Law School Academic Support Blog

Welcome Marsha Griggs as a Contributing Editor to the Blog

Please welcome Marsha Griggs as a Contributing Editor for the Law School Academic Support Blog.  Marsha will help start your week off by posting on Mondays.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Marsha at various ASP workshops, here is some information about her.

Marsha Griggs is currently the Associate Professor of Law and Director of Academic Support and Bar Passage at Washburn School of Law.  She joined Washburn Law in 2017.  Previously, she was the Assistant Dean for Academic Support and Bar Readiness at Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law.  She worked in the area of standardized test and bar examination preparation for more than twenty years.  Before joining Thurgood Marshall, she served on the faculty at Collin College and chaired the Business Administration and Paralegal Studies departments.  Prior to that she practiced civil and commercial litigation. Marsha is a graduate of Northwestern University, received a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Texas, and earned her J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.  She is admitted to practice in Colorado and Texas.

Marsha was inducted into the Texas Jury Verdicts Hall of Fame in 2014 and was selected as a 2016-2017 Administrator of the year by the Thurgood Marshall Student Bar Association. She is an avid college football fan and fosters rescue dogs.  She is a mom to two teenagers and a sweet Pomeranian named Snickers.  She wants to live long enough to see Notre Dame win another national championship title in football.

I look forward to reading Marsha's insights each week.

(Steven Foster)

 

 

Farewell to an Inspiration

Saying goodbye is always difficult.  It becomes especially difficult when the person made an impact on so many people.  Amy Jarmon made that impact, and unfortunately, we say goodbye after her post last Monday and retirement.

If you attended the AASE awards ceremony, you saw the reaction from everyone when Amy was awarded the AASE Inspiration award.  Jamie could barely get words out announcing the award.  The standing ovation that followed was well deserved.  Amy inspired a generation of ASPers with both her insight and her ability to find other unique voices for the blog.  Many people read the blog each day because of how Amy expanded it over the years.  Her impact on our community is immeasurable.

True to form, Amy finished her tenure being recognized by the Texas Bar Today with a top 10 award.  Right after she transitioned to being a contributing editor, she wrote a top 10 post.  Her insight continued to garner awards to the end.

In her last post, Amy said she loved the camaraderie in our community.  She was a huge part of that culture with the help she provided to many of us.  I am sure we will continue in those footsteps.  Congrats to a great career and goodbye to an inspiration to us all.

(Steven Foster)

Strength in Numbers

Today is the first day of the 7th Annual Association of Academic Support Educators [AASE] National Conference.  This year well over 200 law school academic support educators are gathering in Seattle, Washington, to share what we have learned about how to help our students succeed in law school and on the bar examination.  For me, it is an enlightening pleasure every year to swap stories and strategies with my brilliant colleagues.

Today's lead-off plenary session, presented by Michael Barry and Zoe Niesel of St. Mary's University School of Law and Isabel F. Peres of Seattle University School of Law, discussed the use of robust data analysis to create predictive models to help identify and calibrate the guidance provided to specific students in preparation for the bar exam.  Several other sessions on the agenda this week address the need to use specific, articulable information throughout the process of providing academic support: from laying out detailed strategic plans to assessing student development to predicting bar passage rates.  Certainly, like any mature field of study in which reliable and reproducible outcomes are valued, academic success recognizes the importance of definition, measurement, recording, and scrutiny.

Part of me feels there is an irony in this, in that the AASE Conference is also an opportunity to work with and learn from some of the most accomplished veterans in the field, people whose spontaneous intuition often appears to be more perceptive and accurate than a detailed mathematical data analysis.  Not only that, there is also a pervasive insistence throughout the Conference on recognizing the ineluctable humanity of each student -- of seeing every one not just as a set of numbers, but as an unpredictable human with immeasurable potential.  The numbers might tell us that student X has a 64% chance of passing the bar, but we might nevertheless work with X as if we sense he really has a 90% chance -- and in doing so, might even help X move from 64% to 90%.

