(3) to provide students with training in the necessary legal skills to be effective practitioners^[2] through our first year Lawyering Skills Program, our upper level Legal Writing Requirement,  our elective courses in such areas as Appellate Advocacy, Trial Skills, Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiating, Trial Practice, etc., our clinical and externship programs, and our co-curricular activities such as Moot Court and our three academic journals.

(4) to encourage our students to consider the moral and ethical foundations of legal practice and legal policy through both our course in Professional Responsibility as well as our courses in law and religion and social concerns.

Outcome Measures

In order to assess our outcomes, we have a number of mechanisms in place:

B We monitor our students= bar pass rates in the jurisdictions in which they sit for the examination.  Indeed, this annual reporting is required by our accrediting agency, the American Bar Association.^[3]  We receive results two times a year, and have begun an extensive program of transcript reviews and organization of data to attempt to draw correlations between various aspects of our program and student pass rates (e.g.: correlations between courses taken in law school and rate of passage).

B All employers who have our students as interns through our Becoming a Lawyer and Supervised Fieldwork programs must present written evaluations of our students= competency and effectiveness.

B In 1999 - 2000, we conducted a formal survey of alumni in preparation for our ABA Self Study.

B Several of our specialized programs B including the Securities Program and the Communications Law Institute B maintain active alumni associations.  These close-knit groups include many of our alumni and employers of our alumni.  They often provide feedback and input to our program directors as to the quality of our programs in these fields.

B Our Legal Career Services Office monitors the job placements B types and rates B of all our graduates.  Detailed reporting is required to the American Bar Association and the National Association for Law Placement.^[4]

Outcome Results

As a result of information that we learn through our outcome assessments, we have made some substantial changes in our programs:

B Our monitoring of our students= bar pass performance led to an intensive faculty Bar Pass Initiative over the past two academic years.   This has involved, among other things:

B The establishment of a law school Academic Support Program

B The hiring of a full-time Assistant Professor of Academic Support

B The offering of bar-preparation programs geared to the Maryland and Virginia bar     examinations, as well as to more general bar preparation skills

B Revisions of academic advisement programs to provide more focused information     about bar examination coverage

B A raising of our required minimum GPA

B Suggestions from our alumni and local practitioners can effect the course proposals that the Curriculum Committee reviews.

B In light of research into the skills most valued by employers and practitioners, the law school=s upper level writing requirement has been enhanced.

B Our Legal Career Services office uses alumni extensively in its mock interviewing and other career education programs to benefit from their experience and recommendations.