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The Law College Association of the University of Arizona (LCA) on behalf of the James E. Rogers College of Law — JD-Next
Program: Directed Grants Program
Grantee: The Law College Association of the University of Arizona (LCA) on behalf of the James E. Rogers College of Law
Grant Amount: $250,000
Summary of Grant Outcomes
The Law College Association of the University of Arizona (LCA) on behalf of the James E. Rogers College of Law – JD-Next
This grant funded JD-Next’s expansion into a self-sustaining program that is accessible and affordable for students. After answering the core scientific questions, the research team wanted to advance JD-Next’s value to transform legal education. The research team and Tech Launch Arizona directed efforts at finding a long-term home for JD-Next that would enable the program to have enduring impacts in J.D. admissions and preparation.
Overall, the research team created a scalable, self-sustaining program with school-specific cohorts run by their own coaches. Through these efforts, JD-Next grew to 32 law schools and six undergraduate institutions in summer 2023. After Aspen Publishing acquired the exclusive license for JD-Next in September 2023, the research team supported the transition, building on JD-Next’s momentum as a high-stakes J.D. admissions test.
JD-Next is an asynchronous, fully-online course that runs for eight weeks. The ABA allowed the University of Arizona and other law schools to request variances from Standard 503 to use JD-Next for an admission exam. Descriptive statistics are available from the summer 2023 course:
- A total of 2,850 students (1,525 matriculating first-year law students and 325 undergraduate students) enrolled in the course.
- 1,163 students completed the course, and 683 students took the exam (Note: Not all schools chose to offer the final).
- Of the 641 students who participated in the course evaluation survey, 80% of students who completed the course reported that they were “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied” with the course.