A new ranking of the nationÂ’s law schools by a University of Texas at Austin professor places the University of Colorado School of Law at No. 16 in educational quality, a much higher ranking than the school received this year from U.S. News and World Report, which critics say penalizes public universities in its analysis.
Law schools around the nation have been up in arms over the validity of the U.S. News and World Report ranking system for several years. The No. 16 educational quality ranking for ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäÂ’s law school compares to a No. 45 law school ranking published by U.S. News and World Report this year.
A new system developed by Brian Leiter, professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin, ranks schools on factors central to legal education - quality of faculty, students and teaching.
“By omitting irrelevant and prejudicial criteria, the ‘Ranking of U.S. Law Schools by Educational Quality’ eliminates the biases against public law schools that are the distinguishing characteristic of the annual U.S. News rankings,” according to a press release issued by Professor Leiter's office. “Thus, the EQR ranks 50 percent more public law schools among the nation’s top 25 than do the biased U.S. News rankings.”
The law school at the University of Colorado at Boulder comes in at No. 16 in the general ranking of U.S. Law Schools by Educational Quality. ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä ranks 15th in overall faculty quality, 16th in academic distinction of the faculty, 15th in professional distinction of the faculty and 19th in quality of student body.
“We know that we have very distinguished faculty and students,” said Law School Dean Harold Bruff. “I'm happy to see that this review agrees.
Ranking schools by reputation is fine as long as those doing the ranking are informed,” Bruff said. “The EQR rankings provide more accurate rankings. The system uses concrete, verifiable information as a basis.”
¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder ranked 45th in the 1998 U.S. News rankings of law schools, which bases its rankings on reputation (40 percent), selectivity (25 percent) placement success (20 percent) and faculty resources (15 percent).
This year, 164 law deans, including Bruff, and the Law School Admission Council mailed letters to 70,000-plus law school applicants criticizing rankings, specifically those done by U.S. News.
“U.S. News has no idea how good our law school is. I'm glad someone else can tell,” Dean Bruff said.
Note: A copy of the Educational Quality Rankings of law schools can be found at .