Law School Academic Support Blog

Bearsight

Often times I see but I don't.  Perhaps an analogy will explain.

It's bear season where I live.  But the bears are awful hard to spot, despite their large size.  It seems that their big paws tend to distribute weight so that they move with stealth-like grace as they forage among the mountain berries, shrubs and trees.  They tend to make not much more noise than a trifling breeze or a bird at work building a nest.

But I have a secret weapon to spot the bears - my dog.

You see, a few weeks back, while hiking, Maisey came to a screeching halt, sat perfectly still, and sniffed the mountain breeze.  A sniff here and a sniff there.  I was like, "Come on Maisey, let's get going." But she sat, still.  

After about 5 minutes of waiting silently, I finally noticed a slight rustle down the hillside from the trail.  Not much of anything.  But then another rustle and another and another, all ever so silent.  Suddenly, I saw what Maisey had sensed all along before.  A bear, foraging in the scrub oaks.  For the next twenty minutes or so, I watched the bear slowly eat its way down the hillside before I finally lost sight.  But the lesson wasn't lost on me.  I would not have seen that bear by myself.  I needed the sense of another, one with keener senses than me.

I think law school is bit like that.  

As law students, we can re-read our papers or our notes or our midterm answers and not really see what we really wrote.  It's sort of like we are blinded by our own senses, by our own sight.  

However, much like my experience on the trail scouting for bears, as law students, we have available to us, just for the asking, people who have keener senses than us, finely tuned, who can take a look at our work and thus open us up to a whole other way of seeing and experiencing things.  In short, we can turn to our faculty and academic support teams to help us - as learners - see what's really in our answers (and what isn't).  

So, as law students, don't feel like you need to go it alone in law school, at all.  Freely reach out to others for help.  Let experts review your work. Get feedback from your professors and your ASP team at your law school.  You'll be surprised at what you'll see.  It probably won't be a bear, but I can guarantee that it will help you become a better attorney.  And that's what we are here for -- for you. (Scott Johns). 

Making Connections - No Islands

Someone once said, "no one is an island," or something like that.  

But, I fear, many of our students live island experiences.  In some ways, we all fear vulnerability.  We are all, often times, afraid to ask for help or counsel. However, as has become especially acute in midst of this ongoing pandemic, we truly weren't meant to live alone but rather in community with others.  

So, in follow-up to Prof. Steven Foster's post on "Making Connections," providing practical ways to bridge the oft-experienced gap between academic support professionals and faculty-at-large, Professor Charles Calleros offers the following well-aimed advice to help us better connect to our most struggling students while there's still plenty of time to make a difference.

I quote:

"One way to foster connection with 1L faculty: Ask Legal Writing faculty in late September whether any of their students look like they are headed for a D (or worse) based on preliminary writing assignments. By mid-October, ask faculty in casebook courses whether any midterm exams look like total disasters. If my experience is any indication, many of them will be grateful for the query and eager to identify students who could use some ASP assistance....I also like...[the] idea of connecting with students in a way that allows them to show that their identities and accomplishments are not limited to their not-yet-impressive success in law school." - C. Calleros, Prof. of Law, Arizona State University.

Great suggestions from both!  

So, for you law students, be brave. Reach out to your faculty or your ASP or student services teams with any questions or concerns that you might have or to just talk about life, together.  And, for those of you in ASP, the two professors remind us that we work as a team, to proactively reach out to those I serve with, and to make connections with both our colleagues and students.

It might just be the "cure that the doctor ordered," for all of us, in community with and for each other. After all, we're in this together. (Scott Johns).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Award Nominations - AALS Section on Academic Support

The AALS Section on Academic Support is seeking nominations for two awards.

Legacy in Leadership Award.  This award is given to a person who is a senior member of our discipline and has made outstanding contributions to the academic support profession throughout their career, including building and evolving the discipline of academic support. 

Trailblazer Award.  This award is given to a person who is inspiring change in the academic support profession today and catapulting us forward to a stronger tomorrow. 

To be eligible for an award, the nominee must have made significant and/or long-term contributions to the development of the field of law student academic support, through any combination of the following activities: 

• service to the profession and to professional institutions—e.g., advocacy with the NCBE or assumption of leadership roles in the academic support community;
• support to and mentoring of academic support colleagues;
• support to and mentoring of students;
• promoting diversity in the profession and expanding access to the legal profession; and
• developing ideas or innovations—whether disseminated through academic writing, newsletters, conference presentations, or over the listserv.

All legal educators, regardless of the nature or longevity of their appointment or position, who have at some point in their careers worked part-time or full-time in academic support are eligible for the award.  Law schools, institutions, or organizations cannot receive an award.  Prior year or current year Section officers are excluded from being selected as an award winner.

Please submit nominations by October 25^th, 5pm EST, to [email protected]. The nomination should include a letter that describes why the section member should be honored. You can submit a nomination for one, or both, awards.

We've Come a Long Way

Our law school building was shut down as of 2:00 p.m. Wednesday. An email went out at 1:47 p.m. letting us know that we were going to be taking all classes online until, they then said, Monday at 7:00 a.m. Now, if I were reading this as someone who didn’t know more, I’d be reaching for the hand sanitizer (despite the fact we know that the internet transmits all kinds of virulent things, but not actually human viruses). I’ll wait a moment for your hands to dry before I go on.

