren’t necessarily a good thing). Then Harvard Law shook up the game by deciding to accept the GRE, and all of a sudden, the GRE for law students became mainstream.
This week, the ABA will hold a hearing on a proposed rule change to Standard 503, which currently allows law schools to accept alternatives to the LSAT (read: the GRE) if they can prove another test is valid and reliable. If the rule change passes, schools will no longer be able to decide an alternate test is valid and reliable, that determination would be the sole province of the ABA. That’s a… major change, as Jeff Thomas, executive director of pre-law programs at Kaplan Test Prep, notes:
The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is set to debate one of the most controversial amendments to its Standards in years. If the ABA adopts its proposed amendments to Standard 503, it will immediately stifle law school attempts to circumnavigate the current LSAT requirement and at least temporarily halt schools’ desire to use the GRE for admissions purposes. However, incorporated into the proposed changes is a call for a process for the ABA to vet admissions exams other than the LSAT, which may set the stage for a sweeping ruling allowing law schools to accept the GRE in the future. Rejecting the proposed amendments will likely result in trickling adoption of the GRE. At Kaplan, we’ll be tracking the issue closely to ensure that students have the most accurate and up-to-date information possible to make informed decisions.
Given this looming change that would radically alter the current trend of legal education, what do law schools think about it? According to a Kaplan survey of 119 law schools, including 18 of the top 30 as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the opinions are split:
Of the nearly 120 law schools polled, 61 percent say the ABA should make a statement saying that law schools are either permitted or not permitted to allow applicants to submit GRE scores as an alternative to scores from the LSAT, long the only sanctioned law school admissions exam. Twenty-seven percent say it should not; and 13 percent are unsure.” [Emphasis mine]
The schools want to be able to use different exams as way to get more asses in seats. But they want the backing of the ABA, to help justify their decision to take in applicants who never sat for the LSAT exam.
Conclusion: The American Bar Association will continue to look out for the law school pigs. Expect this organization to allow member schools to accept the GRE, as an alternative to the LSAT. After all, they realize that having a bunch of commodes with 25th percentile scores of 145 – or worse – is embarrassing to the cartel. Now that several respectable in$titution$ accept this exam, it seems this will become standard practice. If this happens, don’t be surprised if ABA schools strongly encourage borderline applicants to take the Graduate Record Examination, instead of the LSAT.