Education Dept. Postpones Review of Bar Association as Accreditor

The Chronicle of Higher Education
By JJ HERMES
Washington
May 8, 2008

The U.S. Department of Education has postponed its review of the authority vested in the American Bar Association to accredit law schools in order to pursue an investigation into allegations against the association, according to a letter it sent to the association last month.
The bar association has attracted scrutiny over its requirements that law schools prove they are taking concrete steps to diversify their pools of students and faculty members, and that their graduates meet certain passage rates on bar examinations. Critics say that those requirements are ambiguous, and that the diversity mandate could conflict with bans on affirmative action that have been enacted in some states.
Last June, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings asked the bar association to document how it applies its diversity requirements (The Chronicle, July 2, 2007). That request followed a decision by the department, in December 2006, to approve just an 18-month extension of the bar association's authority to accredit law schools, rather than the usual five years given to accreditors (The Chronicle, December 5, 2006).
Now the Education Department says it needs more time to digest the "great volume of documents" the bar association has provided in response to Secretary Spellings's request. The department's letter also cites unspecified "allegations raised" by the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, as well as by Wallace D. Riley, a past president of the American Bar Association, as reasons to postpone the review. The department sent copies of the comments from the law school and Mr. Riley to the association. [To see the entire story, go to: http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/05/2767n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en ] (Subscription required.)