Bloggers Debate the Law School Rankings

Since I wrote the blog post Changing the Law School Ranking Formula in late June, there has been a wide variety of views—pro and con—expressed on the subject. Listed below is a very small sampling of those opinions. It's a debate worth continuing.

The widely read TaxProf blog, edited by Paul Caron, associate dean of faculty at the University of Cincinnati law school, regularly covers the U.S. News law rankings. One of his latest posts is U.S. News Considers Two Changes to Law School Rankings Methodology.

Jason Solomon, a legal professor at the University of Georgia, has written numerous articles on the law rankings on Prawfs Blawg. His most recent take is Stanford, Harvard, Yale: A Sample Voters' Guide for This Fall's U.S. News Survey.

William Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University, chimes in with How has the Part-Time "Loophole" Affected Part- and Full-Time Enrollment? The Data.

Daniel J. Solove, a law school professor at George Washington University, writes the Concurring Opinions blog. His article is Should the US News Ranking Include Part-Time and Evening Law Students?

The Legal Research Plus blog, done by a team of advanced legal research instructors at Stanford Law School, weighs in on the deeper meaning of our law rankings. They recently wrote Of Rankings and Regulation: Are the U.S.News & World Report Rankings Really a Subversive Force in Legal Education?

The Shark, a blog written by students at many California law schools, has covered this issue extensively. One of their posts is How does the inclusion of part-timer data sway rankings, and what should we do about it?

The widely followed legal blog Above the Law offers U.S. News Mulls Over Methodological Modifications.

The online version of the ABA Journal has weighed in with Should LSATs for Evening Students Count in Rankings? It quotes former George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg's blog post for the Chronicle of Higher Education, in which Trachtenberg argues that U.S. News should not include part-time admission data in our familiar law school rankings but that we should consider doing a separate ranking of part-time law school programs.