Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law v. American Bar Association (TV1)

Filing 21

NOTICE by American Bar Association re 19 Response in Opposition to Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit ABA's Standards for Approval, # 2 Exhibit ABA's Rules of Procedure for Approval, # 3 Exhibit ABA's internal operating practices, # 4 Exhibit December 20, 2011 letter, # 5 Exhibit December 2, 2011 transcript, # 6 Exhibit October 12, 2011 letter and recommendation, # 7 Exhibit September 29, 2011 transcript, # 8 Exhibit Response to Site Report, # 9 Exhibit Site Report and letter, # 10 Exhibit January 2, 2011 letter, # 11 Exhibit July 8, 2010 letter, # 12 Exhibit April 27, 2009 letter, # 13 Exhibit February 24, 2009 letter, # 14 Exhibit Feasibility study, # 15 Exhibit Cost of Attendance, # 16 Exhibit Nashville School of Law: About the School, # 17 Exhibit Belmont University Accreditation Process, # 18 Exhibit LSAC Volume Summary, # 19 Exhibit 2011-2012 Law School Admission Reference Manual Excerpt, # 20 Exhibit UTK Tuition and Fees, # 21 Exhibit TBLE Basic Requirements, # 22 Exhibit TN Supreme Court Rule 7, # 23 Exhibit SACS-COC- About the Commission, # 24 Exhibit SACS-COC Principles of Accreditation, # 25 Exhibit Excerpt from DSOL self-study, # 26 Exhibit DSOL-A Note on Accreditation, # 27 Exhibit WV Rules for Admission)(Thompson, Jeffrey)

ARMCover2011:Layout 1 8/2/2011 2:46 PM Page 1

A Publication of the Law School Admission Council

2011 –2012 L AW SCHOOL ADMISSION

REFERENCE MANUAL
2011 –2012 L AW SCHOOL ADMISSION REFERENCE MANUAL

Law School Admission Council
662 Penn Street, Newtown PA 18940
P: 215.968.1101

for Law School Administrators and
Prelaw Advisors

LSAC.org

ABA488

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a nonprofit corporation that provides unique, state-of-the-art admission products
and services to ease the admission process for law schools and their applicants worldwide. More than 200 law schools in the
United States, Canada, and Australia are members of the Council and benefit from LSAC’s services.
©2011 by Law School Admission Council, Inc.
LSAT, The Official LSAT PrepTest, The Official LSAT SuperPrep, ItemWise, and LSAC are registered marks of the Law School
Admission Council, Inc. Law School Forums and LSAC Credential Assembly Service are service marks of the Law School
Admission Council, Inc. 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests; 10 More Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests; The Next 10 Actual, Official
LSAT PrepTests; 10 New Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests with Comparative Reading; The New Whole Law School Package;
ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools; Whole Test Prep Packages; The Official LSAT Handbook; LLM
Credential Assembly Service; ACES2; ADMIT-LLM; FlexApp; Candidate Referral Service; DiscoverLaw.org; Law School Admission
Test; and Law School Admission Council are trademarks of the Law School Admission Council, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this work, including information, data, or other portions of the work published in electronic form,
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission of the publisher. For information, write: Communications,
Law School Admission Council, 662 Penn Street, PO Box 40, Newtown PA, 18940-0040.
LSAC fees, policies, and procedures relating to, but not limited to, test registration, test administration, test score reporting,
misconduct and irregularities, Credential Assembly Service (CAS), and other matters may change without notice at any time.
Up-to-date LSAC policies and procedures are available at LSAC.org, or you may contact our candidate service representatives.

ABA489

TABLE OF CONTENTS
n Section 1: Who’s Who at LSAC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
n Section 2: The Law School Admission Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
n Section 3: Recruitment Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Candidate Referral Service (CRS) . . .
Law School Forums . . . . . . . . . . .
Guidelines for the Law School Forums
Recruitment Calendar . . . . . . . . .

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4
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4
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n Section 4: Applicant Evaluation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Law School Admission Test (LSAT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Credential Assembly Service (CAS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
LSAT/Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Fee Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admission Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
n Section 5: Candidate Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Interacting with LSAC . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Publications and Other Tools for Candidates
Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LSAT Preparation Materials . . . . . . . . . .

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30
30
30
31

n Section 6: Data Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Admission Communication & Exchange System (ACES2)
School-Specific Reports Available to Law Schools . . . .
General Reports Available to Law Schools . . . . . . . .
Reports Available to Prelaw Advisors . . . . . . . . . . .

