Legal education scholars have argued that law schools strategically use Students of Color for enrollment management purposes; they can admit more to meet admission targets, but they should not enroll so many that they need to open new course sections. As law school applications decline, we analyze enrollment panel data reported to the American Bar…

The article focuses on practical experiment on perception of argumentative nature of court opinions by non-native speakers. Several argumentative frames most frequently used in the texts of court opinions are identified and described in the article. The article also aims at analyzing the distribution characteristics of the identified frames. Text…

Competition has intensified substantially within the American law school sector in recent decades. Scholars note that this has augmented pressures to engage in institutional self-promotion, as law schools attempt to distinguish themselves within a severely over-crowded marketplace. To date, however, few have ventured to empirically examine the…

This study reviewed the literature to investigate the impact of student loans on career choices, in order to provide implications for policy makers and researchers with respect to student loan policy. For this purpose, empirical studies in peer reviewed journals since 1985 were analyzed. This review explored the results of empirical studies…

A key argument for affirmative action is that college students benefit from engagement in a racially diverse student body. Because many students have few meaningful experiences with diversity prior to college, exposure to divergent viewpoints and perspectives is an essential part of spurring student growth and development. Engagement with…

The discussion here covers five articles that are linked in the sense that they all treat population invariance. This discussion of population invariance is a somewhat broader treatment of the subject than simply a discussion of these five articles. In particular, occasional reference is made to publications other than those in this issue. The…

In test assembly, a fundamental difference exists between algorithms that select a test sequentially or simultaneously. Sequential assembly allows us to optimize an objective function at the examinee's ability estimate, such as the test information function in computerized adaptive testing. But it leads to the non-trivial problem of how to realize…

This article discusses the five studies included in this issue. Each article addressed the same topic, population invariance of equating. They all used data from major standardized testing programs, and they all used essentially the same statistics to evaluate their results, namely, the root mean square difference and root expected mean square…

Steeped in the values of the civil rights movement, James Forman Jr. has charted a path into academia that has demonstrated both a keen commitment to social justice as well as impressive legal and academic achievements. Among his most notable accomplishments prior to his Georgetown appointment in 2003, Forman co-founded the nationally acclaimed…

This paper presents descriptive results of a pioneering and exploratory study of mentoring among law faculty at American Bar Association (ABA) approved law schools. The findings are discussed and reconciled using a focused review of the mentoring literature addressing gender and race. The paper concludes with suggestions for promoting equitable…

This paper provides a brief overview of some of the research that has examined the relationship between item response theory (IRT) and nonlinear factor analysis (NFA), and outlines three NLFA models, emphasizing their major strengths and weaknesses for practical applications. The focus is on: (1) R. McDonald's polynomial approximation of a normal…

The unobtrusive recording of item response times is one of the many advantages offered by computerized test administration. This report is a broad review of psychometric literature on response times. The review is not exhaustive, but does provide a sample of work that has been done. The review is organized into seven sections: (1) scoring models;…

Examines some of the key issues pertinent to the life career development of female students in law schools. Explore gender-related psychosocial aspects, such as the differences between the career patterns of men and women. Several specific career counseling implications and strategies, aimed at addressing the unique needs of women studying in a…

Maintains that the teaching of law should not be relegated to professional law schools alone. Contends that the liberal arts and the humanities have much to offer prospective lawyers. Argues that political philosophy helps provide lawyers with a broader understanding of society and the role of law. (CFR)

In the context of examining the feasibility and advisability of computerizing the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), a review of current literature was conducted with the following goals: (1) determining the skills that are most important in good legal reasoning according to the literature; (2) determining the extent to which existing LSAT item…