{"id":380,"date":"2011-03-22T17:23:18","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T23:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/?p=380"},"modified":"2011-03-22T17:38:02","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T23:38:02","slug":"aba-revisiting-minimum-bar-passage-standards-for-law-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/2011\/03\/22\/aba-revisiting-minimum-bar-passage-standards-for-law-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"ABA Revisiting Minimum Bar Passage Standards for Law Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot of\u00a0discussion about proposals\u00a0before the Standards Review Committee<\/a> of the ABA Section on Legal Education to\u00a0make use of the LSAT optional, or to change the requirements as to tenure (see, e.g., Masters Forum:\u00a0 Legal Education<\/a>\u00a0over at the Glom).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In The Standards Review Committee’s Comprehensive Review of Accreditation Policy Moves Forward<\/a><\/em> (Syllabus,<\/em>Winter 2011), Dean Donald J. Polden (Santa Clara),\u00a0Chair of the Standards Review Committee, outlines\u00a0the agenda of that committee’s upcoming\u00a0meeting on April 2 & 3, 2011.\u00a0 The last item\u00a0Polden lists is:<\/p>\n

Reconsidering the (relatively new) policy concerning minimum or threshold bar passage rates and addressing the perception that the thresholds established by the policy are too low.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Emphasis added).\u00a0 The committee has now posted a Report of Subcommittee on Bar Passage<\/a>\u00a0that proposes to amend Interpretation 301-6 of Standard 301(a)<\/a>.\u00a0 Standard 301(a) provides:<\/p>\n

A law school shall maintain an educational program that prepares its students for admission to the bar, and effective and responsible participation in the legal profession.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interpretation 301-6 provides that a law school must meet minimum Bar-passage requirements to comply with Standard 301(a).\u00a0 A school can meet the requirements based on either<\/strong><\/p>\n