LEGAL RESEARCH
LEARNING OUTCOMES
MEETING THE ABA STANDARDS ON SETTING AND
ASSESSING LEARNING OUTCOMES
Jennifer Laws
Electronic Resources Coordinator, UNM Law Library
Michelle Rigual
Director, UNM Law Library
WHY ASSESS LEARNING
OUTCOMES?
MANDATE
OPPORTUNITY
What Does Outcomes Assessment Look
Like?
• Systematic
• Purposeful
• Improvement-oriented
Tools To Carry Out the School’s
Goals for Student Learning
=
Outcomes
Outcomes Pyramid
All assessment images courtesy of: U. of Conn. Assessment, assessment.uconnn.edu
Essential Background
•CARNEGIE REPORT
•BEST PRACTICES
•MACCRATE REPORT
WHAT IS THE ABA DOING?
ABA Revised Standards*
• Chapter 3 -- Program of Legal Education (PLE)
• Standard 301 -- Objectives of PLE
• Standard 302 -- Learning Outcomes
• Standard 314 -- Assessment of Student Learning
• Standard 315 -- Evaluation of PLE, Learning
Outcomes, and Assessment Methods
* Beginning 2016-17, the new standards will apply to the entering class.
Standard 301
OBJECTIVES OF PROGRAM OF LEGAL EDUCATION
(a) A law school shall maintain a an rigorous
educational program of legal education that prepares
its students, upon graduation, for admission to the bar,
and for effective, ethical, and responsible participation
as members of in the legal profession.
(b) A law school shall establish and publish learning
outcomes designed to achieve these objectives.
Standard 302
LEARNING OUTCOMES -- A law school shall establish
learning outcomes that shall, at a minimum, include
competency in the following:
(a) Knowledge and understanding of substantive and
procedural law;
(b) Legal analysis and reasoning, legal research, problem
solving, and written and oral communication in the legal
context;
(c) Exercise of proper professional and ethical
responsibilities to clients and the legal system; and
(d) Other professional skills needed for competent and
ethical participation as a member of the legal profession.
Standard 314
ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING
A law school shall utilize both formative and summative
assessment methods in its curriculum to measure and
improve student learning and provide meaningful
feedback to students.
Interpretation 314-1 Formative assessment methods are
measurements at different points during a particular course or
at different points over the span of a student’s education that
provide meaningful feedback to improve student learning.
Summative assessment methods are measurements at the
culmination of a particular course or at the culmination of any
part of a student’s legal education that measure the degree of
student learning.
Standard 315
EVALUATION OF PROGRAM OF LEGAL EDUCATION, LEARNING
OUTCOMES, AND ASSESSMENT METHODS
The dean and the faculty of a law school shall conduct ongoing
evaluation of the law school's program of legal education, learning
outcomes, and assessment methods; and shall use the results of this
evaluation to determine the degree of student attainment of
competency in the learning outcomes and to make appropriate
changes to improve the curriculum.
Interpretation 315-1 Examples of methods that may be used to measure
the degree to which students have attained competency in the school’s
student learning outcomes include review of the records the law school
maintains to measure individual student achievement pursuant to Standard
314; evaluation of student learning portfolios; student evaluation of the
sufficiency of their education; student performance in capstone courses or
other courses that appropriately assess a variety of skills and knowledge;
bar exam passage rates; placement rates; surveys of attorneys, judges,
and alumni; and assessment of student performance by judges, attorneys,
or law professors from other schools.
WHAT ARE SOME OUTCOMES
ASSESSMENT BEST
PRACTICES FOR LAW
LIBRARIES?
• AALL Principles
and Standards for
Legal Research
Competency
• Watch the National
Conference of Bar
Examiners
Other Outcomes Assessment Best
Practices for Law Libraries
• Mind The Gaps
• Use Backward Design
• Focus On The Ends Not The Means
• Embrace Rubrics & Assessment Transparency
AALL Principles and Standards for
Legal Research Competency
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
A successful legal researcher possesses foundational
knowledge of the legal system and legal information
sources.
A successful legal researcher gathers information
through effective and efficient research strategies.
A successful legal researcher critically evaluates
information.
A successful legal researcher applies information
effectively to resolve a specific issue or need.
A successful legal researcher distinguishes between
ethical and unethical uses of information, and
understands the legal issues associated with the
discovery, use, or application of information.
Principle I
• Standard A: An information-literate legal professional
considers the full range of potential sources of
information, regardless of type or format.
• Competencies
• Differentiates between primary and secondary sources, and recognizes
how their use and importance vary depending upon the legal problem or
issue.
• Identifies and uses the most effective secondary sources to obtain
background information, to gain familiarity with terms of art, and to put
primary sources in context.
• Recognizes differences in the weight of authority among sources and
applies that knowledge to the legal research problem.
WHAT ARE SWALL
ACADEMIC LAW
LIBRARIES DOING?
