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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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Law School Rankings May Be Revised to Stop 'Gaming'

Schools hide weaker students to boost stats

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(Newser) – Some US law schools have been caught manipulating programs to climb college rankings in US News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal reports. Institutions boost their performance statistics by channeling first-year students with lower test scores and grades into part-time programs that aren't considered in the rankings. The magazine is considering changing its methods to crack down.

The rankings are tremendously important to a school's attraction to top students and its financial fortunes. One former law dean compared managing the rankings to corporate executives "trying to meet analysts' quarterly expectations by massaging the numbers."  Another dean accused of gaming the system argued that the US News ranking is "not a moral code—its' a set of seriously flawed rules of a magazine."

If US News & World Report changes its rules, Hofstra could be one law school that dips in rankings.
If US News & World Report changes its rules, Hofstra could be one law school that dips in rankings.   ((c) wannabehipster)
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at the University of Baltimore School of Law last year. The school is among those that benefit from a program that boosts its US News & World Report rank.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at the University of Baltimore School of Law last year. The school is among those that benefit from a program that boosts its US News & World Report rank.   (AP Photo/Rob Carr)
Lower-scoring first-year students are shuffled into part-time programs as part of a statistical manipulation by some law schools to climb the school rankings in US News & World Report.
Lower-scoring first-year students are shuffled into part-time programs as part of a statistical manipulation by some law schools to climb the school rankings in US News & World Report.   ((c) katesheets)
Harvard is back on top of the US News & World Report college rankings for the first time in 12 years but some schools have been accused of
Harvard is back on top of the US News & World Report college rankings for the first time in 12 years but some schools have been accused of "gaming" the system to rise in the rankings.   (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, file)
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U.S. News is not a moral code, it's a set of seriously flawed rules of a magazine, and I follow the rules." - Phillip Closius, dean of University of Baltimore law school.

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