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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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Top law schools are much more likely to employ graduates of top ranked law schools than elite law firms, and the difference exists at both the junior and senior levels. We find no evidence that the graduates of top 5 law schools outperform grads of less prestigious schools in publications or citations. In the absence of a profit motive, academic hiring appears more likely to indulge a preference for pedigree, and by implication, this may explain other scholarly prejudices in the academy. (more)
Relative to law firms, law schools care more about the prestige of a lawyer’s school. Which makes sense if law schools sell credentialed impressiveness more than an increased ability to do real legal work.
Inbred Law Schools
"I concluded from that and other things that what we were selling was credentials, without a lot of effort if you wanted the education for free, you could get it. "
Well, given tests and lab work, your students do have to demonstrate a large amount of learning and applications. And I'll be that not showing up in class is strongly correlated with dropping out/flunking.
A more pedestrian but more pervasive demonstration of these concepts is the typical structures in pre-university public education. I could not get a job teaching science in a public high school with my PhD in Physics because I lacked an education degree and certification. But I could and did get a job at a reasonably good university where NO ONE was asked to certify or even demonstrate any knowledge, proficiency, or talent in teaching.
Among public school teachers in New York City (and I am pretty sure most other places), you go to take graduate level classes and you get automatically advanced in rank and pay. The credentialism of the public school systems is insanely high, and look what they are selling!
At least they eat their own cooking...