The reality, of course, is that there is no contradiction.  Experienced and gifted professionals are observant; they work with data they may not even be consciously aware of when they assess a student's strengths and weaknesses.  In that context, rigorous scientific analysis can be just as much about confirming the deep knowledge of the veteran as about uncovering previously unsuspected truths.  It can also be about articulating facts and relationships observed by others through long experience in ways that make those facts and truths easier to explain to those new to the field.

Thus, our annual conferences are a double celebration of strength in numbers, recognizing not only the value of sharing the wisdom and lore of our most experienced professionals in a group setting, but also the importance of capturing and confirming this wisdom through data that can back up our intuition, guide our choices, and persuade skeptical students and colleagues.

[Bill MacDonald]

Strength in Numbers

Today is the first day of the 7th Annual Association of Academic Support Educators [AASE] National Conference.  This year well over 200 law school academic support educators are gathering in Seattle, Washington, to share what we have learned about how to help our students succeed in law school and on the bar examination.  For me, it is an enlightening pleasure every year to swap stories and strategies with my brilliant colleagues.

Today's lead-off plenary session, presented by Michael Barry and Zoe Niesel of St. Mary's University School of Law and Isabel F. Peres of Seattle University School of Law, discussed the use of robust data analysis to create predictive models to help identify and calibrate the guidance provided to specific students in preparation for the bar exam.  Several other sessions on the agenda this week address the need to use specific, articulable information throughout the process of providing academic support: from laying out detailed strategic plans to assessing student development to predicting bar passage rates.  Certainly, like any mature field of study in which reliable and reproducible outcomes are valued, academic success recognizes the importance of definition, measurement, recording, and scrutiny.

Part of me feels there is an irony in this, in that the AASE Conference is also an opportunity to work with and learn from some of the most accomplished veterans in the field, people whose spontaneous intuition often appears to be more perceptive and accurate than a detailed mathematical data analysis.  Not only that, there is also a pervasive insistence throughout the Conference on recognizing the ineluctable humanity of each student -- of seeing every one not just as a set of numbers, but as an unpredictable human with immeasurable potential.  The numbers might tell us that student X has a 64% chance of passing the bar, but we might nevertheless work with X as if we sense he really has a 90% chance -- and in doing so, might even help X move from 64% to 90%.

The reality, of course, is that there is no contradiction.  Experienced and gifted professionals are observant; they work with data they may not even be consciously aware of when they assess a student's strengths and weaknesses.  In that context, rigorous scientific analysis can be just as much about confirming the deep knowledge of the veteran as about uncovering previously unsuspected truths.  It can also be about articulating facts and relationships observed by others through long experience in ways that make those facts and truths easier to explain to those new to the field.

Thus, our annual conferences are a double celebration of strength in numbers, recognizing not only the value of sharing the wisdom and lore of our most experienced professionals in a group setting, but also the importance of capturing and confirming this wisdom through data that can back up our intuition, guide our choices, and persuade skeptical students and colleagues.

[Bill MacDonald]

Congratulations to Amy Jarmon for a Top 10 Blog Post this Week!

 

Congratulations to Amy Jarmon, contributing editor, for her Top 10 Blog Post recognition by the Texas Bar Today.  If you missed her April 29th post, you can find it here:  Practicing the Art of Rebuttal.

Great job Amy.

Following a Legend

Legends make a lasting impact on their profession and community.  Michael Jordan, John Elway, Bill Walsh, Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, and many others changed the culture or view of their sports organization.  Legends also cast a long shadow.  Tom Osborne and Barry Switzer were arguably the best college football coaches at Nebraska and Oklahoma respectively.  Nebraska has not been the same since Osborne left in 1998, and Oklahoma fell into obscurity from 1989 to 1999.  On the other hand, George Seifert followed the great Bill Walsh as San Francisco 49ers’ head coach with 2 more Super Bowl victories for San Francisco.  Following a legend can be daunting.

I am definitely following a legend on the ASP blog.  Amy made a huge impact on students’ lives and the ASP community throughout her tenure, but if someone didn’t already know that, the ASP listserv responses illuminated the impact she had on all of us when she humbly announced her retirement.  I can remember reading the blog regularly when I started in ASP with little experience.  I appreciated all of her insight.  Her posts, and other contributing editors, helped guide programs I created and produced questions I needed to answer.  Students at OCU, and many other law schools, succeeded because of her.

