I am going to delete the LSAT stuff for now, but will return if this paper flames out. Thanks for the comments.

I made a few comments on areas that either confused me a little, or that could use a little more detail so the reader doesn't think you overlooked anything. I really like how the paper reads, and the types of changes in classroom instruction that it advocates. -- Gideon, Apr 3

• I appreciate it. I have gone back and made some changes. Let me know what you think.

Teaching Lawyers

Introduction

Columbia is blessed with brilliant faculty committed to teaching, but cursed by dreadful instruction. As a former teacher and trainer of teachers and their managers, I am confident that our professors posses the ability and desire to do great things in their classrooms. Unfortunately, they lack foundational elements necessary to ensure student success.

The Ideal

Vision, Assessment, and Planning (VAP)

Teach For America, after investigating commonalities between successful classroom teachers, found that achievement is predicated upon (1) a clear vision of student achievement (2) plans aligned to that vision and (3) strong assessments.

VAP in the Classroom

Clear goals are essential for student learning. Teachers must know exactly where they are going and what their students will know and be able to do when they get there. Otherwise, the classroom is aimless - often based on content coverage rather than student mastery. By itself, however, even an ambitious goal is insufficient. Those goals must be broken down into units, weeks, classes, and activities – each aligned to the one before – so that every moment is used purposefully. Finally, assessments must be used both to gather information about student learning and to reveal teacher effectiveness. Good teachers use assessments to improve their teaching.

Teaching as Leadership

This framework is not unique. It simply applies fundamental characteristics of strong leadership to the classroom. When Eben says "all it takes to achieve a goal is to know exactly what you want to accomplish and exactly how to get there," he is articulating the same concept. When Barry Goldstein prepares a class action lawsuit, he first identifies the desired settlement and then traces back the steps required to get there. This is what leaders do. While thinking this way is unnatural to some, it can be taught, developed, and mastered. One can learn to be a leader.

Current Practice

Instruction at Columbia Law School Lacks Teacher Leadership.

I have spoken with each of my professors about their (teaching) practice. Only one has mentioned specific objectives for student learning. Others have articulated broad goals around critical thinking or speaking, but nothing concrete. Their focus is content coverage not depth of understanding. This was true whether my class had 31 (or 14) students as well as when it had 90. Success can happen in large class settings. What is necessary is not constant individual attention, but rather a strong sense of purpose that comes with working towards a meaningful goal.

Assessment is almost uniformly disastrous. Despite daily opportunities for informal assessment, syllabi are adjusted only due to time constraints. Where teachers should be determining student mastery and adjusting course, they are going through the motions of the Socratic Method, student by student, until they reach the end of their list. As a result, participation becomes an exercise in holding student attention rather than information gathering.

As for planning, the syllabi we receive are not roadmaps from ignorance to content mastery, but checklists covering various topics within a doctrine. We are taking survey classes as if they were Sunday drives: this is not mission driven education. Having students conform to a generic plan, rather than adapting instruction to student needs, prevents the majority of students from maximizing their achievement. The "read the next three cases in the casebook" approach to curriculum mapping is evidence of a misunderstanding of purpose.

It is possible that the poor teaching during 1L year is due to instructor apathy. However, almost without exception, each of my professors has been interested in my learning. In fact, the great majority of them are teaching 1Ls particularly because they sought out the opportunity. Professors want us to do well and they want to help, they just don’t seem to know how.

Improvement

First, I reject the idea that our professors do not take teaching seriously. Jack Greenberg, for example, doesn't need to work another day in his life. He is here because he enjoys it. The same can be said about most (all?) of his colleagues. Faculty members are accessible, if not eager to assist, and already spend time preparing for class. Just as colleges and grade schools provide professional development, we should, in addition to opportunities for faculty to discuss current developments in the law, create space for learning about current developments in education. Armed with the tools necessary to improve student learning across the board, many of our professors would take the initiative to adapt their practice: bringing their ability up to their ambition.

Second, the class curve masks teacher effectiveness. If every class has the same grade distribution, outcomes are not tied to teacher input. Grades should reflect how close students came to meeting ambitious classroom goals as both a reflection of student ability and teacher performance. Such a change would encourage teachers to ensure that every student reached their maximum potential without sacrificing the precise knowledge about individual student achievement they rely on to make judgments about a particular student's work. One way to accomplish this goal is to design the assessment prior to instruction, align it to an objective rubric, and have a third party grade exams.

Finally, the law school community must reward successful teachers as they do successful academics. Professors who mentor students into careers that suit their interests and desires should be celebrated.

Conclusion

By aligning instruction to the basic principles of leadership, classes will be more focused, student mastery will increase, and, therefore, Columbia will graduate more proficient lawyers. Since many (if not the vast majority) of the faculty already have the requisite desire to see students succeed, equipping them with the tools necessary to ensure success is necessary in order to create a 1L curriculum focused on student learning.

I really like what you're doing here, the only thing that I would say the second point that we could do to improve would be to tackle the the second "quick win." Maybe you'd want to acknowledge a lot of what we've talked about on the board about the fairness of methods of evaluation. So maybe say something about the methods of evaluation used, either a suggestion or say that its another 1000 word paper that you won't address.

-- AndrewWolstan - 01 Apr 2008