Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article suggests a fundamental shift in the way traditional faculty view their role in academic support, from merely assisting with academic support duties to becoming equally responsible with academic support faculty for student achievement. The article explores how legal education arrived at the current division of labor in teaching weaker students. Additionally, it examines why the current situation is not the best plan of action for maximizing student learning. Finally, it touches upon possible solutions that would work toward uniting law school faculty in their common purpose of preparing all students for the rigors of legal practice.
Some factors that may have led law schools to develop the current academic support model of instruction are: the U.S. News & World Report rankings, scholarly pursuits, increased competition to attract students, national decline in bar passage, educational experience prior to law school, and stress and emotional problems. However, stand-alone academic support programs are not the best plan of action. Some possible solutions are to rotate the faculty into the academic support programs, create flexible academic support programs, and ensure faculty is consistently using diagnostic and tutoring functions and fostering real connections between coursework and academic support.
Recommended Citation
Melissa J. Marlow,
It Takes a Village to Solve the Problems in Legal Education: Every Faculty Member's Role in Academic Support,
30 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 489
(2008).
Available at: https://lawrepository.ualr.edu/lawreview/vol30/iss3/3