Library Comments
• We've been doing what the new standards require for ...
eight years…. However, we do have a team of faculty
members trying to create learning outcomes that are the
same for all constitutional law classes, all civil procedure
classes, etc. Each class should have the same
learning outcomes.
• We survey law students as to law library services. We
rely heavily on teacher evaluations. We also survey
students in our boot camp (offered the first week of the
summer break - as a pass-fail course or for free as an
audit) and in our Advanced Legal Research classes….
give[s] us a good snapshot of needs, research comfort,
etc.
Library Comments
• Working with Lawyering Process.
• As part of the Library plan for the next year, we will be looking
to see how we might be able to integrate or assist to assess
research outcomes in the overall curriculum. At the very
least, I am proposing that the course description for ALR is
updated to reflect and assess research learning outcomes.
• Tracking all students progress on rubric that matches topics
that are covered on the bar exam.
• Assessment has always been part of legal research courses.
Now we have to document the assessment that has been
going on.
Library Comments
• It's too early to say exactly what our library's efforts will
be. A librarian serves on the law school's Curriculum
Committee, which is discussing this currently.
• Putting learning outcomes into syllabi.
• A librarian is co-chairing the Assessment and Teaching
Committee and another librarian is on the Curriculum
Committee, both of these committees are working on
learning outcomes. The library has not yet created
learning outcomes for the required Legal Research
course that we all teach, though some librarians include
their own on their individual syllabi.
WHAT WOULD AN IDEAL
LAW LIBRARY ROLE IN
THE PROCESS LOOK
LIKE?
WHAT ARE THE
PREDICTABLE
CHALLENGES?
Aside From the Obvious
Challenges You Can Expect
Library
General
• Hesitation About Law
• Lack of Interest
School Roles
• Broader Responsibilities
• Need for Learning Theory
Expertise
• Resistance to Change
• Notions About Curriculum
• Outcomes Assessment
vs. Faculty Evaluations
QUESTIONS?
Power Point is posted at:
http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/swall/currentmeeting.html
Resources
ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND
MacCrate Report: A.B.A. Section of Legal Educ. &
Admissions to the Bar, Legal Education And Professional
Development-An Educational Continuum: Report Of The
Task Force On Law Schools And The Profession:
Narrowing The Gap (1992).
Carnegie Report: William M. Sullivan et al ., Educating
Lawyers: Preparation for the Practice of Law (2007).
Best Practices: Roy Stuckey et al. Best Practices for
Legal Education: A Vision and a Road Map (2007).
Resources
STANDARDS
A.A.L.L. Principles and Standards for Legal Research
Competency, approved by the AALL Executive Board July
11, 2013.
A.B.A. Section of Legal Educ. & Admissions to the Bar,
2014-2015 Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval
of Law Schools.
A.B.A. Section of Legal Educ. & Admissions to the Bar,
Transition to and Implementation of the New Standards and
Rules of Procedures for Approval of Law Schools, August
13, 2014.
Resources
Debra Moss Curtis, Beg, Borrow, or Steal: Ten Lessons Law Schools Can Learn from
Other Educational Programs in Evaluating Their Curriculums, 48 University of San
Francisco Law Review 349 (2014).
Debra Moss Curtis & David M. Moss, Curriculum Mapping: Bringing Evidence-Based
Frameworks to Legal Education, 34 Nova Law Review 473 (2010).
Debra Moss Curtis & David M. Moss, Reforming Legal Education: Law Schools at the
Crossroads (2012). (This is an e-book, not available via the open web for free –
hyperlink is to Worldcat record).
Susan Hanley Duncan, The New Accreditation Standards Are Coming to a Law
School Near You – What You Need to Know About Learning Outcomes &
Assessment, 16 Legal Writing: J. Legal Writing Inst. 605 (2010).
Janet Fisher, Putting Students at the Center of Legal Education: How an Emphasis on
Outcome Measures in the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools Might
Transform the Educational Experience of Law Students, 35 Southern Illinois University
Law Journal 225 (2011).
Resources
Dennis Kim-Prieto, The Road Not Yet Taken: How Law Student Information Literacy
Standards Address Identified Issues in Legal Research Education and Training,
103(4) Law Library Journal 605 (2011).
Gregory S. Munro, Outcomes Assessment for Law Schools (Institute for Law School
Teaching) (2000).
Kenneth R. Smith, New Roles and Responsibilities for the University
Library: Advancing Student Learning Through Outcomes Assessment, Association of
Research Libraries (2000).
University of Connecticut, Assessment, http://assessment.uconn.edu/index.html (last
visited April 7, 2015).
UC Hastings College of the Law, Outcomes Based Education,
http://www.uchastings.edu/about/consumer-info/wasc/outcomes/index.php (last
updated April 8, 2014).
THANK YOU!
Michelle Rigual, Director, University of New Mexico Law
Library, rigual@law.unm.edu
Jennifer Laws, Electronic Resources Coordinator,
University of New Mexico Law Library,
laws@law.unm.edu