Aspiring law students could skip standardized admissions testing under new ABA variance
A work-around to the mandatory use of standardized testing for admissions to law school was approved as the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted allow law schools to accept students who do not take the Law School Admission Test or another standardized exam. (Image from Shutterstock)
A work-around to the mandatory use of standardized testing for admissions to law school was approved as the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted allow law schools to accept students who do not take the Law School Admission Test or another standardized exam.
At its quarterly meeting, which took place in Seattle on Nov. 8, the council approved a variance permitting law schools to accept applicants who did not take a “valid and reliable admissions test,” as now required by Standard 503. Once the schools receive the variance, they can admit up to 100% of its students without an admissions score. The variance is good for three to five years.
The council’s move comes 18 months after the ABA House of Delegates voted down a proposed revision that removed the entrance requirement. In 2018, a similar measure that cut standardized testing all together was brought to the House of Delegates by the section, but then withdrawn.
Under ABA rules, proposed revisions to the accreditation standards and rules are sent to the House for concurrence up to two times, but the council has the final decision on matters related to law school education.
Instead, the variance has been installed, which does not require the House’s approval.
Those schools using the new variance must provide data on student success. That information could verify if schools see a change in the demographics of the incoming class, how those students perform academically, and how their attrition rates and first-time bar time passage rates compare to students who do take standardized tests, said Beto Juarez, chair of the working group spearheading the effort, at the Friday meeting.
Other professional educational programs, including medicine, are not required by an accreditor to demand applicants take an admissions test, but may take a standardized test score into consideration.
“Legal education is unique among all of the professional education schools in having such a requirement,” Juarez added.
Research has shown that white test-takers consistently score higher on the LSAT than minority test-takers.
Over the past several years, alternative pathways to law school entrance have been considered, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling banning race-conscious admissions adding additional emphasis.
In 2021, the council approved the Graduate Record Examination as a valid and reliable predictor of law school success.
Also, to date, there are 60 law schools with variances to accept the JD-Next exam, a prelaw school exam administered after a series of online courses that teach the basis of contract law, as well as case reading and analysis skills. It aims to even the playing field among test-takers. But in January, a report by an ABA consultant concluded the JD-Next should be used only as a secondary supplement to more established measurements of potential law student success, such as undergraduate grades or more established testing scores.
