Date: Friday, March 28, 2003 10:50 AM
Someone called my attention to the "scorching critique" of the new data posted on the EQR site. Since it seems to be based on a misreading of both this new data, and the prior studies, I should be grateful if you would print the following correction:
First, Supreme Court clerkship placement was never a factor in the EQR rankings, and the data on clerkship placement is still available on the EQR site, and will be updated. All we have done is post new data based on a survey of leading legal scholars about faculty quality.
Second, AAAS membership was only treated as a factor back in 1997, but as many critics correctly pointed out the numbers (of AAAS members) are too small (and the selection process for the AAAS too incestuous) for this data to be meaningful. I have never used it as a criterion since.
Third, only 25% of the U.S. News ranking of law schools is based on a survey of academics, a survey that is badly conducted, for reasons discussed at length on the EQR site. To say that EQR is now "just the U.S. News rankings" reflects a complete misunderstanding of how U.S. News ranks schools.
Fourth, the EQR always employed reputational data, namely, the U.S. News data, which, at the time, was the best available. This reputational data is *much* better, for the reasons discussed on the new site. So this data that we collected is simply replacing the U.S. News reputationa data, which EQR used to employ.
Fifth, the only methodological change being made (as is clearly stated on the 2003-04 site) is to stop trying to aggregate components--faculty quality (by objective and subjective measures, student quality, etc.)--in to an overall ranking. The site will present the data disaggregated, with rankings by a single criterion (e.g., faculty reputation, faculty productivity, Supreme Court clerkship placement, placement in law teaching jobs) in each section. Students may then evaluate and weight this information as they deem appropriate.
Thank you.
======================== Brian Leiter Joseph D. Jamail Centennial Chair in Law, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Law & Philosophy Program The University of Texas at Austin 727 East Dean Keeton Street Austin, TX 78705 Ph: (512) 232-1319 Fax: (512) 471-6988
Homepage: http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/bleiter/