Chapman Dean: U.S. News Rankings Methodology Penalizes Most California Law Schools

Following up on yesterday's post, Deans Say Rankings Penalize California Law Schools for Bad Economy; U.S. News Rejects Call for State-Adjusted Employment Data:  Tom Campbell (Dean, Chapman) has asked me to post his letter to the editor of The Recorder, U.S. News Methodology Penalizes Most California Law Schools, on TaxProf Blog:

Your article Deans Say U.S. News Rankings Penalize Schools in the Golden State reported the unanimous position of the California law school deans, who agree that California’s poor employment prospects are a drag on the rankings at all 21 accredited California law schools – even though they are no fault of the California law schools or their students. Put simply, if a law school in Iowa, where unemployment is 4.2%, places 85% of its students, and a law school in California, where unemployment is 8.3%, places 84% of its students, U.S. News ranks the Iowa school ahead of the California school. That is nonsense, if the purpose is to rank the quality of the two law schools. Nevertheless, U.S. News’ Bob Morse responded:

The schools that are underperforming or falling in the ranking, [it's] not because of the state of California's employment woes… but because their students are not in demand, or they're unable to obtain real legal jobs." Mr. Morse pointed to the list for proof, stating: "The top ten schools in California have seen little change in their rankings over the last few years, showing that their graduates are still in demand and they're still getting real legal jobs, despite the California employment status.

Mr. Morse’s statement is false: according to U.S. News’ own data.

Let’s look at the top 10 ranked law schools in California, U.S. News Methodology Penalizes Most California Law Schools, over the last three years:

#4 USC, dropped 2 positions in the national rankings;
#5 UC Davis dropped 13 positions in the national rankings;
#6 UC Hastings dropped 12 positions in the national rankings;
#8 Loyola dropped 33 positions in the national rankings;
#9 UC San Diego dropped 12 positions in the national rankings; and
#10 Santa Clara dropped 23 positions in the national rankings.

The other four top-ten California schools [#1 Stanford, #2 UC-Berkeley, #3 UCLA, #7 Pepperdine] stayed the same in the national rankings.

The “California effect” on our rankings has nothing to do with the quality of education our schools provide. So we proposed to U.S. News to normalize the employment data on law schools the same way they do for differing state bar passage percentages. If a law school’s graduates pass their state bar at a 70% level, that means something different about the law school’s quality if the overall state bar passage is 80%, or if it is 60%. So, U.S. News normalizes for the bar passage rate of the state. They should do the same for employment. Otherwise, law students in entire states like California will be penalized in the rankings not because a lack of quality of their training, but instead due to economic factors beyond their control.

Below I share the full chart showing the significant U.S. News rankings downtrend in California. May I kindly ask that you share this chart and my comments here with your readers?

School Name	2012 Rank	2013 Rank	2014 Rank	2015 Rank	1 Year Change	3 Year Change
Stanford	3	2	2	3	-1	0
UC- Berkeley	9	7	9	9	0	0
UCLA	16	15	17	16	+1	0
USC	18	18	18	20	-2	-2
UC-Davis	23	29	38	36	+2	-13
UC-Hastings	42	44	48	54	-6	-12
Pepperdine	54	49	61	54	+7	0
Loyola-L.A.	54	51	68	87	-19	-33
San Diego	67	65	68	79	-11	-12
Santa  Clara	84	96	96	107	-11	-23
Chapman	104	110	126	140	-14	-36
McGeorge	100	101	124	146	-22	-46
San Francisco	100	106	144	Tier 2	-2 +	-46+
Cal Western	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Golden Gate	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Southwestern	121	129	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	-25+
T. Jefferson	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Western State	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Whittier	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a