Here’s the thing: it wasn’t COVID-19 that shut us down (but your hands are now clean and that’s never a bad thing). Our building had been having air conditioning problems for weeks. The classrooms I taught in last Monday afternoon and evening felt like, to add to your Yiddish vocabulary, a schvitz[1]. The classroom I taught in that Wednesday morning felt like a rainforest. It was easily close to, if not above, 90 degrees in the classrooms and getting up there in my office as well. When I finally was able to get out of the building much later that afternoon, the subway station was refreshing (it was Park Street for you Boston familiar folks and you know if it was refreshing there, the building was bad). The air-conditioned train was my night in shiny greenish armor. Not many people say “aaah” when getting on a green line trolley, but there I was perking up as we meandered through the Back Bay. It turns out that the building will actually be closed until this Wednesday (we think) because the “chillers” have failed (and yes, I am imagining “chillers” as those folks in high school wearing a lot of flannel and playing hacky-sack).

But this blog entry is not about my escape from schvitz mountain-it is more about the fact that I realized that I wasn’t concerned about moving to remote teaching for a week. 2019 me would have been trying to remember how to record a Panopto video and reconfiguring all my slides for the small screen. 2019 me would probably have taught the classes wearing work pants and shoes. 2019 me would have tried to position myself somewhere the dog barking wouldn’t be audible (which, by the way, it turns out is nowhere in my house). In short, 2019 me would have panicked.

But 2021 me immediately created a Zoom link on the class BlackBoard site and emailed everyone to find it there. 2021 me already had the slides on my laptop (which 2019 me would have said was a crazy expensive investment-but 2019 me was wrong about that). 2021 me really enjoyed seeing my student’s faces for the first time this semester, and hoped they enjoyed seeing mine. And so, 2021 me started the class, shared the screen, and carried on. The only thing that made me sweat about the whole thing was that I was still stuck in my office because 13 minutes wasn’t enough time to get to a cooler place. 2021 me would have chuckled at the state of 2019 me (and, in all fairness, 2019 me would have been horrified to see my frizzing hair take up almost all of my 2021 Zoom rectangle).

COVID was certainly not the ideal way to learn how to quickly pivot and conduct classes even when we do not have access to a school building, but those skills are now honed.

We’ve come a long way.

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] A schvitz (noun) is a steam bath, but used as verb, it means to sweat. https://bestlifeonline.com/yiddish-words/

Making Connections

A few years ago, our new Dean brought the leaders of each department together for a retreat to prepare for the upcoming year.  The Dean planned the retreat with activities to both get to know each other and create goals for the upcoming year.  The retreat was a resounding success.  One of the biggest successes from the event was the connections we made with each other.  Every business deals with interpersonal dynamics and requests for the limited resources.  I feel like coming together for a couple days helped the leaders of our school understand each other more and helped us work with each other for common goals even though resources are limited.

I believe the same type of connections could help ASPers in 2 ways.  We could use similar activities to connect with faculty.  The divide between tenure-track and contract faculty/staff seems pervasive throughout law school discourse.  ASPers complain at every turn that doctrinal faculty aren't using the most up-to-date teaching methods.  Doctrinal faculty think ASPers just hand-hold a new generation of entitled students.  ASPers respond that some hand-holding is necessary when jobs are tied to bar results.  The non-stop complaining creates a layer of animosity throughout law schools.

The animosity isn't inevitable.  We can break the cycle.  Other than a few outliers, I believe most faculty (doctrinal and ASP) and staff want students to succeed.  Schools probably can't hold large gatherings safely, but we can all have a small meal or zoom meeting with another member of the law school.  The meal or meeting doesn't need to be about work.  Connections related to interests and family can begin a conversation that leads to discussing helping students inside and outside the classroom.  The discussions can lay the interpersonal foundation to then create dialogue on how to help students.  

We can use the same strategy with students.  In smaller classes, I begin every semester with an introduction and one unique thing about myself.  Students introduce themselves and give their unique thing.  I try to include anecdotes and stories in all my lectures that relate to my interests.  Someone after each of my classes will ask about my kids sports or the recent football games.  I use the information to ask students questions when in the hallway.  When students know we care about them as people, they are more likely to follow our studying advice.  We can go to student organization meetings, take class time, or attend campus events to make connections.  The connections may be as valuable as one of the lessons in class.

Working with faculty and students requires navigating many interpersonal and campus dynamic issues.  We can't solve all of them with a meal, but genuine conversation can go a long way to helping everyone achieve success.

(Steven Foster)

WCCASP Call for Proposals

Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills at Western State College of Law

Western State College of Law at Westcliff University Academic Support Hiring Announcement

Western State College of Law (WSCL) at Westcliff University is seeking to hire one Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills for our Academic Support Program beginning August 1, 2022. Candidates should have strong academic backgrounds and commitment to teaching excellence. This position is designed to lead to a long-term contract that culminates, after five years of meeting standards in terms of teaching, service, and professional development, in successive five-year contracts with voting rights (on everything but promotion and tenure issues).