I will always owe a huge debt to Amy.  Her expansion to have contributing editors posting on each day not only disseminated new ideas on a more regular basis, it provided me the special opportunity to distribute my thoughts to others.  I have thoroughly enjoyed posting my ideas and receiving feedback from the community. 

I appreciated the opportunity Amy provided me.  It was that opportunity that led me to this point.  I hope I can follow her great leadership and continue to help others develop new ways to reach students to maximize their chances of success in law school and on the bar exam.  My goal will be to continue her great work so I am analogized with George Seifert and not Frank Solich or Gary Gibbs.

(Steven Foster)

Welcome to Our New Editor for the Blog

Please welcome Steven Foster, Director of Academic Achievement and Instructor of Law (Oklahoma City University School of Law) as the new Editor for the Law School Academic Support Blog. Steven has been a Contributing Editor for the Law School Academic Support Blog since January 2018. You have enjoyed reading his insights in Monday posts. Steven will now take over my Friday through Sunday slots. I will become a Contributing Editor and post on Mondays until my retirement at the end of May. 

Many of you know Steven through his AASE and SWCASP involvement. In case you have not met him, his law school's website provides a faculty profile for Steven:

"Professor Foster specializes in preparing students to take the bar exam. He also manages the Academic Achievement department, providing programs to improve success in the classroom, on the bar exam, and in each students’ profession.

Prior to joining the law school, he was an associate at Fenton, Fenton, Smith, Reneau, and Moon where he practiced insurance defense. Professor Foster graduated summa cum laude from Oklahoma City University School of Law where he received numerous awards, including the School of Law’s Outstanding Graduate Award for Most Likely to Succeed."

(Amy Jarmon)

Congratulations to Scott Johns on Another Top 10 Badge

Congratulations to Scott Johns for being awarded another Top 10 Badge by Texas Bar Today for Thursday's post recommending Big Picture Perspectives for going into this final weekend of bar prep. Way to go!

Congratulations to Scott Johns on a Top 10 Badge

Kudos to Scott Johns, a Contributing Editor, for being recognized by Texas Bar Today as one of its top 10 blog posts. If you missed his post on February 7th , you can find it here: Bar Success Tips for the Final Two Weeks.

Guest Blogger Post 3 - Louis Schulze: "Don't Even THINK About Using Supplements" Part One

Ever found yourself giving this advice to students?  Do you have colleagues who do so?  In this series of posts, I hope to push back against this practice … sort of.  There are five reasons why giving this advice is generally unwise.  Here goes….

1. Missed opportunity. We all know that students will use supplements regardless of our advice.  I am a realist, and so I doubt that each of my 60 students will blindly and universally heed every word I say.  (Dear students reading this:  You should blindly and universally heed every word I say.) 

As a result, if my only input on this issue is a blanket policy lacking any nuance, I’ve lost my ability to guide students towards the good stuff (which I call “hornbooks”) and away from the schlocky stuff (which I call “supplements”).  (I make this nomenclature distinction because I want to capture the positive connotation of the former, and the negative connotation of the latter.  This allows me to focus students on professor-authored resources written with the primary purpose of supporting students, and non-professor-authored resources written for the primary purpose of revenue).    

Moreover, if some of my students’ other professors do recommend certain sources, I have just undercut my colleagues and probably undermined my credibility.  I would rather influence my students and support my colleagues than posit myself as the all-knowing sage. 

2. Mitigating the advantage legal education grants to students from privileged backgrounds. Imagine a student whose mother, father, aunt, uncle, or cousins attended law school.  No doubt these family members will spend hours at a family barbeque in July inflicting imparting their advice upon the anxious pre-1L, especially if they attended the same law school.  This student now knows that her Criminal Law professor closely follows “Understanding Criminal Law.” The student then positively kills it (pun intended) when cold-called on Queen v. Dudley & Stephens, and she gains points for doing so.

