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Are Law Schools Cream-Skimming To Bolster Their Bar Exam Pass Rates?, Jason M. Scott, Josh Jackson
Are Law Schools Cream-Skimming To Bolster Their Bar Exam Pass Rates?, Jason M. Scott, Josh Jackson
AccessLex Institute Research
Law schools are held accountable on many fronts to achieve and maintain high bar passage rates. ABA Standard 316 is likely the strongest accountability measure. While the course of legal education itself, along with academic and bar success interventions, is a key driver of bar exam performance, Bahadur et al. suggests that other, obscure institutional practices can serve to inflate institutional bar passage performance. Such practices could include recruitment and admission of transfer students and academic attrition. We examine this hypothesis to assess the influence of both attrition and transfer on law schools’ bar passage rates.
It's Not Where You Start, It's How You Finish: Predicting Law School And Bar Success, Aaron N. Taylor, Jason M. Scott, Josh Jackson
It's Not Where You Start, It's How You Finish: Predicting Law School And Bar Success, Aaron N. Taylor, Jason M. Scott, Josh Jackson
AccessLex Institute Research
In this study, we examine the extent to which academic and student engagement factors explain law school grades and first-time bar exam performance. Applying fixed effects linear and logit modeling, our analysis leverages law student transcript data and responses to the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) among students from a diverse group of 20 law schools to estimate academic performance and odds of bar passage. Most notably, we find that GPA improvement during law school is associated with greater odds of passing the bar exam, particularly among students who struggle the most during the first semester. Furthermore, while …