WSCL is located in the city of Irvine, California – close to miles of famous beaches, parks, recreation facilities and outdoor activities as well as the many museums, music venues, and diverse cultural and social experiences of greater Los Angeles.

Founded in 1966, WSCL is the oldest law school in Orange County, California, and is a fully ABA approved for-profit, private law school. Noted for small classes and personal attention from an accessible faculty focused on student success, WSCL is proud that our student body is among the most diverse in the nation. Our 11,000+ alumni are well represented across public and private sector legal practice areas, including 150 California judges and about 15% of Orange County’s Deputy Public Defenders and District Attorneys.

WSCL is committed to providing workplaces and learning environments free from discrimination on the basis of any protected classification including, but not limited to race, sex, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, genetic marker or on any other basis protected by law.

Confidential review of applications will begin immediately. Applications (including a cover letter, complete CV, teaching evaluations (if available), a diversity statement addressing your contributions to our goal of creating a diverse faculty, and names/email addresses of three references) should be emailed to Professor Elizabeth Jones, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee: [email protected] For more information about WSCL, visit wsulaw.edu

Taking Control

My mind is a chatterbox, running constantly, whether at work, at home, in the car, or walking.  There seems to be no escape from the clamor of attention that my mind asks of me.

Often, I'm brainstorming ways to improve what I do for my job.  But more often, it's just worry, plain and simple.  

To be frank, that's because I just feel a lot like an imposter.  What do I really know?  How can I really contribute?  So I stay ultra-busy.  However, I can guarantee you, I am not being paid to work 24/7.  

Yet it seems like I do.  Perhaps you do too. Work-life is out of control. Worry-life too.

Let me ask you a question that I'm asking myself.  

Why do I have this constant itch to check my phone, my email, my messages?  

In order to answer this, I thought I'd have a mythical conversation with Socrates, returning to our modern world today, who crosses our paths today.

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Worry Wart: Wow. That is a strange costume. It almost looks like something straight out of ancient Athens and you too.

Socrates: That's because I am.

Worry Wart: You are what?

Socrates: I am Socrates.

Worry Wart: Come on.  I admit that you look like the genuine article but what is you gig?

Socrates: What do you mean gig?

Worry Wart: You know, what's your deal? 

Socrates: Deal?

Worry Wart: Your stick?

Socrates: Oh, that's my walking stick.  You know I am getting a bit old.

Worry Wart: No, I mean what are you doing here, at our law school?

Socrates: I'm doing what I always do, observe, question, and learn.

Worry Wart: Okay.  I'll play your little game.

Socrates: Games have very little to do it.

Worry Wart: What's the it?

Socrates: Thinking.  So shall we begin?

Worry Wart:  Fine.  Let the "games" begin. Oh, I"m sorry, let the "thinking" begin.

Socrates: May I ask you about the slim box in your hand?  You seem to keep rubbing it or something.  Is it your good luck charm?

Worry Wart: Oh no. It's my phone, a pocket phone. It lets me communicate with others and, as you say, to observe, question, and think.

Socrates: What are you thinking about?

Worry Wart: Oh I'm just checking my email?

Socrates: Email?

Worry Wart: Just a phrase of speech.  It's just a fancy way to say checking letters that are sent to me straight to my phone, sort of like an old parchment back in your day, without the delay.

Socrates: I see.  But you keep checking it quite frequently? Are you expecting a letter?

Worry Wart: You never know.

Socrates: That's what we are here to fine out.  What we know.

Worry Wart: Ok, I'll answer your question.  I'm a professor, perhaps like you, and I've got a lot of students that I work with, and you just never know when they might need my help.  And, I work in a big organization, a school, with lots of communications from the administrators and supervisors and my colleagues too.  You just never know when someone might write an email, I mean a "letter," that will need a quick response from me.

Socrates: Seems tedious and tiring to me, to always be alert, waiting for what might never come.

Worry Wart: That's the way that we do it in this modern age.  No time to waste.  

Socrates: But aren't you wasting time, constantly touching your phone to check your, what do you call it, emails?

Worry Wart: I hadn't thought about that. I didn't even realize that I was checking my phone constantly.

Socrates: Now we are getting somewhere.  The path to learning begins when we realize that we know so little, about ourselves and especially about others.

Worry Wart: Excellent point, Socrates. But what do you suggest I do?  You never know. There could be an urgent message at just this moment and I will miss out.

Socrates: What do you suggest?  Are you missing out on other tasks, perhaps even more important, why you wait on a letter that might never come?

Worry Wart: I hadn't thought about that too.  Let's see. But I am so busy.

Socrates: Why are you so busy?

Worry Wart: That's easy. Because I have so much to do.

Socrates: And, why do you have so much to do?

Worry Wart: That's easy. Because I am so busy.

Socrates: It seems like we've gone in a big circle. I'm beginning to wonder whether your phone is a device that makes you go in a circle, wandering aimlessly from task to task, worried that you might miss something important. Why don't you try being "un-busy?"

Worry Wart: If it were only that easy.  But you are a person of ancient ways.  The modern world is the way of bustle and hustle.  If I don't stay busy, I am at risk of missing something, or worse, being replaced.

