A group has taken steps to remove the mandate that law schools use “valid and reliable” test scores when considering potential law students. 

However, some have expressed concern that eliminating requirements for such tests as the LSAT and GRE will harm the integrity of the admissions process.  

The Council for the American Bar Association’s Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has put the proposal out for “notice and comment” following a lengthy discussion by its members. The ABA is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the national accreditor of law schools. If the recommendation were to become practice, law schools would still need to employ other measures and maintain “sound admission policies and practices” to be accredited, according to information from the ABA.

Law schools could be required, though, to mandate admission exams as a “remedial action” if the law school fails to secure adequate bar exam passage rates, or if it exhibits other evidence it is accepting students less capable of success.  

Kellye Testy, the president and CEO of the LSAT administering entity, the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), said in a piece by TaxProf Blog that removing the requirement would weaken admission standards and could exploit the process. She added the LSAC expects to participate in the notice and comment period.  

The LSAT has played a role in law school admissions since its inception 70 years ago, according to information from the ABA. More recently, a number of law schools began accepting the Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) GRE exam in lieu of the LSAT. Harvard University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Hawaii and the University of Arizona each announced they will be accepting GRE scores, according to information from ETS.  

Shortly before the ABA admissions section’s November meeting spawning the potential elimination of the exam requirement, ETS announced research results of a nation-wide validity study indicating the exam is a “strong, generalizably valid predictor of first-year law school grades.”  

“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.” ABA Standard 503 will remain in effect until a change is formally adopted.  

Marc Miller, dean of the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, said law schools accepting GRE exam scores allows undergraduates more flexibility and provides cost savings for students uncertain of what they want to do after graduation.  “Students are often undecided about what they want to do at the end of their undergraduate degree, or may want to obtain dual degrees, and requiring them to invest the time and money to take two different tests seemed an unnecessary barrier," Miller said in a statement. "This is a win-win for students and law schools.”

Now, a preliminary timeline could altogether eliminate the admissions testing requirement for students by the Fall of 2019, according to the ABA. “Under the proposal, an admissions test remains one of the factors that a school can consider, along with grade-point average and other indicators of future performance. Schools would still have to report publicly results for each test they accept,” it wrote in a statement.  

Standard 503 can be reviewed here (PDF).