Higher Education: Issues Related to Law School Accreditation
(08-MAR-07, GAO-07-314).
In order to participate in certain federal programs, such as
federal student financial aid, postsecondary institutions must be
accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the Department
of Education (Education). Accreditation ensures that schools
provide basic levels of quality in their educational programs,
and Education recognizes those agencies it concludes can reliably
determine the quality of education provided by the schools and
programs they accredit. Since 1952, Education has recognized the
American Bar Association (ABA) as an accrediting agency for law
schools. ABA accreditation is important to the 195 law schools it
accredits because it allows their graduates the flexibility to
take the Bar exam in any jurisdiction in the United States. The
Department of Education requires that all recognized accrediting
agencies periodically reapply for continued recognition. The
Secretary of Education's accreditation advisory group, the
National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and
Integrity (NACIQI), considered the ABA's most recent application
for continued recognition in December 2006. The ABA was
originally scheduled for review in December 2005, but Education
postponed it twice based on the large volume of public comments
that had to be reviewed, as well as concerns about the ABA's
diversity standard. To address Congressional interest in these
issues, we answered the following questions: (1) What is
Education's process for recognizing accrediting agencies? (2)
What is ABA's process for accrediting law schools? (3) What
concerns have been raised about the ABA's accreditation process?
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-07-314
ACCNO: A66667
TITLE: Higher Education: Issues Related to Law School
Accreditation
DATE: 03/08/2007
SUBJECT: Educational standards
Higher education
Institution accreditation
Law schools
Legal education
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GAO-07-314
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Report to Congressional Requesters
United States Government Accountability Office
GAO
March 2007
HIGHER EDUCATION
Issues Related to Law School Accreditation
GAO-07-314
Contents
Letter 1
Appendix I Briefing Slides 5
Appendix II Comments from the Department of Education 28
Appendix III Comments from the American Bar Association 30
Abbreviations
ABA American Bar Association
Education
Department of Education
NACIQI National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity
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United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548
March 8, 2007
The Honorable George Miller
Chairman
The Honorable Howard P. "Buck" McKeon
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Education and Labor
House of Representatives
The Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones
House of Representatives
In order to participate in certain federal programs, such as federal
student financial aid, postsecondary institutions must be accredited by an
accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education (Education).
Accreditation ensures that schools provide basic levels of quality in
their educational programs, and Education recognizes those agencies it
concludes can reliably determine the quality of education provided by the
schools and programs they accredit. Since 1952, Education has recognized
the American Bar Association (ABA) as an accrediting agency for law
schools. ABA accreditation is important to the 195 law schools it
accredits because it allows their graduates the flexibility to take the
Bar exam in any jurisdiction in the United States.
The Department of Education requires that all recognized accrediting
agencies periodically reapply for continued recognition. The Secretary of
Education's accreditation advisory group, the National Advisory Committee
on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), considered the ABA's most
recent application for continued recognition in December 2006. The ABA was
originally scheduled for review in December 2005, but Education postponed
it twice based on the large volume of public comments that had to be
reviewed, as well as concerns about the ABA's diversity standard. To
address your interest in these issues, we answered the following
questions: (1) What is Education's process for recognizing accrediting
agencies? (2) What is ABA's process for accrediting law schools? (3) What
concerns have been raised about the ABA's accreditation process?
We used the following methodologies to develop our findings. To understand
Education and ABA processes related to accreditation, we reviewed relevant
laws and regulations, ABA accreditation standards, and documents
pertaining to the ABA's application for renewed recognition. We also
interviewed Education officials, ABA representatives, and four law school
administrators. To identify the concerns that have been raised about ABA's
accreditation process, we reviewed third-party comments submitted to
Education in advance of the NACIQI meeting. We also attended the December
2006 public meeting that NACIQI held to consider ABA's application for
continued recognition, and reviewed the transcript of the meeting.
Finally, we analyzed ABA data on first-year law school enrollment and
found the data sufficiently reliable for our purposes. We conducted our
work between October 2006 and February 2007 in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards.
