Research Reports: Equity and the LSAT

Abstract

Each year hundreds of thousands of hopeful individuals who compete for acceptance into undergraduate, graduate, law, and medical schools confront one major barrier—the standardized entrance exam. That such tests are used as "objective" means to legitimize inequality has been articulated elsewhere (Bowles & Gintis, 1973, 1976; Bowles &Nelson, 1974; Rosenbaum, 1976). Test results are used to winnow persons for admittance into post-secondary schools and, thus, serve to allocate desired resources. They represent a social issue that deserves careful study. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two of the fundamental assumptions of one standardized exam—the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). In addition to presenting data that call the assumptions of the LSAT into question, we also stress the need for a public policy of open access to standardized exams, if additional research is to continue.