Now imagine the student who is first in his family to attend college, let alone law school.  Not surrounded by those “in-the-know,” this student goes through law school not knowing some of the crucial hints that might support his success.  He struggles through State v. Wilson and loses points.  He does less well in the course not because he lacked aptitude or diligence but because he did not enjoy the privileged background that provided others with pre-knowledge.

If the professor admonished the students not to use supplements, she can share the blame for this troublesome reproduction of socio-economic hierarchy.  Not only did her blanket rule likely intimidate the second student more than the first, but her failure to guide her students towards quality materials exacerbated the imbalanced playing field that already existed.  

In my next post, I’ll continue to lay out the arguments against the blanket policy of “Don’t Even THINK of Using Supplements.”

Congratulations to Steven Foster for a Top Ten Award

Congratulations to our Contributing Editor, Steven Foster, for being awarded a Top Ten Badge from Texas Bar Today for his Monday, October 29th post, Time for Hot Chocolate and Completed Outlines. If you missed reading his post, the link is here.

Welcome Guest Blogger: Louis Schulze

Louis Schulze will be joining the Blog as a regular guest blogger over the coming months. We are excited that he will be joining us in this capacity. If you have not previously had the pleasure of meeting Louise at AASE, AALS, or other conferences, here is some information about him:

Louis Schulze is Assistant Dean and Professor of Academic Support at Florida International University College of Law.  He and his colleague Prof. Raul Ruiz run the law school's Academic Excellence Program, in which Louis teaches academic support and Raul directs the bar preparation program. FIU Law's students have placed first in bar passage rate in five of the last six Florida bar exams.  Dean Schulze teaches Introduction to the Study of Law, Legal Reasoning, and Legal Analysis.  His scholarly work focuses on the potential impact of educational psychology and cognitive science on legal education.  A few of his articles can be found HERE and HERE.  

Dean Schulze has lectured to students and presented scholarly works at law schools across the country, including Columbia Law School and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.  He has served on the executive committees of the AALS Section on Academic Support, the Association of Academic Support Educators, and the AALS Section on Empirical Studies of Legal Education and the Legal Profession.  He is happy to talk to anyone who will listen about the Boston Bruins, New England Patriots, and Boston Red Sox.

(Amy Jarmon)

Congratulations to Bill MacDonald for a Top 10 Badge

Congratulations to Bill MacDonald for the award of a Top 10 Blog Posts badge by Texas Bar Today for his October 9th post. The link is here if you missed his post: Threats and Challenges in the Brain.  (Amy Jarmon)

Welcome Bill MacDonald as a Contributing Editor to the Blog

Please welcome William MacDonald as one of the new Contributing Editors for the Law School Academic Support Blog. I am sure you have enjoyed reading his posts for the past few weeks.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Bill at various ASP and bar prep workshops or conferences, here is some information about his background and interests:

Bill is the Director of Academic Success at SUNY University at Buffalo, a position that encompasses both academic support and bar preparation.  He teaches a course for the entire 1L class that introduces students to academic and professional skills, and a course for about half of the 3L class that introduces them to the Bar examination and prepares them for the rigors of an intensive summer bar preparation course. 

Prior to arriving at SUNY-Buffalo, Bill served for four years as the Director of Academic Support at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California. He had earlier worked as Assistant Director of Graduate Career and Professional Development at his alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center.

Before his career move to academia, Bill practiced in taxation in Washington, DC for six years. He then returned to school to obtain his LL.M. in Estate Planning from University of Miami School of Law.  He transitioned into estate planning practice in Naples, FL before heading to McLean, VA to continue his practice. 

Bill is a native of Massachusetts. In addition to his years in the DC area, Florida, and southern California, he lived and taught in Japan for a few years. He is glad to be in Buffalo which he describes as a land with proper seasons and snowfall.

Bill wrote a blog on career growth and fulfillment for several years with his writing partner. The two bloggers discontinued their blog to work together on a novel examining the same issues – a lightly satirical story of a robot named Tendo who is tired of feeling like a robot, and her adventures as she moves from one profession to another to try to find her fit.  The novel is now complete, and Bill and his co-author are looking for an agent and a publisher. We wish them the best of success in these endeavors!