Socrates: By another phone?

Worry Wart: Oh no, by another person with a phone.

Socrates: So is you're real worry that you are replaceable?  Just a cog in a big machine that can easily be switched out for a new version?

Worry Wart: I suppose so.  But I wonder if it's something else, this strange tendency that I haven't noticed before, this constant itching, to always be touching and looking at my phone. I wonder if it's fear.

Socrates: If so, we can find out.  What might you be afraid of?

Worry Wart: Hmm. This is a bit embarrassingly and humbling.

Socrates: The truth often is.

Worry Wart: I might just be afraid of myself, to be alone, to be quiet, to be present with myself. In short, to be real.

Socrates: So what might you do about that?

Worry Wart:  I might just have to switch off this phone, or put it away, or even better yet, remove the emails from my phone so that I am just not so tempted to always be looking at my phone for the latest messages and news.

Socrates: Hmm. Go on, please.

Worry Wart:  Well, that seems like it might just be a concrete start out of this maddening electronic circle that seems to have me roped into tangles.

Socrates: Indeed it does seem so.  But I'm not sure what concrete is, though I've heard of Crete.

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Notes to Reader:

(1) And that's what I just did.  I just removed my work email from my smartphone.  It's not my work phone after all, anyhow.  

(2) I got this idea of a hypothetical conversation with ancient Socrates when I stumbled onto a book at my local bookstore by philosopher Peter Kraft, entitled "The Best Things in Life," which involves the tale of a mythical Socrates visiting a college campus asking people about their lives. (Scott Johns).

 

 

AASE "Good and Necessary Trouble" Diversity Conference Registration Is Now Open!

Are you ready to get in some good and necessary trouble? 

City University of New York School of Law is pleased to host the 2021 AASE Bi-Annual Diversity Conference “Good and Necessary Trouble” from Thursday, October 14 – Friday, October 15, 2021. In consideration of geographic diversity, the conference will be held from approximately 12:00pm - 5:00pm EST each day.

Conference registration is NOW OPEN! Conference fee is $25. Register for the conference here

Sometimes in this space, I focus on new scholarship.  Other times, I focus on the classics.  Classics are the pieces that make up the canon of academic support best practices.  Today is a classics day.  

1.  R. Flanagan, The Kids Aren't Alright: Rethinking the Law Student Skills Deficit, 15 Brigham Young Univ. Educ. & L. J.  (2015).

From the abstract:

This article explores the decline of fundamental thinking skills in pre-law students and the challenges facing law schools admitting underprepared students during a time of constrained budgets and declining enrollment. A growing body of empirical research demonstrates a marked decline in the critical thinking and reasoning skills among college graduates. The causes for the decline are interconnected with other problematic changes on undergraduate campuses: 1) a dramatic decrease in student study time since 1960, examining research which suggests that undergraduate students spent 1/3 less time studying in 2003 than they did in 1961; 2) a consumerist orientation among college students, resulting in a diminished focus on learning; 3) grade inflation at undergraduate campuses, resulting in grade compression and an inability to distinguish between exceptional and ordinary students 4) a decline in undergraduate students choosing to major in liberal arts that provide the foundation for early success in law school. Declines in study time, grade inflation, and changing patterns in student class choice have created an undergraduate learning environment that is less rigorous than undergraduate education fifty years ago.

This article challenges law schools to examine the adequacy of traditional support programs when incoming classes require systemic and sustained academic assistance. Law schools have traditionally helped academically underprepared through academic support programs, however, traditional ASPs are not equipped to provide broad-based and comprehensive assistance to large numbers of law students. Law student underpreparedness is a “wicked problem,” so complex that singular solutions are impossible. Law schools admitting substantial numbers of students with lower-levels of academic preparedness need to ask themselves questions to determine how to best address these challenges. The broader legal community should reflect on these questions because the answers will require all stakeholders to invest in changes to undergraduate education as well as legal training.

E. Bloom (New England), Teaching Law Students to Teach Themselves: Using Lessons from Educational Psychology to Shape Self-Regulated Learners, 59 Wayne L. Rev. 311 (2013).

From the abstract:

Amidst current concerns about the value of a legal education, this article seeks to identify ways in which law schools and law professors can take steps to maximize the learning experience for their students. The article focuses on cutting-edge strategies that will help a diverse population of law students become self-regulated learners. Drawing on the work of educational psychologists, it describes ways to help students adapt to the demands of the law school learning experience and then outlines specific strategies for teaching students to regulate their motivational beliefs, their resource management practices, and their approaches to mastering the material. Throughout, the article emphasizes the importance of these skills for success both as law students and as lawyers. Finally, checklists are provided to help law professors build a culture of self-regulated learning in their schools.

R.A. McKinney (UNC), Reading Like a Lawyer (Carolina Academic Press 2012).

From the publisher:

The ability to read law well is an indispensable skill that can make or break the academic career of any aspiring lawyer. Fortunately, the ability to read law well (quickly and accurately) is a skill that can be acquired through knowledge and practice. First published in 2005, Reading Like a Lawyer has become a staple on many law school reading lists for prospective and admitted students. The second edition includes the same critical reasoning and reading strategies, accompanied by hands-on practice exercises, that made the first edition such a success. It adds a valuable new chapter on a growing challenge for this generation of legal readers: how to read material that is presented on a screen with maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

(Louis Schulze, FIU Law).

