Shawn Boyne, Lahny R. Silva, Jennifer Drobac, R. Bruce Townsend, Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Principal Investigator: Shawn Boyne, professor, Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Co-principal Investigators: Lahny R. Silva, professor, and Jennifer Drobac, R. Bruce Townsend Professor of Law, Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Project Title: Measuring Achievement of J.D. Program Competencies in Criminal Law Courses
Funding Level: $10,000
Abstract:
In 2014, the American Bar Association mandated that all law schools develop and adopt competency-based learning outcomes. In response to that mandate, the IU McKinney faculty have endorsed nine program learning outcomes for the Juris Doctor program and are currently in the process of reducing those outcomes to specific knowledge and skill-based competencies. The purpose of this project is to develop a prototype assessment rubric that links students’ competency levels using the Bloom’s taxonomy. We will then use that rubric to assess student progress through the criminal law curriculum through the use of multiple choice questions administered on existing final exams in the various sections of our first year criminal law course as well as our upper level course in criminal procedure. This pilot program will advance the J.D. program assessment process by: 1) developing a process through which faculty members may work collaboratively to develop subject specific rubrics that track our J.D. program objectives; 2) partially restructuring their current course summative assessments so that they will generate data that will allow the law school to measure student progress towards meeting J.D. program objectives, and 3) developing a rubric of individual and group learning activities that are tied to the different developmental levels. Although this project will originally target courses in the field of criminal law and procedure, if the project is successful, we anticipate that it will serve as a template for other disciplines in the law school and thereby spearhead the school’s larger assessment initiative.