This study applies the conceptual framework of Positive Deviance, the theoretical framework of critical race theory, and the lens of marronage to understand the problem of low Black student enrollment at one American Bar Association accredited law school. The purpose of this study was to understand what current Black law students perceive to be…

Legal educators are routinely banning students' laptops or wireless connectivity in law classes. Faculty assumes students are significantly off-task and in-class laptops are harmful to learning. Current research focuses almost exclusively on undergraduate students technology uses in- and out of the classroom. Only a handful of studies objectively…

Students and the public routinely consult various published college rankings to assess the quality of colleges and universities and easily compare different schools. However, many institutions have responded to the rankings in ways that benefit neither the schools nor their students. In "Engines of Anxiety," sociologists Wendy Espeland…

As racial and ethnic population changes occur in the United States these same changes should be reflected in the legal community of lawyers and judges. Although Black and Hispanic populations have been increasing over the past 30 years in the United States, this same proportionate increase has not occurred in the American Bar Association (ABA)…

The literature on student academic success of law students is limited to mostly single institution studies, and as such, a nationwide, multi-institutional empirical study of the factors that predict student academic success is greatly needed by higher education scholars, law school admission officers, faculty, and administrators. This dissertation…

Controversy surrounding the use of race-conscious admissions can be partially resolved with improved empirical knowledge of the effects of racial diversity in educational settings. We use a national sample of law students nested in 64 law schools to test the complex and largely untested theory regarding the effects of educational diversity on…

A study was conducted to examine patterns of test preparation for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) during the 1990-1991 testing year. This represented an extension of an earlier study that examined self-report test preparation methods for the June and October 1989 test administrations. In this study, five types of analysis were performed: (1)…

Advocates for a more inclusive legal profession are worried about the recent decline in enrollment of Black students in law school. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), Blacks were 7.4 percent of all law students in 1994. By 2005, that percentage had fallen to just 6.6. Several law journal articles have suggested that the schools…

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Skills Analysis Survey identifies the skills that are important for success in law school. This information provides validity evidence for the current Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and guides the development of new test items and test specifications. The key question of the survey is "what academic…

This study investigated the overall prevalence of discrepant Law School Admission Test (LSAT) subscores, their differential incidence for subgroups of examinees, and the psychometric properties of alternative measures of discrepant performance. The sample consisted of 39,350 examinees who took the LSAT in December 1991. Subscore differences, often…

In item calibration using LOGIST (M. Wingersky, R. Patrick, and F. Lord, 1987), when the program determines that it cannot accurately estimate the c-parameter for a particular item due to insufficient information at the lower levels of ability, an estimate of the c-parameters, called COMC, is obtained by combining all such items. The purpose of…

Test takers were asked to report which, if any, methods they used to help prepare for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The study began with the 1991-1992 academic testing year and ended with the 1996-1997 academic testing year. More than 100,000 students responded in each of the years, with the exception of a smaller sample in 1996-1997…

This report summarizes self-reported information about the kinds and extent of test preparation used by those taking the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). For the first time, in June 1989, test takers were asked to volunteer information about how they prepared for the LSAT. Approximately 75% of the test takers in June and September 1989 responded…

This study, a partial replication of an earlier study by B. Pitcher (1977), examined the validity of using initial, most recent, highest, and average scores in decisions about repeat takers of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The study included only schools that enrolled 50 or more first-year students who had taken the LSAT on more than 1…

Since the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) was first administered, the sponsors of the test have carried out predictive validity studies to evaluate the effectiveness of the test and other predictors in determining first-year law school performance. This report presents a summary of correlation study results for the 1995 and 1996 study years. The…