Bill tells us that he is blessed to have a brilliant wife, Deborah Pratt, who is a wizard in organization development and professional training, and two bright, kind, and creative children.  And you may be fascinated to learn that Bill was a finalist in the 2006 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions as well as an early contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – in fact, he still holds the record as the only person ever to have won at least $125,000 on both shows.

We look forward to Bill's insights in his future posts! (Amy Jarmon)

Congratulations to Scott Johns on a Top 10 Badge

Congratulations to Scott Johns, one of the Contributing Editors, for being recognized by Texas Bar Today for his blog post on Thursday, September 27th. In case you missed reading his winning blog post, you can find it at this link: The Window of Knowledge vs. the Window of Experience

Welcome Nancy Luebbert as a Contributing Editor

 

Please welcome Nancy Luebbert as one of the new Contributing Editors for the Law School Academic Support Blog. I am sure you have noticed her insightful blog posts for the past few weeks. If you missed her two Top 10 Award posts, you can find the links in this post: here.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Nancy at AASE or other gatherings, here is some information about her background and interests:

Nancy Luebbert joined the University of Idaho College of Law as Director of Academic Success in 2001.  She teaches the first year Academic Skills Lab I and since 2015 has co-taught the Applied Legal Reasoning bar preparation course.  She helped develop the College’s advising structure and is the primary advisor to all students at Idaho Law’s Moscow location.  In 2018, she received the AASE Excellence Award in recognition of her tireless service on behalf of students.  She is a member of several professional organizations including the Association of Academic Support Educators, National Academic Advising Association, Idaho Legal History Society, Idaho Women Lawyers, Raymond C. McNichols Inn of Court, Organization of American Historians, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Before turning to academic success work, Luebbert practiced appellate criminal defense under contract to the Idaho State Appellate Public Defender and also helped research and edit materials for a bench book for Idaho judges.  She clerked for the Honorable Wayne L. Kidwell of the Idaho Supreme Court.  Luebbert graduated magna cum laude from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1998; her proudest law school achievement was being part of an Appellate Clinic team that successfully argued a pretrial detainee’s Section 1983 case before the Ninth Circuit. 

Luebbert had two prior careers before turning to law -- public history (museums and local history) and wildland firefighting, including seven years as a Suppression Specialist with the Alaska Fire Service.  She graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1978.  She enjoys reading, beading, huckleberry picking, practicing sound forest management, and trying to out-stubborn her Chesapeake Bay Retriever. 

We look forward to Nancy's future posts on the Blog! (Amy Jarmon)

Congratulations to Nancy Luebbert

Congratulations to Nancy Luebbert, one of our Contributing Editors, for garnering two Top Ten Blog Posts from Texas Bar Today. If you missed her two posts that received this recognition, you can find them at the following links. Her August 29th post on Overcoming Shyness in the Law School Setting is here. Her September 5th post titled A Tribute to the Tale is here.

Thank You to Kirsha Trychta

Many thanks to Kirsha Trychta for her dedication the last year as a Contributing Editor for the Law School Academic Support Blog! Kirsha's posts have been thoughtful and insightful. She will be missed as a Contributing Editor. Hopefully she will guest blog for us at times so that we may continue to benefit from her wisdom and experience. (Amy Jarmon)

Thank You to Goldie Pritchard

Many thanks to Goldie Pritchard for her dedication the last two years as a Contributing Editor for the Law School Academic Support Blog! Goldie's posts have been thoughtful and insightful. She will be missed as a Contributing Editor. Hopefully she will guest blog for us at times so that we may continue to benefit from her wisdom and experience. (Amy Jarmon)

New Top Ten Blog Posts Award

Congratulations to Kirsha Trychta for receiving another Top Ten Blog Posts badge from Texas Bar Today for her Big Brother, Bar Exam Edition post on July 17th! In case you missed her post, you can read it here: Big Brother, Bar Exam Edition.