A new study shows that JD-Next, an online course and test for pre-law students, is a “valid and reliable” predictor of law school performance and could be a better predictor for diverse students.
The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and authors affiliated with the school created JD-Next, which aims to teach potential students how to analyze cases and then test them. The course lasts 7 to 10 weeks and is fully online. At the end of the course, students take a test comparable to the LSAT or GRE.
JD-Next used a national sample of diverse prospective students in 2019 for the study. In 2020, it partnered with 17 law schools to recruit a cohort of their incoming law students.
“At the end of the course, students were incentivized to take and perform well on an exam that we graded with a standardized methodology” the study stated. “We collected first-semester grades as an outcome variable. We found that the exam was a valid and reliable predictor of law school performance, comparable to legacy exams (LSAT or GRE) now used by law schools.”
The study found that legacy exams “lacked significant incremental validity” in the sample for all but the most prestigious schools, while the JD-Next exam gave students a “significant advantage.” The study replicated racial and ethnic disparities on the legacy exam scores, but it estimated smaller, non-significant score disparities on the JD-Next exam.
“Together this research suggests that, as an admissions tool, the JD-Next exam may reduce the risk that capable students will be excluded from legal education and the legal profession,” the study concluded.
Last year the course ran from September to November and was offered to students for free. The course included videos with concept introductions, lectures and takeaways. It introduces “skill workshops” during the first half and moves on to doctrinal law and the application of the skills in the next half.
