“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Chinese Proverb

American Bar Association (“ABA”) Standard 314, Assessment of Student Learning, requires law schools to “utilize both formative and summative assessment methods in its curriculum to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students.” This article will connect multiple formative assessments to Bloom’s taxonomy to demonstrate how law teachers can transform and enhance student learning, while promoting key steps in the self-regulated learning cycle. First, it is imperative law teachers understand the education background and social landscape that our students, mostly Millennials, bring to law school. We can acknowledge that our Millennial students are different, but what does this really mean and how does this affect our teaching and their learning? Next, effective application of ABA Standard 314 requires law teachers to understand self-regulated learning and the connection between the stages of learning and various formative assessments. To ensure that we are meeting this challenge, law teachers must become facilitators of learning. By serving as facilitators, we acknowledge the importance of involving students in the learning process from the very beginning. This will ultimately result in shifting the focus from the instructor’s teaching to student learning. While there are various teaching methods, we will explore contemporary teaching strategies as a means of encouraging a student-centered learning environment. Utilizing contemporary teaching strategies fosters an environment that is ripe for effective formative assessment in our courses.

This article will address contemporary teaching strategies for effectively engaging Millennials across the law school curriculum. Part I will examine the experiences that define Millennials and how they learn best. In Part II, we analyze the impact of ABA Standard 314 on law schools. Part III discusses self-regulated learning and metacognition as tools for lifelong learning. In Part IV, we explore how the student-centered classroom enhances student learning. Finally, Part V demonstrates how Bloom’s taxonomy can serve as a framework for effective formative assessment.

In light of the national decline in bar pass rates, coping with and addressing a law school’s bar passage rate is viewed by some as an insurmountable undertaking. However, I see it as an invaluable opportunity to redefine who are as law professors. Most importantly this challenge provides an opportunity for us as educators to train future attorneys to become self-aware, confident, and component to handle the challenges presented by the legal profession.

The American Bar Association (“ABA”) has made it quite clear to accredited law schools and those seeking accreditation that bar passage is now a paramount factor in retaining and obtaining accreditation. To that end, year after year, proposals are being reviewed by the ABA with the overall goal of defining what is an acceptable bar passage rate for ABA approved law schools. As a result, some law schools find themselves scrambling to implement programming and courses aimed at facilitating success on the bar exam. While some will argue the bar exam itself should be the major focus of a law school’s curriculum, others will argue in the alternative that the bar exam does not accurately assess the worthiness of a law school graduate to practice law. Irrespective of the side of the argument you take, it is undeniable that helping students to acknowledge and conquer their fears associated with the bar exam is a necessary step to assist them in passing the bar exam.

Often bar examinees’ fears are rooted in familial or community pressure to pass, as well as standardized testing anxieties, past failures, self-doubt, or fear of the unknown. For many bar takers, irrespective of their rank at graduation, the bar exam is cloaked in mystery, which in turn perpetuates the “Big Bad Wolf” phobia associated with the exam. While some students are able to turn the fear and anxiety into motivation to pass the bar exam, far too many become paralyzed by it. Ultimately it is that very fear and anxiety that results in students’ failing the bar exam, before they even begin. In addition to the emotional toll on graduates, failure on the bar exam can wreak havoc on a law school’s chances of being in compliance with ABA Standards, and affect both the reputation and rank of the school.