Law Schools

Maker Of GRE Thinks GRE Is A Valid Test For Law Schools

Not entirely shocking.

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Change is in the air, and it’s more than just the weather on this blustery Halloween day. If you’ve been paying attention to developments in legal education you’ve noticed the dramatic uptick in law schools — even incredibly prestigious ones — accepting the GRE in lieu of the LSAT as a component of admissions. Harvard Law, Columbia, Northwestern,  Georgetown, Arizona Law School, Hawaii, and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law are all on board with the GRE and, according to a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep, a full 25 percent of law schools say they have plans in the works to accept the test.

But one issue that’s slowed down even wider acceptance of the test is the American Bar Association’s reluctance to make any sort of decision about the GRE. The ABA provides accreditation to law schools, and Standard 503 says that alternate admission exams must be “valid and reliable.” But they’ve steadfastly refused to say whether the GRE meets that standard.

Enter Educational Testing Service. ETS develops and administers a variety of standardized tests including, you guessed it — the GRE. They’ve worked with a few individual schools to develop validity tests, but today they announced the results of a much larger undertaking. With the help of 21 law schools, they conducted a study that established the validity of the GRE as an indicator of success in the first year of law school:

“We’ve empirically confirmed that the GRE test is a valid and reliable tool for informing law schools’ admissions decisions,” said David Payne, Vice President and COO of Global Education at ETS. “In addition, our research findings show that the GRE test satisfies the requirement of ABA Standard 503, which requires that law schools use a valid and reliable admissions test to assess their applicants.”

The full study touts the benefits of not exclusively depending on the LSAT, making it easier for students with a STEM background to apply to law school. Because taking one additional step is just a bridge too far for people who’ve studied science, technology, engineering, or math I guess:

GRE test could help expand access to legal education beyond the traditional pre-law degree fields. There are potential law school applicants who have either completed or are considering many non-legal STEM and non-STEM graduate and professional programs that require or recommend the GRE test.

Of course this really irritates LSAC, the organization that administers the LSAT. According to a report from Inside Higher Ed, they’ve said ETS is making “false claims”:

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While leading law schools increasingly back the use of the GRE, Kellye Testy, president and CEO of the Law School Admission Council (which runs the LSAT), said ETS is making “false claims,” although she did not specify any such claims. “ETS is creating a great deal of confusion and unfairness for both law schools and law school applicants,” she said.

But unless something radical happens, it looks like the GRE is well on its way to being widely accepted by law schools.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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