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32
32
36
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n Section 7: Educational Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Publications and Other Tools for Law Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Educational Programs of the Law School Admission Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
n Section 8: Financial Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The Role of Prelaw Advisors and Admission Professionals in the Student
Financial Aid Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
n Appendix A: Cautionary Policies Concerning LSAT Scores and Related Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
n Appendix B: Law School Admission Council Policies on Retention and Confidentiality of Data and

LSAT Fairness Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
n Appendix C: LSAC Statement of Good Admission and Financial Aid Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
n Appendix D: LSAC Rules Governing Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admission Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
n Appendix E: Policies and Procedures Governing Challenges to LSAT Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
n Appendix F: The Role and Responsibilities of Prelaw Advisors

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n Appendix G: Candidate Documents (Samples Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Sample LSAT Candidate Item Response Report (IRR) . . . . . . .
Sample Academic Summary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sample Master Law School Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sample Credential Assembly Service Law School Report . . . . .
Sample Credential Evaluation Report for International Applicants
Sample LSAT Law School Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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n Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66
70
71
73
74
85
88

i

ABA490

applicant data by the law school in its admission process.
The validity studies performed by LSAC for participating
law schools use statistical regression analysis techniques to
relate the grades obtained by first-year law students with the
LSAT scores and undergraduate grade-point averages on file
for these students as candidates. By the nature of these
studies there is a long lag time from the time most candidates
who become law school students earn LSAT scores and provide
undergraduate grades until the validity study results for these
students are available for use in the admission process.
For example, consider the first-year law school class for
the 2008–2009 school year. Most of these students were
applicants, earned their LSAT score, and provided
undergraduate data during the 2007–2008 application year.
A few students had test scores from testing years earlier than
2007–2008. The first-year grades were earned during the
2008–2009 school year and were reported to LSAC early in
the fall of 2009. Following the receipt, entry, and checking of
the first-year grades, the validity analyses were run, with the
results reported later in the fall of 2009. Because this was the
middle of the 2009–2010 application year, the first best
opportunity to use validity study results to adjust the
admission index and be consistent for all candidates in the
application process was in the summer of 2010 for use with
the 2010–2011 application year. Thus, for most candidates,
LSAT scores earned in a given testing year will not be
available for use with an admission index until three
application years later.
By this schedule, validity study results using LSAT scores
earned during the 2009–2010 testing year will be available for
admission index use during the 2012–2013 application year.
Typically, LSAC uses three years of first-year grade data in
the validity study process to smooth out the inevitable
fluctuations that can occur from one year to another.

The LSAT and Guidance of Educationally
Disadvantaged Candidates
The interaction of poverty, segregation, and unequal
educational opportunity has created a group of students
described conventionally as “educationally disadvantaged.”
Equal educational opportunity generally has not been
available to African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans,
Native Americans, and other minority groups. Thus, when
candidates from these racial/ethnic groups take tests such as
the LSAT, questions sometimes arise concerning the
interpretation of their test scores.
Scores on the LSAT, as on other tests of its kind, never
completely represent the potential of any candidate. This is
especially true for minority candidates whose educational
experience, in and out of school, may have differed significantly
from that of the majority of candidates.
It cannot be emphasized too often that uncritical use of
test scores to forecast any individual candidate’s
performance is always inappropriate, but it may be especially
so for those who were disadvantaged in their earlier
educational preparation. It is best to consider as wide a
range of information as possible for the most accurate

Score Distributions for the June 2008 Through
February 2011 Testing Years Combined*
Score

Pct Below

180
179
178
177
176
175
174
173
172
171
170
169
168
167
166
165
164
163
162
161
160
159
158
157
156
155
154
153
152
151
150
149
148
147
146
145
144
143
142
141
140
139
138
137
136
135
134
133
132
131
130
129
128
127
126
125
124
123
122
121
120

99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
99.8%
99.6%
99.4%
99.2%
99.0%
98.6%
98.0%
97.3%
96.6%
95.7%
94.2%
93.1%
91.5%
89.7%
87.6%
85.5%
82.9%
79.9%
77.4%
74.1%
70.4%
66.9%
63.7%
59.8%
55.6%
51.7%
47.7%
44.2%
40.3%
36.3%
33.1%
29.5%
26.3%
23.1%
20.4%
17.9%
15.3%
13.4%
11.5%
9.8%
8.3%
6.9%
5.7%
4.7%
3.8%
3.3%
2.6%
2.0%
1.7%
1.4%
1.1%
0.9%
0.7%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%

*Tests given under nonstandard conditions are not included.

13

ABA491