AccessLex Institute–LSSSE initiative

Explore the connections between student engagement and bar performance

This collaborative initiative between AccessLex Institute and LSSSE was created with the fundamental goal of providing tangible information that law schools can use to help increase bar passage.What works for your students? What doesn’t? Where  can resources and efforts be best invested? These are some of the questions we’re seeking to answer.

LSSSE provides schools with empirical insights about the extent to which students are engrossed – or engaged – in the law school experience.Student engagement is a holistic concept, capturing the intricate web of individual and institutional processes and actions that contribute to desired student outcomes. There is much potential for using student engagement theory to understand the processes and actions that contribute to bar exam performance.

Eligibility

This initiative will apply a longitudinal approach to analyzing the influence of student engagement on academic and bar success, following the Fall 2021 cohort throughout their law school years. To ensure an adequate sample size, schools must have a Fall 2021 full-time entering class size of 180 students or more to participate in the study. The partnership will span the 2022, 2023, and 2024 administrations of the LSSSE Survey.

AccessLex will provide a 100% LSSSE Survey registration fee subsidy to law schools that yielded first-time bar passage rates below 75% in calendar years 2017, 2018 or 2019. In order to qualify for the subsidy, law schools must commit to the following:

• Administering LSSSE in three consecutive years: 2022 through 2024;
• Ensuring a minimum of 125 LSSSE Survey responses or a 55 percent response rate from the Fall 2021 cohort each year (whichever yields the highest number of respondents);
• Sharing demographic and academic background information for for the Fall 2021 cohort in the three LSSSE administration years with LSSSE and AccessLex researchers; and,
• Allowing aggregate and anonymized school-level data to be used in the building of a clearinghouse of relevant information as well as in reports, presentations, etc.

Once a school qualifies for the subsidy, it will receive it for the three consecutive years it administers the LSSSE Survey. The subsidy will be paid directly to law schools in the form of a restricted grant. Schools must provide a W-9 and documentation of LSSSE registration fee payment to AccessLex in order to receive reimbursement.

The primary deliverables will be three individualized reports to each law school being studied – intermediate reports after their first and second LSSSE administration and final reports after their third. These reports will employ applied research principles and methods to provide participating schools tangible, actionable information, including explanation and illustration of significant, useful findings from the project, and as may be appropriate, recommendations.

See sample reports:

• Figure 3
• Figure 4
• Recommendations

Law schools that participate in LSSSE receive their results in the form of raw data, customized data reports, and comparative findings. Responsible statistical comparisons with similar schools (including two custom peer groups) help you understand your results in context. Institutions receive detailed analyses and information tools.

Law School Reports

A collection of reports describing your students’ experiences, broken out by class year. Highlights include:

• Executive Summary Reports
  Present key findings for your law school, including most and least favorable comparison of your law school and selected peer groups, information related to classroom engagement, student satisfaction and student gains, and a framework for getting oriented to your Law School Report and to interpret and share your results.
• Online Law School Report
  A secure web-based version of your Law School Reports as well as your school’s raw data.

User Tools and Resources

• Accreditation Toolkit
  Suggests ways to map specific questions from the survey onto ABA accreditation standards. This also includes sample timelines to help you decide when and how often to collect student engagement data.
• Workshops & Webinars
  Stimulate discussion about making the most of your LSSSE participation and connecting with other law schools who have participated in LSSSE.
• Sample PowerPoint Presentation
  A customizable PowerPoint template to share your school’s results and to stimulate discussion about them.