Zoom Plus

One of the ways we support our students who are on academic warning or probation is to require them to take a second-year course in Legal Analysis and Methods. The title is vague enough to appear on a transcript without stigma to the student and, as a side benefit, it also gives us a lot of latitude in what we teach in the course. In my section of Methods, I teach study and exam skills as well as a smidge of legal writing, a dash of argumentation, and a bissel[1] of statutory construction/interpretation.  I also conference with students one-on-one towards the beginning of the semester to check in on an ungraded “getting to know you” assignment and to try to understand how they got stuck, I mean were fortunate enough to enroll, in this class.

I had a set “script” for these conferences. At the beginning of each conference, we discussed the ungraded assignment (there is written feedback for everyone as well). I thanked each student for doing a great job in our simulated legislature class last week (seriously, the Massachusetts legislature could learn from them).  Then, I asked about the other classes they are taking to see where there might be stress points.

Finally, I ask about the elephant in the room, “How do you find yourself on Academic Warning/Probation?” I intentionally use the passive voice. If a student says they had some “personal problems,” I do not ask for details, I just ask if the issues are resolved (or resolving), and if our Dean of Students’ office is aware of them just in case they need some higher power intervention. If a student says they had issues on exams, I make a note of the type of exam it was for future classes on exam skills. Now granted, I knew some of the students coming into these conferences because we met regularly last year. Other than now knowing how tall they really are and confirming that they do indeed have legs, I didn’t need to hear how they got here, but I did need to know how they were doing now.

This year, like all years, I take notes of these meetings. As I flipped through the legal pad for these conferences after meeting with my 22 students, I saw one word show up at the end of my notetaking for every single student, “Zoom.” This was the always part of the answer to how they found themselves in academic trouble.

Zoom or remote learning wasn’t the whole problem for most students: it was Zoom plus. Students told me that last year was not academically successful because of Zoom plus: ADD, ADHD, anxiety, dyslexia, having COVID, having a family member with COVID, having a chaotic living situation, having a bad internet connection, and so on. But remote learning was, as one student put it, “at least 30-40% of the issue.” Everyone in the remote learning situation-those of us teaching and the students learning- were all trying our best. The bottom line is that remote learning does not work for everyone. These students were concerned that when they take the bar, they will not have learned enough in their first-year classes to get them into a passing range. They felt that they were building their law school houses on weak foundations. This is a valid concern. Going through two (or three for evening students) more years of law school feeling like you are perpetually trying to overcome a deficit will also take a toll on confidence.

I am not saying that remote learning is universally negative either. I had students last year that thrived in a remote learning environment, as well as students who were very nervous about returning in-person because of the pandemic.  Remote learning allows broader access for students; I think that is the promise of remote learning going forward.  A student can, for example, attend a law school in a place they cannot afford to move to (like Boston) or attend school when health or family issues might otherwise prove an insurmountable barrier. And this is not even close to a complete list of pluses.

Yet, the students who preferred remote learning are just simply not the students I am seeing in academic distress right now. I am not asserting that my 22 student class is a representative sample of all law students but they are mine to teach and I need to know where things fell apart for them before they came to me. The current in-person situation has pluses and minuses as well. Students report that are much happier to be back in-person--but also stuck in a position of navigating the 2L curriculum with a 1L understanding of law school culture. Some of them have spent less time in the building than the 1L students who came to school before classes started for orientation-- a few more cracks in the foundation that will need filling. One student thought that being called an upperclassman was laughable because they felt they had very little to offer the incoming class in terms of wisdom and “the ways” of law school. And yet, they hoped that the expertise they did have was, and would continue to be, obsolete. I hope so too.

As academic support folks, we know there have always been (and will most likely be) students who are in academic distress. Some have had family issues, relationship issues, a failure to understand the time investment etc., but it seems that today’s students have all of these troubles plus Zoom.

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] Bissel means just a little bit in Yiddish, https://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-yiddish-handbook-40-words-you-should-know/

This Year's Explanation?

Another year, another set of results to explain away.  The NCBE released the national MBE mean last week, and the change over the last 2 years is massive.  The NCBE ignored 2020 results, and just compared to 2019.  The "changed test" and "different sample size" is an easy explanation.  The explanation also ignores a nearly 6 point drop from last year's July MBE score.  Excuses abound, but if the test is reliable and easy to scale (or they could have used the same test as 2019) the 6 point drop is inexcusable.  2020 graduates dealt with the immediate impact of a pandemic and social unrest.  My rudimentary understand of the LSAC reports indicates 2020's graduates had worse LSAT scores than 2021 and 2019.  Why the anomaly in scores?

I will humor the NCBE for my next query.  If 2020 is an outlier and we ignore those statistics, the 2019 comparison also doesn't make sense.  2021 results were .7 points lower than 2019.  I may be wrong, but I believe 2021 graduates had much larger numbers of the high scoring LSAT takers in the pool.  They should have been closer to 2020 scores than 2019.  If the LSAT correlates to MBE scores (which both the LSAC and NCBE claim it does), then why did the 2021 national MBE mean drop?  "Less able" test takers is no longer an acceptable answer.

