Legal Software: Chen: Weighted-Average Methodologies for Evaluating Bar Examination Passage Rates

luni, 1 decembrie 2014

Chen: Weighted-Average Methodologies for Evaluating Bar Examination Passage Rates

James Ming Chen of Michigan State University has posted Weighted-Average Methodologies for Evaluating Bar Examination Passage Rates , at SSRN .

Here is part of the abstract:

[…] The American Bar Association and U.S. News and World Report’s law school rankings rely on bar passage rates for the single largest cohort within any school’s graduating class. But the modal passage rate is misleading as a measure of any one school’s overall bar passage rates. The modal passage rate also fails to facilitate direct comparisons of bar examination performance at different schools.

To evaluate the overall bar examination performance of the graduates of any law school, I propose the use of weighted-average methodologies. Ideally, we should be able to measure, by use of weighted averages, each school’s bar passage z-score. Since the data needed to conduct proper standard scoring is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to procure, I propose a simplified weighted-average methodology. The weighted average of school-specific bar passage rates by jurisdiction, minus the weighted average of passage rates from all jurisdictions where its graduates, enables us to evaluate each school’s bar exam performance, relative to the bar passage rate in its modal state, and relative to the weighted average bar passage rate across the entire United States. […]

Professor Chen has also published a post about this paper at MoneyLaw .

HT @chenx064 [here and here]