Faculty Perception of Tasks Relevant to Academic Success in the First Year of Law School: A Longitudinal Analysis

Using results from surveys conducted in 2003 and 2018, we examined the perceived importance attributed to a set of specific tasks taught by faculty in required law school courses, with each questionnaire item in the survey corresponding to a task that describes a particular competency, such as critical reading. In this study, the results from two surveys completed by instructors of required law school courses are reported for a set of survey tasks representing competencies that regularly appear as topics in the legal education literature. We asked survey respondents to indicate the importance of each set of tasks for success in such courses. While one goal was to identify the competencies perceived as important by the faculty in required courses, another goal was to identify which competencies are becoming more or less important over time.