When Law Schools Cheat (Update)
Simple Justice: The subculture of legal academia turns out to be a dirty little place, with goateed lawprofs skulking about the dark back hallways of the Ivory Tower trying to figure out ways to cheat their way to prominence. Who knew?
According to this New York Lawyer report, it’s forcing the hand of U.S. News and World Reports, that paragon of public integrity, to change the way it does business. You see, one of the factors that’s used to calculate how wonderful a law school is (and hence its ranking) is the LSAT scores of its admits. But there’s a little secret.
U.S. News currently uses only the grades and test scores of full-time students. The magazine is considering pooling the scores of part-time students after hearing allegations that some schools move students with lower grades and test scores into part-time programs so they can report better data, said Robert Morse, director of data research for the magazine.
“One way to prevent gaming of the system is to count [grade and test data of] all students,” Morse said.
As I sat, quietly laughing to myself at the notion of law schools “gaming the system,” the question “why” kept running through my mind. If the schools get a higher ranking, do the Deans get a performance bonus? If the schools get a higher ranking, do their graduates get a favorable first jury verdict? Maybe they get an affirmance/reversal (as the case may be) on their first appeal? Why?
There is no doubt that this is very serious business for law schools.
The proposal is strongly opposed by deans at schools with part-time programs designed for students who are years past college graduation and often well into careers outside the law. They warn that a school’s place on the U.S. News list is so important that some…