A Message to SALT members from Andi Curcio, SALT Bar Exam Committee:

At the last SALT Teaching Conference, many of you presented incredible things you are doing in your classes to facilitate student learning and help broaden students' experience in terms of what lawyers can do to promote social justice.  Many others of you are likely doing great work both in teaching and assessment of students - work that goes far beyond the traditional case question and answer method and essay or multiple choice exam.  We want to hear about what you are doing.  If you have done any scholarship around your innovative teaching/assessments, we want to know about that.  And, if you'd like to do some research and writing about your work, we want to know that, too.  

Why do we want this information?  For many years, the SALT Bar Exam Committee has been working to increase diversity in the profession by urging state bar examiners (and law schools) to take into account the wide range of skills/qualities that make one a good lawyer rather than focusing on one high-stakes multiple choice/short essay test.  In line with those goals, we have been working with those who are developing alternative assessments and outcome measures.  Currently, the ABA is considering a shift to an outcome-based approach to accreditation, which would evaluate a school's performance in light of its own stated mission.    Bar Exam passage rates would be only one of the many measures that would go into accreditation decisions.  For a general discussion of Outcome Measures and the issues being raised in ABA discussions, see  http://www.abanet.org/legaled/committees/subcomm.html
 
 
SALT believes that any shift to outcome measures necessitates the development of fair and reliable assessment tools and models. SALT would like to help the ABA and others develop the expertise necessary in this shift, which in our opinion is linked to developing alternative licensing methods.  We also think that changes in what we measure will necessarily filter into what we teach and perhaps open the doors of law schools a little wider because it should influence who we accept as students.

Obviously, success of the reorienting accreditation and all that flows from it will require research and scholarship that shows it can be done cost effectively, reliably and validly.  So, if you are engaged in alternative teaching/assessment methods that you have either written about or are interested in writing about, or, if you are interested in doing research on Outcome Measures, please complete and return the attached form.  Also, complete the attached form if you have a statistical methodology background and are interested in collaborating on scholarship in this area.

After we gather this information, we will try to disseminate what is being done and coordinate and help those who would like to do scholarship in this area.  

Thanks!!!!!!!

Andi Curcio
Chair, SALT Bar Exam Committee

Complete and return to:  Andi Curcio:  acurcio@gsu.edu

NAME:

School:

Email:

Phone:

Briefly Describe Your Innovative Teaching and/or Assessment Method

If you have done any scholarship that discusses the above teaching/assessment method, please provide us with a cite to that work

If you have not done any scholarship around this work, are you interested in doing research/writing about your innovative teaching/assessment method?

Are you interested in doing research/scholarship in the area of Outcome Measures?

Do you have any statistical/empirical methodology background?