DISTURBING CORRELATION BETWEEN ABA ACCREDITATION REVIEW AND DECLINING AFRICAN-AMERICAN LAW SCHOOL ENROLLMENT, THE

St. John's Law Review, Summer 2006 by Nussbaumer, John

INTRODUCTION

In issue 80.1 of the St. John's Law Review, I presented two statistical case studies which showed the disparate impact of current American Bar Association ("ABA") accreditation practices on African-American enrollment at law schools that admit students with lower Law School Admission Test ("LSAT") scores.1 Those studies were limited because of the inability, at that time, to identify additional schools under review by the ABA Section of Legal Education Accreditation Committee and Council.

Since then, an approach has been developed using the annual reports published by the ABA Section of Legal Education to identify schools that are under review by the Section's Accreditation Committee and Council. This article presents a more comprehensive analysis of the impact of the ABA's current accreditation practices on schools that admit students with lower LSAT scores. All information was taken from the publicly available data found in the 2004 and 2007 editions of the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools.2

I. THE SCHOOLS

Twenty schools that had 25th percentile LSAT scores of 1513 or less as of Fall 2002 were inspected during the 2002-03, 2003-04, and 2004-05 academic years by teams appointed by the Consultant's Office of the ABA Section of Legal Education on behalf of the ABA Accreditation Committee or Council.4 Those twenty schools are profiled in Table 1 of the Appendix.

Geographically, these twenty schools are located in thirteen different jurisdictions-California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Texas, and Virginia-representing almost all sections of the country.5

In terms of size, five of these schools have enrollments in the 0-500 student range, ten have enrollments in the 501-1,000 student range, and five have enrollments in the 1,001 range.6

The two factors shared by all twenty of these schools are that they began the study period with 25th percentile LSAT scores at or below the approximate national median and that they were subject to review by the ABA Accreditation Committee and Council during the period studied.7

II. THE STUDY

For each school, Table 1 profiles the school's 25th percentile LSAT score at the beginning of the three-year study period in Fall 2002, the number and percentage of African-American students enrolled at the school in Fall 2002, the school's 25th percentile LSAT score at the end of the study period in Fall 2005, the number and percentage of African-American students enrolled at the school in Fall 2005, and the net change in the number of African-American students over this three-year period. In addition, totals for all twenty schools were calculated to show the overall figures for the entire group of twenty schools.

III. THE RESULTS

The results are striking and disturbing to any objective observer and confirm the thesis presented in the previous St. John's study-that being subject to review by the ABA Accreditation Committee and Council is hazardous to AfricanAmerican law school enrollment.8 Table 1 shows that:

* One hundred percent of the schools studied (20/20) raised their 25th percentile LSAT scores during the period they were under review by the Accreditation Committee and Council.

* The average increase in the 25th percentile LSAT scores for these twenty schools was 3.30 points during the period they were under review.

* Ninety-five percent of the schools studied (19/20) suffered a decline in the percentage of African-American students enrolled during the period they were under review.

* Sixty-five percent of the schools (13/20) also suffered a decline in the number of African-American students enrolled during the period they were under review.

* The average decline suffered by these schools in the number of African-American students enrolled was 34% during the period they were under review.

* During the three-year period studied, total enrollment at these twenty schools increased by 24%, from 14,255 students to 17,638 students.

* Nationwide, during the same three-year period, African-American applicants to law school increased by 3% from 9,700 in Fall 2002 to 10,010 in Fall 2005.9

* But, during the same three-year period, African-American enrollment at the twenty schools under review decreased by 8%, from 1,824 students to 1,680 students.

The harm to African-American enrollment occurred despite the United States Supreme Court's landmark decision in Grutter v. Bollinger,10 which permits the consideration of diversity in law school admissions decisions.11 It also occurred despite the fact that none of the twenty schools studied are public institutions subject to any state law restrictions, such as California Proposition 209,12 that prohibit the consideration of race in university admissions. In other words, all twenty of these schools were free to consider diversity in their admissions process to the full extent permitted by law, but many of them still suffered significant declines in African-American enrollment.