A complaint that LSAT scores constitute systemic discrimination against African-Canadian law school applicants should not be referred to a board of inquiry, says the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
The LSAT is a half-day standardized test required for admission to all 196 Law School Admission Council (LSAC) member schools in the United States and Canada.
While it dismissed the complaint, the interim staff report raised a host of issues about the validity of LSAT scores and whether they accurately predict how people in cultural minorities will fare as law students.
“The evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities including black African-Americans perform less well on the LSAT than do whites,” the report says under its summary analysis and recommendations section. “However, the evidence is inconclusive with respect to the impact of the LSAT score on the complainant as a member of the group, which traditionally has performed less well on the LSAT.”
The report goes on to note that law schools need to conduct more validity testing of their admission policies. It also says there is “insufficient data on the applicant pool of African-Canadians” to assess whether LSAT scores result in an “adverse impact” on them.
Law schools need to do much more homework on LSAT testing, some law professors say. But law schools reply that LSAT results are not wholly determinative of the way they select law school students.
The debate is a byproduct of the commission’s Nov. 14 report, which was released about two years after law school applicant Selwyn Pieters was rejected by Osgoode Hall Law School because his LSAT and grade point average (GPA) scores were below specified cut-off levels.
Pieters’ GPA in October 1998, was 71.1 per cent and his LSAT score was in the 33rd percentile. In the special “access” category under which he applied, York’s guidelines say the GPA must be 74 per cent and the LSAT score must be in the 60th percentile or better.
Pieters took the matter to the Ontario Human Rights Com-mission in late 1998, saying the LSAT score is “an arbitrary and irrelevant measure of merit” that has “an adverse affect” on African-Canadians.
The commission ruled against Pieters. But in doing so, it may have opened the door to further challenges of law schools’ reliance on LSAT scores.
Pieters says the commission report only reinforces his conviction that LSAT scores should be “done away with.” He said he doesn’t see anything in the report that shows LSAT testing is “perfect,” nor does it show conclusive evidence upon which the law schools can draw to “declare victory.”
“It mentions that there was a lack of validity studies in the Canadian context,” says Pieters. “They’re not even keeping stats.
“It mentions that blacks and minorities perform less well on the LSATs than do whites. Well, that was part of my complaint.”
Pieters, who was accepted into Osgoode in September 2000, said he will not let the issue rest just because he is now in law school. He plans to appeal any future decision by the human rights commission not to refer the matter to a board of inquiry.
“I could say, ‘Oh, I got what I want,’ and just say forget it,” says Pieters. “As a matter of fact, that was my first temptation. But then when I think about it again, I say, ‘Well, why should someone have to come in and re-litigate these issues, two years, five years, or 10 years later?’”
Backing up his claim about the absence of statistics in this area, Pieters refers to a 1999 paper co-authored by University of British Columbia law professor Wesley Pue and sociology Ph.D. candidate Dawna Tong. That study concludes, in part, saying there is “an almost total lack of Canadian research” regarding LSAT correlation studies.
“I thought what we were starting with was a study of the studies,” Pue told Law Times about his intent to analyze existing LSAT correlation tests. “And to find that there were no studies was shocking to me.”
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Selwyn Pieters says LSAT scores should be ‘done away with.’ |
Pue said the few studies he was able to gather told him nothing about whether LSAT testing was a reliable indicator of good law students. He noted in particular that existing studies were based mostly on the results of first-year law students.
“There is absolutely no evidence that LSAT correlates with anything in the real world, meaning second-year law school and on,” he says.
The absence of LSAT validity studies is about to change, says Gina Alexandris, assistant dean of student services at York University. “We are looking at completing a correlation study over the next little while,” she says. “You need at least three years of data, and we’re starting to compile that data, but we’re not at the three-year mark yet.”
Alexandris adds that LSAT scores do serve a practical purpose, even if they are only one component of the law school’s admissions policy. “The LSAT and the GPA, it’s in place when you get the 2,900-odd applications and you’ve got to have some criteria that are ‘objective,’” she says. “Although we realize that it is not totally objective and therefore you need to have some other aspects in place, too.”
She said York’s admissions program includes a number of discretionary categories, which are intended to accommodate different groups. There are also categories for mature students, aboriginals, and an “access” category for students with extenuating circumstances. In these categories, in addition to LSAT scores and GPAs, the university uses personal interviews and statements as criteria for admission.
Even in the regular admissions category, she says, LSAT scores are weighed relative to an applicant’s previous education. The higher the education, the less the LSAT score is worth.
The University of Toronto also says it does not rely exclusively on LSAT scores. It relies as well on personal statements from applicant’s regarding systemic disadvantage. And the school offers special circumstances admission categories for aboriginal and mature students.
Pieters says he is wary of the special circumstances categories offered by law schools, noting that even these categories take an applicant’s LSAT score and GPA into account. That’s just one more reason why the human rights commission should turn the LSAT testing matter over to its board of inquiry, he says.
Courtesy of Law TimesNovember 27, 2000