Active Learning and Law School Performance

Abstract

“Active learning” (AL) has recently become a cornerstone of the calls for reform in legal education in the United States. This article studies three years of data on a comprehensive AL program for first-year law students at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Florida in order to evaluate whether a student’s attendance at AL sessions improves his or her law school grades. Holding all other factors constant (such as undergraduate grade point average and Law School Admission Test score), we found that a student who attended all the AL sessions was expected to earn a cumulative first-year law school grade point average that is 0.47 grade points (on a 4.00 scale) higher than a student who attended none of the sessions. These results and similar statistical analyses of the database are presented.