The Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) has released its 2009 Annual Survey Results:
The Law School Survey of Student Engagement focuses on activities that affect learning in law school. The results show how law students use their time, what they think about their legal training, and what law schools can do to improve engagement and learning.
The selected results reported in this section are based on responses from 26,641 law students at 82 law schools who completed LSSSE in spring 2009. We also draw upon several sets of experimental questions appended to the survey for a subset of the 2009 respondents. Three themes are featured.
First, we take an in-depth look at the nature of faculty feedback to students inside and outside of the classroom in Another Look at Faculty Feedback. Feedback from instructors plays an important role in student motivation and academic development. While the frequency with which students receive comments about their performance is important, equally valuable is the nature of the feedback. We asked students to report on the type of feedback professors provide and the relationships between feedback and students’ professional development, acquisition of legal skills such as legal reasoning and writing, and understanding of course concepts.
In the next section, Beyond the Classroom, we explore the connections between students’ out-of-class activities and their academic and professional development. We report what motivates different types of students to participate in law school organizations and activities, and what prevents others from taking part. We learn more about how various types of students benefit in different ways from these activities with special focus on co-curricular involvement.
Finally we examine the effects of the recession on students’ professional goals and expectations in Legal Education in a Changing World. We also look at ethical and professional training in law schools to assess the impact of recent events on legal education.
Press and blogosphere coverage:
- ABA Journal, Almost 1/3 of Law Students Expect to Graduate with $120K Debt
- Above the Law, Debt: The Silent Killer
- Chronicle of Higher Education, Law Students Adjust Job Expectations to Accommodate Economic Downturn
- Inside Higher Ed, Economy Appears to Shape Survey of Law Students
- Mirror of Justice, 2009 Law School Survey of Student Engagement
