Tom Bell continues his series on the U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings with a post on the revised student/faculty ratio component in the rankings:
Here, I touch on yet another recent change in USN&WR’s methodology—a change in how it counts law school faculty. In brief, the rankings’ Student/Faculty Ratio (Stu/Fac) indicator now covers not just the fall semester, but the whole of the academic year. I close by describing who won and who lost by dint of that change.
With the Stu/Fac indicator …, USN&WR follows the lead of the American Bar Association. Prior to the fall of 2005, the ABA’s annual statistical probe (ouch!) asked each law school to report the number of faculty teaching only that fall. The ABA then used that figure to calculate each school’s student/faculty ratio. Ditto the USN&WR’s inquiry and its calculation of the Stu/Fac ratio, which counts for 3% of each law school’s score in the rankings.
That all changed last fall. The ABA started asking law schools to report both the number of faculty teaching during the prior spring semester and the number teaching that fall. It then combined those figures to generate a student/faculty ratio reflecting an entire year’s worth of instruction. Ditto, again, the USN&WR questionnaire and Stu/Fac indicator.
Tom concludes with the six biggest winners and the six biggest losers as a result of the change.
Prior posts in Tom’s series:
