The Chronicle‘s Rick Casey (yes, Rick Casey) dissects the recent US News law school rankings that may have played a part in Houston Law Center Dean Nancy Rapoport’s recent decision to step down.
Here’s an excerpt:
The magazine polls the dean and three faculty members at every law school. In that poll, Houston ranks slightly above SMU and well above Baylor. This counts for 25 percent of the U.S. News rankings.
But the magazine also polls more than 1,000 lawyers and judges for 15 percent of its rankings. In that poll, Houston scores miserably, well behind SMU and Baylor.
The school, with a relatively small endowment and state budget cuts, also is dragged down by resource issues such as student/faculty ratio.
But the single biggest negative factor is the low scores nationally among lawyers and judges.
Leiter suspects that the sample is skewed to the coasts, something a former U.S. News editor I spoke with denied. I think many lawyers may simply not know the school, but have an image of Houston that does not project an excellent law school.
There is a box for “don’t know,” but few lawyers I know would be comfortable checking that box.
The former U.S. News editor, who defended the rankings as helpful to students, himself expressed surprise.
“I would never think of Houston as being No. 2 in Texas by peer rankings,” he said.
Clearly, the belief among those “in the know” is that the University of Houston Law Center is the second-best law school in Texas.
However, the low rankings nationally among lawyers and judges probably are a result of misperception, including a negative perception of Houston in general, but also a less-than-stellar perception of the University of Houston in general nationally. That’s unfortunate.
PREVIOUSLY: UH Law Center dean resigns.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston’s Clear Thinkers.
