Tuesday, March 04, 2008

More on the Deadwood Report

Bob Morse of USNWR has blogged about it (see here), and he suggests that deans and faculty members may not be so sanguine about having the claims in their publications challenged by the Green Bag's Deadwood Report.  I think that all of us are looking forward to seeing how the methodology works:  every school's website and publications is different, and verifying claims will be no easy task.  Cheerleading for a school's programs is one thing, and I was happy to cheerlead for both schools for which I had the privilege of serving as dean.  But making statements that bear no relationship to reality is another thing altogether, which is why I welcome Green Bag's efforts.  Does anyone think that, at some point, the consumers of these various rankings systems will give up and go straight to the facts, such as the ones published by the joint ABA/LSAC Official Guide to Law Schools?  How much spin should consumers really need?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good grief, Morse's final words are:
"We look forward to seeing the first Deadwood Report rankings. However, we doubt that law school deans and faculty members feel the same way."

Maybe Deans and faculty members who are lying weasels are worrying. But why should anybody else?

Unknown said...

I agree, Ann--I'm hoping that the Deadwood Report puts some honesty back in the process!