Success, Status, and the Goals of a Law School

We all want to be successful, even if we can’t quite articulate what “success” means. Some of us measure success by wealth—a bumper sticker reads, “Whoever dies with the most toys, wins.” Some measure success by power. Others measure it by positive influence on the lives of others—hence, the many who choose public service, or teaching, or a career in one of the helping professions. Still others—the Aristotelians among us—measure success synoptically, by the ability to look back on a fulfilled and moral life

Brady Statute Data: Establishing Noncriminal Classifications for the Alaska Department of Public Safety

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 prohibits the purchase of firearms by persons in certain noncriminal categories. These reports describe potential data sources for the identification of mental committments, addicted substance abusers, illegal aliens, and persons who have been the subject of a domestic violence restraining order and discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection for the purpose of Brady background checks. Lack of infrastructure for collecting certain types of data, incompleteness of information, and state constitutional protections, including the guarantee of privacy, are the chief obstacles to completely meeting the provisions of the Brady Act in Alaska.Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026Background / Needs and Benefits / Goals and Objectives / Project Design / Findings by Classification / Conclusio

Facilitating Meaningful Change Within U.S. Law Schools

Despite the widely recognized challenges and complaints facing U.S. legal education, very little is understood about how law schools can adapt faster and better. This Article uses institutional theory, behavioral economics, and psychology to explain why change has proven so difficult for U.S. law schools. Next, using institutional entrepreneurship, the Article explains the theoretical steps necessary to overcome the institutional resistance to change. The Article then discusses the characteristics of opportunities that are most likely to better meet the needs of law students while also providing sustainable benefits to the individually innovating law schools. Using management theory, the Article then proposes a seven-step change process model to enable individual law schools to systematically overcome institutional resistance, formulate unique strategies, and actually achieve meaningful change

Governing Change? Considerations for Education Policymakers

In the policy brief, Governing Change? Considerations for Education Policymakers, the Rennie Center examines models of education governance in other states and draws out lessons to help inform policy discussions in Massachusetts.In 2007, the commonwealth had three divisions within the public education sector: the Department of Early Education and Care, the Department of Education, and the Board of Higher Education. The rationale for better integrating these divisions is that if public education is to be a seamless process that starts in pre-school and terminates at the post-secondary level, then the system might be more efficiently and effectively governed by a single, unified structure. While there is growing interest in creating an integrated governance structure, there is also concern. However appealing the benefits seem, the challenges, substantive and political, of dismantling the current bureaucracy and assembling a new system are significant.The report presents case studies of four states that have engaged in the process of designing education governance systems that stretch from pre-school through graduate school and draws implications for consideration by Massachusetts policymakers.Considerations for PolicymakersAs policymakers contemplate changing the way education is governed in Massachusetts, this policy brief presents the following questions:What does the commonwealth hope to accomplish by changing to a P-20 governance structure?Who will be responsible for what? What will collaboration look like? How will the governance structure support collaboration and coordination between sectors?How will the commonwealth determine whether its new governance system has led to improvements in the quality of education in the early childhood, K-12 and postsecondary sectors?When addressing these questions, this brief focuses on four areas of education policy that would require reform: (1) alignment of standards, curriculum and assessment; (2) data systems; (3) finance; and (4) accountability. Using these four policy areas as illustrations, we examine the potential of an integrated system and what ideal practices might look like in each area.The policy brief was the subject of discussion at a public event on Friday, April 27, 2007 at the Omni Parker House Hotel

Health SPHere

Alumni magazine of the Boston University School of Public Healt

Branch Rickey, Affirmative Action and \u27Merit\u27 in Baseball and Education

When General Manager Wesley Branch Rickey broke Organized Baseball’s longstanding color barrier on October 23, 1945, by signing Jackie Robinson to a contract to play for the Montreal Royals, a minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Rickey catalyzed the movement for racial justice. Millions of people saw, heard, and read about black and white men playing side-by-side. Integrating the national pastime helped challenge segregationist norms across the land, facilitating the integration of military troops and public schools soon thereafter. Rickey’s stirring call in his 1956 Atlanta address to judge people on their merits rather than their pigmentation still resonates for leaders of another revered American institution—higher education. For the past half- century, universities have considered whether, why, and how race ought to play a role in selective admissions processes. The argument has moved past ending and redressing the wrongs of excluding racial minorities to focus on the benefits of including them, with universities arguing that racially diverse student bodies advance their educational missions. I was dean- in-waiting of Rickey’s alma mater, the University of Michigan Law School, when a legal challenge to our race- conscious admissions policy went all the way to the Supreme Court. In Grutter v. Bollinger, 3 the Court upheld our policy, concluding that racially diverse student bodies both help students to learn more from each other and help prepare them to succeed in a multicultural world so they can better serve the needs of society