America’s law schools “would be given a green light to end admission test requirements,” reports the Washington Post, “under a recommendation from a key committee of the American Bar Association that is scheduled for review in a public meeting this month.”
The proposal still faces layers of scrutiny within the ABA and would not take effect until next year at the earliest. If approved, it could challenge the long-dominant role of the Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, in the pathway to legal education.
Some context from The Week US:
Like the SAT in undergraduate admissions, the LSAT has been accused of racial bias and promoting a destructive obsession with rankings. Critics also argue that the LSAT, which was designed to predict academic performance, has little connection to professional accomplishment….
The incentives for law schools to dump the LSAT aren’t only political, though…. [L]aw schools face declining applications after a pandemic-driven spike