I have a number of theories, and the real answer probably includes numerous factors.  Most of my theories revolve around the fundamental thought that the MBE tests more than the ability to practice law. 

2021 graduates endured longer COVID-19 interruptions.  They may have been tired of zoom and online education, and bar prep is primarily online.  The online fatigue may have led to less work.  

Students may have worked at law firms more last summer.  This thought comes from anecdotal conversations, but some jobs decreased in 2020.  When those jobs came back, students did what they could to keep jobs during uncertain times.  That may have included working at firms more and on bar prep less.  They could also make this choice because working is more fun than bar prep, and they didn't get to work as much in the previous year.  Students may have also been in harder financial times from not working the previous year.  

I could give many reasons, but overall, I believe students did less bar prep work last summer.  However, should the MBE really be a test of commitment over 10 weeks?  Why should students be required to devote that amount of time to a test regarding the jurisdiction of nowhere?  RAP, the rule of sevens, common law burglary, and many other rules provide an obstacle to practice.  The test seems to assess someone's ability to financially and emotionally devote extreme time to a task for 10 weeks.  Is that really what we should assess to become an attorney?  The NCBE's creation of a testing task force implicitly confirms the MBE is a poor instrument, but they continue to administer it.  Shouldn't we stop using a poor instrument even if the alternative isn't ready?  Many questions, but my guess is all we will hear is *crickets*.

(Steven Foster)

 

This Year's Explanation?

Another year, another set of results to explain away.  The NCBE released the national MBE mean last week, and the change over the last 2 years is massive.  The NCBE ignored 2020 results, and just compared to 2019.  The "changed test" and "different sample size" is an easy explanation.  The explanation also ignores a nearly 6 point drop from last year's July MBE score.  Excuses abound, but if the test is reliable and easy to scale (or they could have used the same test as 2019) the 6 point drop is inexcusable.  2020 graduates dealt with the immediate impact of a pandemic and social unrest.  My rudimentary understand of the LSAC reports indicates 2020's graduates had worse LSAT scores than 2021 and 2019.  Why the anomaly in scores?

I will humor the NCBE for my next query.  If 2020 is an outlier and we ignore those statistics, the 2019 comparison also doesn't make sense.  2021 results were .7 points lower than 2019.  I may be wrong, but I believe 2021 graduates had much larger numbers of the high scoring LSAT takers in the pool.  They should have been closer to 2020 scores than 2019.  If the LSAT correlates to MBE scores (which both the LSAC and NCBE claim it does), then why did the 2021 national MBE mean drop?  "Less able" test takers is no longer an acceptable answer.

I have a number of theories, and the real answer probably includes numerous factors.  Most of my theories revolve around the fundamental thought that the MBE tests more than the ability to practice law. 

2021 graduates endured longer COVID-19 interruptions.  They may have been tired of zoom and online education, and bar prep is primarily online.  The online fatigue may have led to less work.  

Students may have worked at law firms more last summer.  This thought comes from anecdotal conversations, but some jobs decreased in 2020.  When those jobs came back, students did what they could to keep jobs during uncertain times.  That may have included working at firms more and on bar prep less.  They could also make this choice because working is more fun than bar prep, and they didn't get to work as much in the previous year.  Students may have also been in harder financial times from not working the previous year.  

I could give many reasons, but overall, I believe students did less bar prep work last summer.  However, should the MBE really be a test of commitment over 10 weeks?  Why should students be required to devote that amount of time to a test regarding the jurisdiction of nowhere?  RAP, the rule of sevens, common law burglary, and many other rules provide an obstacle to practice.  The test seems to assess someone's ability to financially and emotionally devote extreme time to a task for 10 weeks.  Is that really what we should assess to become an attorney?  The NCBE's creation of a testing task force implicitly confirms the MBE is a poor instrument, but they continue to administer it.  Shouldn't we stop using a poor instrument even if the alternative isn't ready?  Many questions, but my guess is all we will hear is *crickets*.

(Steven Foster)

 

Director of Bar Success at Albany Law School

Albany Law School seeks applicants to direct and expand its bar success programs. The Director will administer and assess the existing bar success programs and recommend additions and modifications to the programs The Director will also develop, coordinate, and implement school-wide initiatives to improve bar passage, including workshops, courses, and meetings with students, graduates, the Director of Academic Success, and faculty. The Director will teach two for-credit bar preparation courses and provide feedback on student work product. 

Qualified candidates will have a J.D. with strong law school credentials and admission to the practice of law. The position requires knowledge of legal theory, analysis and writing, and other skills necessary to succeed in law school and on the bar examination.  Preference will be given for experience in academic support and bar preparation programs, administrative and supervisory experience, law teaching experience, counseling and tutoring experience, knowledge of learning theory, understanding of disability and multicultural issues, and ability to build rapport with students having academic challenges.  This is a full-time (12-month) non-tenure track, renewable contract position with the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor of Bar Success.

Application Instructions

To apply, please submit cover letter, curriculum vitae, and the contact information for three references.

