Since launching our grantmaking activities in 2014, we have awarded over $21 million in support of our research priorities: access, affordability, and the value of legal education.
Awarded Grants
Grant Program
Grant Status
University of Northern Colorado
A $49,423 research grant was awarded to Amy Li, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, to examine the relationship between law school costs and attendance rates.
Council of Graduate Schools
A $49,851 research grant was awarded to Hironao Okahana, Higher Education Researcher, to examine access to graduate and professional education, factors that are associated with attrition, and the effects that departure without earning a degree has on the future economic prospects of students.
American University
A $50,000 research grant was awarded to Erdal Tekin, Professor with the Department of Public Administration and Policy, to explore whether exposure to adjunct (part-time) law school instructors affects students’ success.
University of Wisconsin
A $49,999 research grant was awarded to Xeuli Wang, expert on Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, to explore whether community college attendance plays a role in baccalaureate recipients’ access to graduate and professional education.
New York University
A $49,862 research grant was awarded to Gregory Wolniak, Director of the Center for Research on Higher Education Outcomes, to examine access and completion disparities in graduate education among students of different gender and racial/ethnic identities.
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
The Before the JD project will study (1) the opinions held by students at, and recent graduates from, four-year colleges and universities in the United States about legal education and the legal profession; (2) their sources of information about legal education; and (3) the factors that influence their postgraduate choices.
American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation received a grant for the Emerging and Visiting Scholars Fellowship Program in Legal and Higher Education project. Doctoral fellows and visiting scholars will have access to an interdisciplinary scholarly community and benefit from mentoring provided by the ABF’s research faculty. This professional network of scholars will produce innovative, objective, empirical, and interdisciplinary research in legal and higher education.
Elon University School of Law
This grant studies the impact and benefits of its innovative new curriculum. Major components include shortening the general course of study to two and a half years, reducing cost by nearly 25 percent and enhancing the educational experience by requiring that all students complete substantial experiential learning components.
To read more, please visit Study: Lower debt, stronger diversity & improved outcomes at Elon Law
University of Pennsylvania
The Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education received a grant to analyze the law school admissions market. A set of regression models were estimated for predicting the prices charged by law schools reporting data to the American Bar Association. Similarly, institutional characteristics such as LSAT scores, bar passage rates and employment outcomes were mapped.