All reports in LSAC’s Research Library are available upon request. Executive summaries are available below for the latest LSAT Technical Reports and other research published within the last 10 years.
Current Research:
This project examined the relevance of law school alumni networks to graduates’ careers. Two studies investigated intraorganizational and interorganizational influences on graduates’ careers; an ongoing third study investigates how these influences vary by gender, race/ethnicity, and school attended.
Item response theory (IRT) is a mathematical model used to support the development, analysis, and scoring of tests and questionnaires. For example, IRT allows for the description of item (i.e., question) characteristics, such as difficulty, as well as the proficiency level of test takers. Various IRT models are available, and choosing the most appropriate model for a particular test is essential. Since the fit of the test data to the chosen model is never perfect, measuring the fit of the model to the data is imperative.
Although law schools have seen rising representation of diverse racial/ethnic groups among students, minorities continue to represent disproportionately small percentages of lawyers within large corporate law firms. Prior research on the nature and causes of minority underrepresentation in such firms has been sparse. In this research project, we examined variation across large U.S.
Item response theory (IRT) is a mathematical model that is often applied in the development and analysis of educational and psychological assessments. Various IRT models exist, and practitioners must choose the model that is most appropriate for their particular assessment. Even when the most appropriate model is applied, the fit of the assessment data to the model is rarely perfect in practice. How serious, then, is model misfit for practical decision-making?