Enabling Black Students to Realize Their Potential in Law School: A Psycho-Social Assessment of an Academic Support Program
![handle is hein.journals/thurlr16 and id is 555 raw text is: ENABLING BLACK STUDENTS TO REALIZE
THEIR POTENTIAL IN LAW SCHOOL: A
PSYCHO-SOCIAL ASSESSMENT OF AN
ACADEMIC SUPPORT PROGRAM
KEVIN DEASY*
I. INTODUCTION
Black students have generally performed less well in law school,
as measured by traditional criteria of retention rate and grade point
average, than their white counterparts.' The difference has been
particularly pronounced in the first year of the three-year curriculum,
and black students successful in advancing to the second and third years
have tended to remain in the bottom half of their law school class.
In addition, black students have consistently scored lower on the bar
examination,2 and have not fared as well as white students in the job
market.3
* Instructor and Director, Mellon Legal Writing Program, University of Pittsburgh;
B.A.S.W., Pennsylvania State University; M.S.W., J.D., University of Pittsburgh. The author
would like to express his deep gratitude to his research assistant, Donna A. White, for her
hard work, dedication, and support in preparing this article.
1. Hamlar, Minority Tokenism in American Law Schools, 26 How. L.J. 443, 532-37
(1983); Holley & Keven, Minorities and the Legal Profession: Current Platitudes, Current
Barriers, 12 T. Mar. L. Rev. 299, 318-24 (1987) [hereinafter Holley and Kleven]; Representation
of Women and Minorities Among Top Graduates of Twenty Leading Law Schools, 32 J. of
Legal Educ. 424, 424-27 (1982) (minority students disproportionately underrepresented in top
10% of students in elite law schools).
2. Delgado v. McTighe, 522 F. Supp. 886 (E.D. Pa. 1981); Bernstine, Minority Law
Students and the Bar Examination: Are Law Schools Doing Enough?, 58 B. Examiner 10
(1989); Carrizosa, Bar Examination Stats Show Gains Across the Board: But Minorities Still
Lag, L.A. Daily L.J., July 16, 1987, at 1, col. 2; Emsellem, Racial and Ethnic Barriers to the
Legal Profession, The Case Against the Bar Examination, 61 (3) N.Y. St. B.J. 42, 42-44
(1989); Holley & Kleven, supra note 1, at 325-41; Klein, Bar Examinations: Ignoring the
Thermometer Does Not Change the Temperature, 61 (6) N.Y. St. B.J. 28 (1989); Klein, How
to Respond to the Critics, 55 B. Examiner 16, 19-20 (1986); Klein & McDermott, An
Examination of Possible Item, Test, and Grades Bias in the California Bar Examination, 4
Nat'l Black L.J. 553 (1975); Symposium: The Minority Candidate and the Bar Examination,
5 Nat'l Black L.J. 119-201 (1977); The Report of the Philadelphia Bar Association Special
Committee on Pennsylvania Bar Admission Procedures-Racial Discrimination in Administration
of the Pennsylvania Bar Examination, 44 Temp. L.Q. 141, 162-183 (1971); Wise, NYU Tops
in State Bar Exam, N.Y. L.J., September 6, 1988, at 1, col. 4.
3. Law School Admission Services, Inc., Data Book: U.S. Minority Educational
Enrollment: Law School Application, Enrollment, Placement and Teaching Patterns 66-88](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/thurlr16&div=36&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Enabling Black Students to Realize Their Potential in Law School: A Psycho-Social Assessment of an Academic Support Program
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