We briefed your staff on results of our analysis on February 9, 2007. This
report formally conveys the information provided during that briefing. In
summary, we reported the following findings:
o Education has established criteria for recognizing an
accrediting agency and has mechanisms in place to assess
compliance with the criteria. Agencies found to be in compliance
with Education's criteria can be approved for up to 5 years. There
are also mechanisms in place to defer or deny an agency's
recognition.
o ABA has established standards for approval of law schools and
has mechanisms in place to assess compliance with the criteria.
Law schools are eligible for provisional approval when they
demonstrate that they are in substantial compliance with each of
the standards, and must demonstrate they are in full compliance to
be fully approved.
o Some Education staff, law school administrators, and other
third-parties have raised concerns about ABA's accreditation
process, particularly with respect to the transparency and
consistency of the process, as well as the legality of its
diversity standard, which requires schools to demonstrate they are
reaching out to underrepresented groups. Based on concerns that
ABA is not fully in compliance with regulatory provisions that
govern accreditation, Education and NACIQI have recommended that
the Secretary of Education renew ABA's recognition for a period of
18 months, rather than the maximum period of 5 years.
We provided copies of a draft of this report to the Department of
Education and the American Bar Association for review and comment. In
written comments, Education provided technical comments and
clarifications, which we incorporated as appropriate. In particular,
Education clarified that its recommendation suggested that NACIQI require
ABA to submit interim reports on ABA's compliance with all criteria for
accreditation recognition, not just the diversity standard as stated in
the draft. We revised our report accordingly. However, we note that the
recommended interim reporting requirements focus heavily on the diversity
standard. Education also expressed concern about our characterization of
why NACIQI excluded from its recommendation the additional reporting
requirements related to diversity, as Education had recommended. Our
report correctly notes that NACIQI did not think additional reporting
related to the diversity standard was necessary because Education had not
identified any instances in which ABA inconsistently applied the diversity
standard or provided evidence that law schools had been compelled to
violate existing state laws. However, Education thought our report should
also note that NACIQI did not address Education's broader concern that ABA
had not demonstrated that it has effective controls in place to prevent
inconsistent application of the standard as required by the recognition
criteria. While Education is correct that NACIQI did not discuss this
concern specifically, it addressed these concerns by affirming Education's
recommendation to limit ABA's recognition to a period of 18 months.
Education's comments appear in appendix II.
The ABA said that the report was generally balanced and fair, and provided
technical comments and clarifications, which we incorporated as
appropriate. ABA expressed concern about our statement that it uses
thresholds on bar passage and attrition rates to prompt further review.
ABA emphasized that these thresholds are not used to determine whether or
not a school is in compliance with the accreditation standards. We revised
our report to clarify this issue. The ABA also provided updated data on
law school enrollment that was not available to us at the time we
conducted our briefing. Finally, with respect to the background
information the report provides on non-ABA approved law schools, the ABA
said the number of such law schools is much greater than indicated in our
draft report. Specifically, ABA identified a number of California law
schools that were not included on the list of non-ABA approved law schools
that we obtained from the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). While the
information from LSAC is not exhaustive, it provides the most complete
source of readily-available data on non-ABA approved law schools.
Additionally, because graduates of these law schools can sit for the bar
exam in California, our overall message remains the same--graduates of
many non-ABA law schools can take the bar exam in the state where they
earned their degree. ABA's comments appear in appendix III.
We are sending copies of this report to relevant congressional committees,
the Secretary of Education, and other interested parties and will make
copies available to others upon request. In addition, this report will be
available at no charge on GAO's Web site at www.gao.gov .
If you or your staff has any questions about this report, please contact
me at (202) 512-7215 or [email protected]. Contact points for our Offices of
Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page
of this report. Key contributors to this report include Jeff Appel
(Assistant Director), Debra Prescott (Analyst-in-Charge), Summer Pachman,
John Mingus, and Jim Rebbe.
George A.
Scott Acting Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security
Issues
Appendix I: Briefing Slides
Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Education
Appendix III: Comments from the American Bar Association
(130264)
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