Tom Bell continues his series on the U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings with a post on The ABA and USN&WR’s Law School Rankings:
I’ve alluded at various points, in my on-going series of posts about the U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings, to the indirect influence played by the American Bar Association. To recap, the questionnaire that USN&WR sends to law schools largely asks them to report the same data that they reported to the ABA. To fully understand the USN&WR rankings, then, you have to look into the ABA’s data collection process. This post offers an introduction to the topic—and some constructive criticism of the ABA….
Imagine if the ABA were to adopt an open source approach to the data it collects from law schools, making it publicly available on the ABA website. We all might then cast helpful eyes on the data, double-checking it for accuracy and completeness. The ABA would thereby better serve both its member law schools and its ultimate constituency, the public. Granted, making the Annual Questionnaire data free available would make it hard for the ABA to keep demanding that each law school pay $1430 to receive the take-offs. But it would also save the ABA money by precluding the need to mail voluminous reports (and corrected versions thereof!) to nearly 200 law schools. Lastly, but by no means least importantly, by adopting an open source approach to law school data, the ABA would make it easier for all of us to double-check the USN&WR rankings.
Prior posts in Tom’s series:
- Bell on the U.S. News Law School Rankings: Why Model the Rankings?
- Bell on the U.S. News Law School Rankings: Reverse Engineering the Rankings
- Bell on the U.S. News Law School Rankings: Winners & Losers in Use of Reported Median LSATs & GPAs
- Bell on the U.S. News Law School Rankings: Student Quality
