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- The purpose of this report is to provide a way to
measure to what extent non-minorities (whites) are
over-represented in law schools, to provide a way of measuring changes and progress
in equitable representation of minorities and to provide a mechanism of comparing
law schools training of a racially representative group of
lawyers as we move toward becoming a "nation of
minorities".
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- The objectives of this report is to:
- measure the percentage of "whites" in each law
school
- measure the difference between the percentage
of whites in the law school compared to percentage of:
- regional and state population 21-39
(whites)
- regional and state LSAC
Applications (whites).
- to compare the schools on each of these
measures.
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- The information sources for this report
are:
- the 2004 ABA-LSAC official guide. This is
information reported to the ABA as a requirement of accreditation.
The
information in the guide is based on the 2002 application/admission
cycle. (American Bar Association - Law School
Admission Council).
- the LSAC National Statistical Report : 1998-99
through 2003-03. The 2002-03 tables ere used in this report.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American
FactFinder, Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF1) 100-Percent Data and
Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF1) 100-Percent Data, http://factfinder.census.gov/home/
(Last Visited: March 21, 2003).
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The definitions used in this report are:
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- Whiteness is defined as caucasian
plus unknown. Questions have been raised about the
methodology of counting unknowns as whites. Unknown
presented a problem. If we did not include them as white, then
schools with large number of whites who failed to report
their race would look less white than they actually
were. I decided to count unknown as white for several reasons.
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- State LSAC application pool is
the total number of LSAC applications from persons who list a
particular state as their home state.
- For example, of 99504 LSAC applications 6797 were
from Texas applicants.
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- Historically White
Law Schools" (HWLS) (n=179). are schools who have historically been de facto white with no
significant history of proportionately serving minorities.
- Specifically,
excluded from the
statistics are:
- Howard University
- Inter-American University School of Law
- North Carolina
Central University
- Pontifical Catholic University
of Puerto Rico
- Southern University
- Texas Southern University (Thurgood Marshall)
- University of Puerto Rico.
- University of Hawaii is included in the descriptive
statistics but like University of Puerto Rico it primarily serves a
state population which is minority. The question to be answer is
whether the University of Hawaii is a historically white school. For
the purpose of this report it is assumed that it is a HWLS.
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- Tier designation was based on the 2004 US News
& World Report Rankings.
- The tier system is based on
the U.S. News and World Report annual ranking of law schools.
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While Deans, ABA, and LSAC all decry the ranking, Deans,
faculty, alumni, students and applicants all rely on the ranking
as a measure of external worth.
- The Top 100 rank reported by US
News is broken into tier 1 and tier 2.
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- Regions
are defined according
to the ABA/LSAC Official Guide. There are 10
regions:
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- Percent Total Whiteness for
each law school was calculated by adding total whiteness to total
unknown. Whiteness does not include Foreign natitonsl.
- For, example University of Texas School of Law has 74.2%
caucasian, .7 foreign nationals and 4.9% unknown; minorities
is 20.1%; Thus, University of Texas Total Whiteness is 79.1%
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- Percent of State Whiteness in LSAC
Applications was calculated by dividing the number of
applications from whites from a particular state by the number of
total applications from the state. (Table)
- For example, 6797 applications were from
persons who state of residence was Texas; of those applications
4043 were from whites. Thus, 4043 divided by
6797 times 100 = 59.5%.
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- Percent of
Regional Whiteness in LSAC Application was calculated by dividing the
number of applications from whites from a region by the
number of total applications from the region.
- For example, the Southeast region consist
of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. The
total number of applications from the region is 9897. Of those
applications, 6226 are from whites or 62.9%. Thus, the
percent of whiteness in LSAC Applications from the southeast
region is 62.9% (added 04/18/04)
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- Descriptive Statistics
include mean,
median, minimum, maximum. The purpose of these statistics is
to give the reader a 'picture' of the data collected and used.
- These statistics included only Historically White
Law Schools" (HWLS) (n=179).
- Mean is the average, around
which the data clusters. All data in a sample is used. It is
appropriate for data measured at least at interval level.
- Median is the middle value
when data in a sample is arranged in order. It is appropriate
for data measured at least at ordinal level.
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- Correlation Statistics used was the Spearman
Coefficient.
- If a result is 'statistically significant', it
implies a statistical test has been carried-out, and the probability
of obtaining the observed data (or more extreme) by chance, is small
– typically less than 0.05 or less than 5 chances out of a 100.
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- When comparing schools for total whiteness, it was
assumed that all schools pulled from the national pool of
applications. That is, all schools application pool actually
reflected 68% white.
- To the extent that a school is a truly regional, state
or local school then % total whiteness when compared to availability
of applicants could be skewed.
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- To the extent that "unknown" is a significant number of
minorities, than the percentage of whites will be skewed upwarded
and the calculations will be not be valid for that particular
school.
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- However, the State LSAC application pool nor the Law School
age population represent the actual application pool for a
specific school. A school's actual application pool could be very
different.
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- State LSAC Application pool reflects the number of
persons in the national LSAC pool who listed the named state as
their home. While all the applicants from a particular state may not
have applied to law school in their state, the number provides a
good idea of the available pool.
- So, for example, Texas Tech has 85.7%
white students. In 2002 there was 6797 LSAC applications from the state
of Texas. Of those applications, 4043 or 59.5% were from white
applicants . Consequently, the disparity (excess whiteness)
between whiteness in the student body and in the state application pool is
26.2 percentage points. That is, based on the LSAC applications from the state, only
59.5% of Texas Tech Student body should be white.
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For those who object to the
methodology here,
based on the idea that it does not take into consideration the
"pool" of qualified applicants, see my essay on LSAT
and Discrimination and my essay on Legal
Education!:Incompetent. As practiced in most law schools, the
law school admission process is not an issue of
who can do law school and be a competent lawyer. It is mostly a cherry-picking exercise, over applicants
who all would be capable of being good lawyers if legal education would
educate instead of sort.
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