Book Review: Outcomes Assessment for Law Schools [By Gregory Munro]
by
Martin Burke

In his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony at Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, California, Anthony T. Kronman, Dean and Professor of Law at Yale Law School, noted:

"Today the American legal profession is in turmoil. The organized bar has lost much of its authority. The country's leading firms have been transformed in basic ways. The aims of legal education are increasingly unclear to teachers and practitioners alike. And a new and aggressive culture of commercial values, which claims for itself a moral as well as a material superiority, is spreading through the profession as a whole."

How appropriate that these remarks be made by the dean of Yale Law School to the faculty, students, and supporters of a new law school that has recently gained ABA provisional approval. Presumably, implicit in Dean Kronman's description of the changing legal landscape is the admonition that "business as usual" cannot, and should not, be the norm for either a new law school such as Chapman or even well-established and highly regarded law schools such as Yale. If, as Dean Kronman indicates, "the aims of legal education are increasingly unclear to teachers and practitioners," then surely the time is now for the faculty and other constituencies of law schools to re-examine the mission of their schools, to review their curriculum and their teaching, research and service activities in light of the school's mission, and to assess whether their law schools are actually accomplishing their stated missions.

Perish the thought that a dean or a faculty member would suggest such an undertaking! At a new deans' meeting not many years ago, an experienced law dean cautioned his new colleagues not to initiate a curricular review or revision effort. The danger, suggested the dean, is that such efforts require enormous time commitments from both faculty and administration, tend to create dissension within a faculty, and often result in no significant changes - except, perhaps, a change in the deanship. Unfortunately, one need only review the self-studies prepared by some law schools as part of the ABA sabbatical accreditation process to understand how difficult it is to engage faculty in a serious evaluation of their institution. Similarly, a review of the minutes of many, if not most, law faculty meetings would likewise suggest that faculty members are not likely to be interested in spending much time discussing curriculum or teaching techniques. Indeed, considering the abhorrence expressed by many for faculty retreats or meetings, one has the distinct impression that law teachers simply want to be left alone to teach their courses and do their scholarship.

It is against this backdrop of a changing legal environment, the related uncertainties regarding the aims of law schools, and faculty reticence to engage in curricular and institutional review that Greg Munro presents his book, OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS. In the book, Munro proposes that law schools develop and institutionalize a comprehensive assessment program. Munro indicates in the preface that the purpose of his book is "to excite and inspire those who find reward in promoting student learning of law and making their law schools effective centers of law in society." Presumably, Munro in this statement has described all of us who teach in law schools, and thus his book and its challenge are for each of us.

Why should anyone read the book or accept Munro's challenge? In his conclusion, Professor Munro describes the anticipated benefits for those schools and faculties implementing a comprehensive assessment program:

"Teaching will improve, will make more sense, and will be more enjoyable.... Faculty will not have to suffer from the nagging feeling that standards are dropping and that students are not learning like they used to.... [and] above all, faculty and student can find reinvigoration in effective efforts to improve curricula, instructional strategies, and educational quality; build institutional community identity, renew curricular meaning and purpose; and enhance satisfaction with the academic enterprise."

The promise of such a panacea for many of the problems of legal education likely will pique the interest of some and make skeptics out of all. Nonetheless, for those willing to invest the time and intellectual energy, Munro's book and the assessment program it proposes can make an important difference.

OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS purports to be a comprehensive handbook on assessment for law schools. It not only describes the assessment movement as it has emerged in undergraduate education but specifically focuses on outcomes assessment in law schools. In its specific emphasis on legal teaching, OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS represents a pioneering effort in assessment scholarship. The book provides practical guidance on the development of an overall assessment program for law schools as well as methods of assessment to improve teaching and learning in individual law courses. One of the book's strengths is Munro's provision of concrete examples to demonstrate various aspects of assessment. In addition, Munro anticipates various obstacles to the establishment of assessment programs, including resource concerns, and he suggests ways to address those obstacles. As a faculty member who has been instrumental in the development of an assessment program at the University of Montana School of Law, Munro makes his suggestions based on actual experience.

If OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS has no other effect, it will encourage professors to think about how they teach their courses. Munro challenges professors to inform their students of the goals and learning objectives for each course, to devise methods of engaging students in the learning process, to utilize a variety of assessment techniques instead of a single blue book examination, to be clear about the criteria upon which student performance will be evaluated, and to provide prompt feedback to students. While these recommendations certainly reflect traditional principles of good teaching familiar to every student of learning theory, one suspects that the majority of law courses taught in this country could be greatly improved if Munro's recommendations were implemented.

With the decrease in law school applications experienced in recent years and the creation of a number of new law schools, the importance of clarity of mission and coherency in curriculum has perhaps never been greater. In this regard OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS is particularly timely. Faced with limited resources, growing competition for students, and a changing legal environment, law schools must consider more carefully their specific niche in legal education. Most schools can ill afford to attempt to be all things to all students. And yet, schools persist in that effort. The assessment program urged by Munro provides a mechanism for the effective marshaling of limited education resources while at the same time revitalizing the academic enterprise.

Dean Kronman stated in his Chapman lecture that:

"The purpose of a legal education ... is to train law students ... to think like lawyers, which means, broadly speaking, to be attentive to the facts and to know which ones in any given situation are important; to be able to tell a story with the facts, to master the power of narration; to recognize what others hope to achieve, even or especially when they have a hard time defining their own ambitions, and to appreciate empathically a range of human purposes and values and ideals wider than one's own."

Even if he were to accept Dean Kronman's characterization of the purpose of legal education, Munro would pose a couple of basic questions in response: How would a faculty structure a law curriculum to accomplish Dean Kronman's purpose, and how would that faculty know whether it had succeeded? OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS suggests the mechanism that provides answers to those questions. It is a book that can assist every law school to understand and accomplish its mission while at the same time providing a method for schools to address a changing legal environment. It is a book that legal educators should not overlook.

[To see the Table of Contents for OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT FOR LAW SCHOOLS click here]