Academic and Bar Support Scholarship Spotlight

Welcome to the Fall 2024 semester, and a special shoutout to new Blog editor, Professor Goldie Pritchard.  Our community is lucky to have yet another ASP/ bar prep superstar at the helm of the Blog.  And, I would be remiss if I failed to thank Blog Editor Emeritus Steven Foster for all his work furthering the Blog's success.  

This week, the Academic and Bar Support Scholarship spotlight brings you the following:

1.  Franklin, Kris (NYLS) and Christopher, Catherine Martin (Texas Tech), Defining the Discipline: Six Pillars of Academic Success Programming in Law Schools, __ J. Legal Educ. __ (forthcoming, 2024).

From the abstract:

This Article describes six "pillars" of programming that each law school must have in place in order to ensure the academic success of its students and graduates. No one person or program need provide all six, but law schools can use this Article to self-assess their strengths and identify areas where additional resources should be added. Likewise, academic success professors can use this Article to self-assess and design a plan for professional development. The pillars are: expertise in the fundamentals of learning theory and pedagogy, possessing fluency with core law school doctrine, understanding marginalization in order to mitigate, assisting students in crisis, operating effectively within the law school's institutional structures, and promoting professional longevity through development and self-care. While squarely aimed at promoting the academic success of law students, the pillars also implicate issues of employment status and pay equity for ASP professors.

2.  Gutowski, Nachman (UNLV), London, Ashley (Duquesne), Foster, Steven (Oklahoma City) and Israel, Taylor (Thoms Jefferson), Questioning the Inevitability of the NextGen Bar Examination (White Paper, 2024).

From the introduction:

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is actively promoting the NextGen Bar Exam (NextGen) as an inevitable and necessary replacement for the current Uniform Bar Examination (UBE). This new exam has been advertised as a modern solution to legal licensure, with the NCBE publicizing commitments from a growing list of jurisdictions as what can only be described as an inference of evidence to its inevitable nationwide adoption. However, a closer examination reveals a more complex and nuanced picture, raising questions about the true inevitability of NextGen and highlighting the significant remaining hurdles. The article delves into these complexities, challenging the narrative of widespread acceptance and emphasizing the need for a more thoughtful and inclusive approach.  

[Posted by Louis Schulze, FIU Law]