Many of the people who run law schools don’t think that dropping the test is a very good idea.
Reuters reports:
ABA pauses move to nix LSAT requirementThe American Bar Association is walking back a controversial plan to allow law schools to go fully test-optional by 2025.The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will reconsider the elimination of a longstanding rule that requires schools to use the Law School Admission Test or other standardized tests when admitting students, chair Joseph West announced on Friday during a council meeting. The council might not ask the ABA’s House of Delegates to approve that change in August as planned, West said—a reversal from the position the council has taken since voting to drop the rule in November.While the council has said that eliminating the testing requirement is the correct way to give law schools flexibility and spur innovation in admissions, “it wants to be sensitive and responsive to the concerns raised by law school deans and other stakeholders,” said William Adams, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education. The pause will give the council time to evaluate those concerns, Williams added.The LSAT rule has been a source of heated debate for years, but the latest push to abolish it began in early 2022. The proposal has divided the legal academy, with opponents and supporters both focused on its impact on law student diversity and consumer protection.LSAT supporters have warned that eliminating the rule would make admissions offices more dependent on subjective measures such as the prestige of an applicant’s college. That could disadvantage minority applicants, they say.Those who want to get rid of the test requirement have argued that the LSAT is a flawed measure and a barrier for minority would-be lawyers because on average they score below white test-takers. A 2019 study found the average score for Black LSAT takers was 142, compared with 153 for white and Asian test-takers.
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