[EDLING:622] Re: LSAC Research Grants

[Tamara Warhol]

Program Description

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Research Grants Program funds empirical
research related to legal education in the United States and in the common law
schools of Canada. The program welcomes research proposals proceeding from any
of a variety of methodologies, a potentially broad range of topics, and time
frames that range from students’ undergraduate consideration of legal education
to their first jobs following law school. Proposals will be judged on the
importance of the questions addressed and the quality of the research designs.
Eligible investigators need not be members of law school faculties. The Grants
Subcommittee encourages coherent, productive collaborations between legal
educators and administrators who know legal education most intimately and those
who have experience in designing and conducting empirical research.

Although the program supports only empirical research, a meritorious project
might be informed by any disciplinary perspective and be guided by any of a
variety of methodologies. Projects can be qualitative or quantitative;
cross-sectional or longitudinal; surveys, experiments, correlation studies,
systematic observational studies, and so on. The methods will be evaluated in
terms of their appropriateness to the research questions posed by the project.

Grants must be made to an institution or organization, not to individuals. It is
expected that individual investigators—or a lead investigator, in the case of
co-investigators—will be affiliated with a law school, university, or other
institution with which the contract for a grant award will be written.

Eligibility

Some types of projects would not be eligible for funding under this research
grant program. Examples of projects that would not be funded include: doctrinal
studies, curriculum development for a particular law school, conferences or
symposia, preparation of casebooks, and other course-specific material.
Applying for Grants

Proposals should include the following sections: cover sheet, summary, project
description (problem statement, literature review, and research methods), work
plan and timetable, dissemination plan, budget, CVs, and supporting documents.
The proposal should be double-spaced and printed in a font not smaller than 12
point.  LSAC will not pay indirect costs of budgets. However, upon acceptance of
the final report of the project, LSAC will make an additional payment to the
grantee institution in the amount of 15 percent of the total salary and wages
budgeted under the grant.

Submit 16 copies plus a copy on diskette in PC-compatible format to Lillian
Worthington, Law School Admission Council, Box 40, 662 Penn Street, Newtown, PA
18940-0040 (telephone: 215.968.1198; e-mail: Lworthington at LSAC.org; fax:
215.968.1169).

There are two reviewing cycles for these research grants each year.  The
deadlines are September 1 and February 1.  Decisions on proposals are expected
to be made within 3-4 months following those deadlines.  If you have any
questions, or would like to receive a copy of the LSAC Research Grants Program
brochure, please contact Lillian Worthington at the above address.

Law School Admission Council

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a nonprofit corporation whose members
are 202 law schools in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1947 to
coordinate, facilitate, and enhance the law school admission process. All law
schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) are LSAC members.
Canadian schools recognized by a provincial or territorial law society or
government agency also are included in the voting membership of the Council.
LSAC is best known as the sponsor of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The
LSAT is required for admission to all United States and Canadian law schools,
and is taken by more than 100,000 people each year.


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Tamara Warhol
PhD Student
Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
warholt at dolphin.upenn.edu