Questions about interviewing for these faculty positions should be directed to Kelly Lussier, Executive Assistant to the President and Dean, at [email protected] .

A Primer on Creating Study Tools

Recently, Professor Liz Stillman (Suffolk Law) provided excellent guidance and encouragement on creating study tools. Stillman, L, "Seasons of Law," Law School ASP Blog (Sep. 12, 2021).

If you are wondering what that might look like, take a quick dash over to Suffolk's Law's academic support materials. https://www.suffolk.edu/-/media/suffolk/documents/law/academics/academic-support/acadsupport-creating-an-outline_pdftxt.pdf?la=en&hash=2678C2FDA2AAF306EDC4BF80613AD174A77679B0

In just a flash, you'll be able to get the big picture view along with concrete guidance on how to best create your own study tools in preparation for upcoming midterm exams. (Scott Johns).

Ominous, says a Bar Exam Article

Hat tip to Professor Chris Newman (University of Idaho School of Law):

The NCBE has released information about the median MBE score on this summer's July 2021 bar exam (140.4) and it is down significantly from the July 2020 median MBE score (146.1) and down a bit from the previous national cohort taking the July 2019 bar exam (141.1). Sloan, K, "Ominous early signs emerge for July 2021 bar exam pass rates," Reuters (Sep. 15, 2021).

As a closer look, the NCBE posted a graph depicting the median MBE scores for the past several years:

https://www.ncbex.org/news/national-means-july-mbe-august-mpre/

Because it is likely that so many bar takers either just barely fail or just barely pass bar exams, small differences in scores can result in dramatic differences in pass rates, with Reuters reporting that of the 9 states reporting July 2021 bar exam results, only 1 state had an increase in bar passage.  Reuters.  The article suggests, quoting in part Professor Derek Mueller, that widespread technical difficulties, pandemic fatigue, and perhaps a loss of learning effectiveness with the significant transition to online learning may be contributors.  Reuters.

One fact stands out to me.  Small changes in median MBE scores ought not be indicative of attorney competency issues because, to be repetitive, they are only small differences.  But, because most bar exam cut scores center around the median MBE score (and because most bar exams scale the written scores to the MBE scores), small differences can lead to big impacts.

AALS Section on Academic Support - Call for Award Nominations

It is that time of year again when we want to honor our members! We are seeking nominations for two awards. Please submit nominations by October 25^th, 5pm EST, to [email protected]. The nomination should include a letter that describes why the section member should be honored. You can submit a nomination for one, or both, awards.

Legacy in Leadership Award.  This award is given to a person who is a senior member of our discipline and has made outstanding contributions to the academic support profession throughout their career, including building and evolving the discipline of academic support. 

Trailblazer Award.  This award is given to a person who is inspiring change in the academic support profession today and catapulting us forward to a stronger tomorrow. 

To be eligible for an award, the nominee must have made significant and/or long-term contributions to the development of the field of law student academic support, through any combination of the following activities: 

• service to the profession and to professional institutions—e.g., advocacy with the NCBE or assumption of leadership roles in the academic support community;
• support to and mentoring of academic support colleagues;
• support to and mentoring of students;
• promoting diversity in the profession and expanding access to the legal profession; and
• developing ideas or innovations—whether disseminated through academic writing, newsletters, conference presentations, or over the listserv.

All legal educators, regardless of the nature or longevity of their appointment or position, who have at some point in their careers worked part-time or full-time in academic support are eligible for the award.  Law schools, institutions, or organizations cannot receive an award.  Prior year or current year Section officers are excluded from being selected as an award winner.

It's OK for Some Schools, But Not Yours

Like all mornings, an email from the Chronicle of Higher Education landed in my Inbox today.  One of its articles bore the following picture: 

Immediately, I noticed something troubling:  Unlike the other three quotes (not pictured), the visual specifically named only FIU.  Thus, out of the thousands of schools around the nation that for decades have pursued USNWR rankings, this picture chose to call out and specifically name only a school enrolling a majority of students who are nonwhite.*  In fact, several of the schools discussed in the article are those where a plurality of students are People of Color.  To make matters worse, above their article that implicitly chastises a school serving mostly students who are nonwhite, the authors affixed the heading “Privilege.”

Really digest that for a second:  The heading “Privilege” above the name of the only singled-out school, the majority of whose students are nonwhite.

Apparently, when such schools use the exact same methods as less diverse schools to improve their students’ opportunities, the method is derided as out-of-line.  And, while the article raises important issues about rankings, the choice to address those issues in this way is deeply problematic.

But today's example is just one instance of the biases, insults, and micro-(and not so micro) aggressions many of our students constantly experience:  The insinuations that their successes are somehow artificial; the assumption that they are “less well-prepared for law school” than their peers at other schools (despite their 159/160 LSAT median and 3.69 UGPA median); off-hand comments by academics specifically noting their race; my colleague Raul Ruiz being introduced at a conference as “Paul ROO-izz” and without the “professor” title accorded to other panelists.  And, today, FIU's movement in the rankings is deemed nefarious while majority- or plurality-white schools garner praise for their genius.  

