Regent Law School: The Virginian-Pilot Weighs In

By: Susan P.
Published On: 6/18/2007 4:26:07 PM

Today the Virginian-Pilot weighs in on the Jiffy Law controversy with a story headlined "What is the real face of Regent's law school?" The Pilot summarizes the pros and cons of Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School, formerly Christian Broadcasting Network School of Law, and the alma mater of Monica Goodling and Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell. 

The front page article contains a cryptic caption: "about-face: Since a change in leadership in 2000, the school has seen the pass rate for students taking the bar climb from about 36 percent to a combined 74 percent for students who took the test for the first time in July or February."  Significantly, there's no explanation of what "combined percent" means, no indication of the "combined" pass rate for non-first-time Regent test takers, and no comparison whatsoever to the "combined percent" of other Virginia law schools, or to the average state bar pass rate. The article contains an elaborate chart comparing the peer assessment scores, the median LSAT scores (shouldn't this be the mean LSAT scores?), and the graduate employment rates of Regent and other Virginia and North Carolina law schools.  However, the article does not provide the bar pass rates for any schools other than Regent.  It concludes without explanation that Regent's scores have supposedly "doubled since 2000."

  As for A.G. Bob McDonnell, he refused to comment on Monica Goodling's illegal politicization of the Justice Department, her invocation of the Fifth Amendment, or her eventual grant of immunity.  Instead, he stated only that he "watched with  consternation as some groups have attacked Regent's graduates on the basis of religious beliefs."  As you can see from the comments, not all Virginian-Pilot readers are fans of "Dr." Robertson or Regent Law School.

Comments



Combined pass rate probably means (Andrea Chamblee - 6/20/2007 2:23:47 PM)
the students who flunked in July after graduated and took it again in February and passed are counted only as passing, not as flunking-and-passing.

It looks like overall the combined rate for 2006 in VA is 68%, in Maryland 66% and in DC 51%. The average for 2006 was 67%.  For first timers, its VA 70%, MD 81%, and DC 67%. I guess the difference is explained that the students who have not passed once are more likely to flunk again.

http://www.ncbex.org...

There are a lot of factors that affect this, for example if you went to school in the jurisdiction where you take the exam, you should have been better prepared for the quirks of law in that state.  Also the quality of schools and the difficulty of that state's particular exam grading scale.  It looks like Montana passes 91% (maybe because the test takers are probably local - people don't study in NY to practice in Montana) and lowest in PR and CA (CA allows test takers to attend an unaccredited or non-US law school).



That's Why the Pilot Should Have Clarified These Statistics (Susan P. - 6/20/2007 3:09:18 PM)
If you're right about the meaning of "combined pass rate," first they eliminated those who have flunked before by citing figures for "first time test takers."  Then they skewed these figures further by giving these first-time test takers not one, but two, chances to pass, and citing the result as if it compared to the state average.

These figures are meaningless because they're not comparing apples to apples.  For purposes of comparison, they should have shown us the "combined pass rate" figured by this same method for other Virginia schools as well as the state average.  Or better yet, they should have just used the actual pass rate for all test takers.  (Those probably weren't as high.)

The bar pass rate in Virginia is usually around 70%, but that figures in all test takers, and the results are obviously usually lower in February than July.  If Regent's scores really "doubled" since 2000, good for them, but I would like to see the actual figures to back up that claim.