Over at the Leiter Reports, Brian Leiter offers some commentary on the new U.S. News law school ranking:
The most worrisome aspect of the new US News data (which should be on-line by Friday) is that it is now clear that the academic reputation survey component of the ranking is completely unhinged from any actual change in either faculty or student quality at the law schools in question. (A stunning example: UCLA, which made several significant faculty appointments last year, saw no change in its academic reputation score. Other schools in similar situations even saw their academic reputation scores decline! In general, the pattern is clear: the “peer reputation” scores among academics are basically gravitating towards the typical overall US News rank of the school, i.e., the “reputation” is being determined by the typical US News ranking which, itself, purports to be based in significant part (25%) on reputation. Talk about an echo chamber!)
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