In making these observations, I have to acknowledge my own white-male privilege.  My career path did not include the obstacles facing many of my students, obstacles instantiated by the brazen biases signaled by the headline above.  But I sincerely hope that I am correct in believing that this privilege should not preclude me from loudly objecting to the conditions that impede my students’ success. 

Because in law school academic support, that is precisely what we do.  Let’s do it loudly. 

(Louis Schulze, who proudly teaches at FIU.)

 

*  I purposely omit the term “minority-majority school.”  As detailed abundantly, many note that the term frustrates the goals of equality.

Take Time to Fully Heal

The sun was beating down on us, but that wouldn't stop the intensity.  We weren't keeping an official score, but every possession matters in driveway basketball.  However long the game lasts, you don't let up on defense.  I didn't care that I was playing against an opponent 29 years younger and 19 inches shorter.  My son would not get his shot off.  I was in great defensive posture and moving my feet.  Any little league coach would be proud of my defense.  I was step for step with him when I feel a pop.  I crumple on the asphalt and scream in agony.  I am in some of the most pain I have ever felt.  

My sports experience is similar to events that happen to all of us.  Bar results are coming out, and some people don't pass.  That is excruciating.  Some students aren't allowed to continue with law school.  Academic Support Professionals will work with someone and they don't succeed.  Most students get a bad grade.  That list is the tip of the iceberg.  Many of us have events in our personal life that are painful.  My biggest suggestion is to learn from my mistakes and fully heal from the experience.

After getting help back inside with almost no weight on my ankle, here is what I did:

1. Used WebMD to self-diagnosis a grade 2 sprain instead of going to the doctor
2. Lightly rested it, and then played golf 3 days later
3.  Ice it some but not enough
4. Continue to overuse it, ie - caddying 18 holes (for the son who caused the injury) prior to fully healing

My actions are not what I tell my students or my friends.  I would tell anyone to take the time to fully heal from whatever pains you.  Go to someone for advice.  If it is a bad grade or not passing the bar exam, seek out your Academic Support Professional.  As an ASPer, if you are struggling, seek out colleagues.  We all need help sometimes.  WebMd is a poor substitute for medical advice.  Don't make the same mistakes I did with what you are going through.  Seek help from others and take the time to fully heal before putting full weight onto the next event.

In case you are wondering, he still didn't score.

(Steven Foster)

Seasons of Law

A supermarket I go to occasionally has a little maze of seasonal items right at the entrance. This is a tricky way to entice you to purchase these colorful things at the beginning of your shopping trip when your cart is empty and/or perhaps a way to mollify any small child you have brought with you with something small to play with on the journey. Yesterday, when I arrived, I saw a sea of orange and black: candy as far as the eye could see. There were also some decorative scarecrows and rust colored “hardy mums,” (which I consider a challenge, but more on my lack of gardening skills in another post). In the middle of the maze, I saw a single display of popsicle shaped window clings, Whiffle bats, sunscreen, some mismatched kickboards, and s’mores skewers-all 50-75% off. Summer was on sale-despite the fact that there is at least another week of it on the calendar. I sighed and realized that we had actually already been in school for almost four weeks and the time had come for the seasonal shift from merely briefing cases to…(please read each of those periods as dun, dun, dunnn respectively): OUTLINING.

Now that students have covered at least one full topic in each class, the time has come for them to take those case briefs and carefully written class notes and knit them into a nice cozy outline for December exams or, more urgently, upcoming midterms. This is also a good time to start because it intersects with students learning how we use and talk about cases in their legal writing courses. The magic formula of how we use cases in memos and briefs: FHR (facts, holding, reasoning) is how they can incorporate the components of their case briefs into their outlines. This is really a win-win because they are practicing using the FHR formula for outlining in legal writing and vice versa. 

Now, I know you have probably discussed outlining at least twice already with students. We do it in a pre-orientation module, during orientation itself and have a class on it planned for the coming week. The number of times I say, “your outline should be rules based rather than case based” could be a drinking game at this point (not that I condone drinking while outlining as either effective or efficient).

How can we best communicate the message that it is currently prime outlining season to our students? I thought of the buzzer at the beginning of a swim meet heat, a ribbon cutting or even a giant banner, “START OUTLINING NOW!!!!” Maybe I should stand in front of the law school with a sandwich board that says, “Ask me about outlining-I’m not just an ASP professional, I’m a client!” Maybe we should perform, “Outlining the Musical,” with such tunes as:

“525,600 pages,

525,000 pages more,

525,600 pages

How do you make sense of a course in the law?”

Or even,

“Oh, it is time to start ‘lining,

Time to take a little of the briefs we’re writing,

Time to take time,

Because it’s already fall--exams are in just no time at all….”

(sincere apologies to Rent and Pippin).

Yet, we all know that no matter how or how often we sound the alarm at this point in the semester, we will still be talking with students who are just getting started in November. And while we will silently groan and do an internal face palm, we will advise those students to move as quickly as they can to ideally finish their hastily organized (but nonetheless helpful) outlines when classes end.

I expect that the next time I will need to think about getting students to begin outlining, the supermarket entrance will be aglow in red, pink and white: candy as far as the eye can see -- except for the candy canes in the center on sale.

(Liz Stillman)