Educational organizations are being impacted by the growing need for sustained student mental wellness support. Student populations are increasingly diverse and bring varied life experiences, challenges outside of the classroom, and additional stressors to their academic programs. In some educational contexts, such as legal education, the nature…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected both how instructors taught their courses and how students learned in those courses. The delivery of law school instruction online in America at this scale had never occurred. This study sought to understand how American law students experienced this pivot by analyzing how those students experienced the Socratic…

This qualitative descriptive case study delves into the effectiveness of academic support programs (ASPs) for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) law schools, focusing on enhancing academic performance and passing the bar exam. The underrepresentation of minority lawyers in the United States, which is attributed partly…

In order to provide effective career and professional development services for law students, law schools must build a better understanding of whether student engagement with school-provided career services bears a relationship to post-graduate employment success. The following research examined the relationship between law student engagement with…

This study investigated the effect of American Bar Association (ABA) 301-6 on minority enrollment at ABA accredited law schools. The Interpretation sets limits on bar passage rates that schools must adhere to in order to retain accreditation. Citing the historically poorer performance of minority students on bar exams and standardized tests, it…

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…

Using a case study methodology with descriptive and qualitative techniques at a major law school in the South, this research study explored factors that contribute to the perceived pedagogical value of wiki technology in legal education, as well as attitudes and perceptions of law faculty and students regarding the effectiveness of using wikis as…

Research on post-graduate performance, pertaining to law school graduates, indicates that success in the legal profession is attributable to more than the theoretical content or cognitive knowledge obtained through educational curricula. Research suggests that the combination of creative and analytic thinking skills contributes to a higher rate of…

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)…

This study focuses on the academic resilience exhibited by urban, low-income, first college generation Latino students, as they navigated numerous risk factors and persisted from early education to law school. In order to uncover the protective factors that allowed resilient Latino students to overcome adversity within the K-20 educational…

Despite the vast research on African Americans and affirmative action, little qualitative analysis has been done to investigate how race exists and functions in American law schools. This dissertation researches the ways in which race is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed within two American law schools. Three primary lenses guide this…

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…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether law students experienced library anxiety and, if so, which components contributed to that anxiety. The Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale (MLAS) developed by Dr. Doris Van Kampen was used to assess library anxiety levels of law students. The MLAS is a 53 question Likert scale instrument that…

Although many Americans turn to education as a means of generating social equality, institutions of higher learning themselves remain internally stratified, with students of color often having different experiences and sometimes attaining lower academic outcomes than whites. Law schools are especially notable for their intensely competitive…