In late May, the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions council gave permission for the use of the alternative admissions program JD-Next for five more law schools.
They include Fordham University School of Law, University of Illinois College of Law, DePaul University College of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law and University of St. Thomas School of Law.
These five schools join the ranks of 52 others allowing the use of the JD-Next program, which involves an eight-week course on contracts, case reading and analysis skills followed by an exam that mimics one in law school.
JD-Next is designed by the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and is now run by Aspen Publishing.
In January, a report to the section council’s Standards Committee by consultant Nathan Kuncel of the University of Minnesota found that while the JD-Next exam “is a reliable and valid predictor of early law school grades” there were “multiple cautions and caveats that cannot be evaluated with the present data and may represent threats to its validity if used operationally for high-stakes decisions.”
The section council rejected a proposal in February to grant JD-Next equal status with the LSAT and GRE, keeping in place the requirement of variance requests for the exam’s use while more data is collected on its reliability.
JD-Next gained popularity after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling banning race-conscious admissions led to concerns that achieving diverse law school classes will be a struggle.
Reports by the Law School Admission Council, which administers the LSAT, show that Black/African American and Puerto Rican test-takers on average consistently score lowest on the LSAT.
Last year, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar walked back its proposal to completely remove its long-standing requirement that law schools use the LSAT in admissions.
