Dora R. Bertram of the Washington University School of Law has posted Annotated Bibliography: Ranking of Law Schools by U.S. News & World Report to SSRN:
For better or worse, the U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools is the most prominent and widely used ranking by all constituencies having an interest in legal education. The rankings have triggered impassioned responses and a significant body of commentary and analysis. This comprehensive annotated bibliography documents the wide variety of literature analyzing the rankings and explaining why the rankings are loved by some and hated by many. A brief history of the ranking of institutions of higher education, including law schools, provides background and puts today’s debate in context. This study was commissioned as part of the work of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Special Committee on the U.S. News and World Report Rankings.
In related news, Hyla Bondareff of the Washington University Law Library has posted U.S. News and World Report Ranking Methodology: The Devil is in the Detail to SSRN.com:
This publication outlines the methodological variations in U.S. News and World Report’s annual law school rankings between 1990 and 2010. A law school’s ranking is based upon its overall score on a number of weighted attributes. When comparing school rankings over time, it is therefore useful to understand how the methodology differs from year to year. Not only have the definitions for many of these attributes changed over the years, but also their weight value in the overall scores. This report provides a table of the weight assigned to each attribute each year; a list of each attribute and the changes made to it each year; and a list of all methodology changes in each year. This study was originally published as an appendix to the July 15, 2010 Report of the ABA Special Committee on the U.S. News and World Report Rankings, Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
HT : Caron
