Law School Academic Support Blog

Diversity and Doctrinal Courses

At last week's meeting of the AALS Section on Academic Support, the audience was asked to share with one another ways in which doctrinal professors could inject diversity considerations into their classes.  One fairly simple assignment I have used in my course, Legal Aspects of Higher Education, has received a very positive reception from students, so I thought I would share it with you.

As one would expect, part of the course is taken up with covering affirmative action at the college and university level.  To introduce the material, I give the following assignment three or four weeks in advance, timing the due date to coincide with the beginning of our discussion of affirmative action.

Assignment:  Choose three persons, all of the same race or ethnicity as one another, but of a race or ethnicity different from your own. Consider choosing across age ranges as well.  Interview each separately regarding that person’s views and personal anecdotes regarding affirmative action and race.  Summarize each interview briefly and write a two- to three-page essay summarizing your own reactions or new insights based on all three interviews.

Students are generally surprised at the diversity of thought among just three people chosen at random from an ethnic group other than their own (they shouldn't be, but they are), and they gain new and more rounded perspectives on the controversies, complexities, and passions associated with affirmative action. 

The approach could be used with a variety of topics in a variety of courses, so you might consider incorporating it into one of your classes.  The depth of insight the students bring to the table after this exercise makes it well worth their effort, and they seem to really enjoy it. (dbw)

Reducing Stigma

One of the problems that often plagues ASP programs is the stigma that can attend students' participation in academic support efforts.  Because academic support at the undergraduate level is usually directed at those students who are struggling in their studies, law students often perceive ASP programs as remedial in nature, reserved for those who cannot perform adequately in law school without special help. 

As a result, those students who participate in the programs, often at the urging of the school, find it tough to shake the perception that they are not as smart or as qualified as their peers.  That perception does double damage: it lowers the ASP participants' confidence in their own abilities, and it leads to the fear that others will regard them as less capable than typical law students.  The effect is magnified for minority students who must already face the mentality among some students and faculty that most minorities ride into school on the backs of affirmative action programs rather than their own abilities.

One way to lessen the stigma so often associated with ASP programs is to widen the target group from "at-risk students" to the entire student body.  In other words, the program can be based on the proposition that all students can use help transferring their existing academic skills into the peculiar demands of law school. 

Few students arrive at law school knowing how to read and brief cases effectively, create useful outlines and flowcharts, etc.  Most are forced to develop those skills through a kind of "accidental curriculum" made up of unpredictable relationships.  A few are fortunate enough to have family and friends who have been through law school to help them uncover the best approaches.  A few others arrive having had the good fortune to have been trained through earlier pursuits in the art of text-based analysis and reasoning. 

Most just have to wing it until they stumble across model outlines or other study helps that may be floating out there in the law school ether.  Whether what they stumble across is actually helpful is mostly a matter of luck.  As result, the average law student is a much less efficient and effective learner than he could be.

Given those realities, an ASP program can be promoted as relevant to all students' law school efforts and can become accepted as merely another piece of the academic life of the typical law student.  I like to tell my students that law professors rightly "hide the ball" when it comes to what the law means, because learning to find what the law means is the primary skill lawyers must possess.  There are no tutors out in the practice.  As for how one learns to find what the law means, however, I see nothing useful in hiding the ball.  While every student must learn to outline her courses for herself, she needn't develop the skill out of thin air.  While every student must learn to answer law school exam questions for himself, he needn't discover the best approaches by trial and error on real exams.

So I aim my program at all students on the theory that all students could learn the law more deeply and effectively and develop their analytical skills more efficiently if they did not have to spin their wheels trying to discover effective learning techniques with no guidance.  In my estimation, an ASP program should serve to deepen the legal discourse among the entire student body by moving all students as rapidly as possible down the road of effective class preparation and review.  To the extent that the program causes all students to engage the material in their classes more effectively and efficiently, it shifts the focus of the entire enterprise to deeper and more meaningful discourse about the law itself.

To further that goal, I have decided to send a letter this summer to every incoming first-year student, introducing them to the school's ASP program and telling them that I expect them to come to school having already read a text I use extensively in the program.  I have also told them that I will be emailing each of them early in the semester to talk about how they are implementing the techniques and principles I will be presenting in ASP lectures.  By taking the attitude that participation in ASP programming is normal and expected, I hope to eliminate the perception that only some students need instruction in the skills the program presents.

My goal is that every student will take advantage of ASP instruction so that their energies can be expended more effectively and efficiently from the outset.  I hope that all students will more rapidly clear the elementary hurdles of learning how to prepare for class, examine and organize what they have begun to learn, and identify their gaps in learning.  In doing so, they will be freed to enter into a level of legal discourse often missing among the majority of law students not only in their first semesters but through much of their law school careers. (dbw)

Is Academic Support Just Academic?

I often have students who make appointments to discuss more than just how to brief, outline, or take exams. They often want to talk about what is going on in their classrooms besides just substantive law and academic skills development. Students recognize (as should we) that Academic Support involves more than just academic skills assistance. Other things in a student's life will affect their academic performance. One of those, I think, is whether they feel welcomed by faculty and other students, and part of a community. That is, after all, one point of recognizing the importance of educational diversity in Law School.  I have included a link to a piece I have written that addresses one type of diversity often not discussed: ideological diversity. What can Academic Support professionals do about promoting ideological diversity in the Law School community to make students feel more welcome and less isolated (and should they)? While I do not have a solution, recognizing this issue is an important beginning. Indeed, as my most long-time client says, "The solution to your problem often lies in its description." Please consider my observations at this link: Role Models.

Perhaps I am being churlish: it is difficult being part of a tiny ideological minority (particularly when, outside of academia, I am in the majority). However, as Academic Support professionals we can certainly track whether idelogical intimidation or just rudeness, particularly toward conservative students, is commonplace in our classrooms, and at least remind our colleagues how it can affect academic performance. (mwm)

In Milwaukee

This week I am in Milwaukee at the AHEAD (Association of Higher Education and Disability) annual summer conference.

Watch for posts in the coming days about issues we all face ... helping students with visible and invisible disabilities cope with the rigors of the law school curriculum.  The conference includes presentations by attorney disability specialists from the Office of Civil Rights and private firms, as well as a plethora of presentations and workshops hosted by Disability Support Specialists (example: Dr. Jane Thierfeld Brown from University of Connecticut School of Law) bringing us up to date on the latest law, technology and trends in providing academic support for this segment of our diverse students.

In the coming posts, I will acquaint you with some of the lessons I have learned, and provide direction about where to turn when you run into a difficulty in handling situations in this area.  (djt)