There are several resources that can provide ASP and bar support professionals with assistance. For those of you who are new to ASP, here are some organizations and websites that you want to know about:
Professional organizations and other resources for ASP:
- Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Academic Support: The upcoming annual meeting will be held January 3-7, 2017 in San Francisco. The annual meeting theme this year is "Why Law Matters." The sessions for our Section are scheduled: business meeting will be at 7:30 – 8:30 a.m. on Friday, January 6th with the program (Why Academic Support Matters) on the same date at 8:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, January 4th programs of interest include: The Section on Student Services program (Why Student Services Matters: Preparing Students for Leadership, Service, and Learning 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and The Section on Teaching Methods program (Teaching Methods – Using Technology to Unlock Engagement and Learning 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. The Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research program (Experiential Learning in Legal Writing Programs) is on Thursday, January 5th at 1:30 – 3:15 p.m. The Section on Balance in Legal Education program (Transformative Learning: Helping Students Discover Motivation, Values and Voice is on Friday, January 6th at 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. There are a number of Arc of Career, diversity, and legal education sessions that might also interest ASP'ers. The annual meeting information can be found at http://www.aals.org/am2017/.
- Association for Academic Support Educators (AASE): The upcoming conference will be held May 23 – 25 2017 at Texas A&M in Fort Worth. The AASE website is http://www.associationofacademicsupporteducators.org/.
- The ASP Listerv: The listserv membership is available to legal educators who are interested in ASP/bar topics. A recent post giving instructions to join the listserv is here.
- The Law School Academic Success Project: This website is maintained by the AALS Section on Academic Support and receives ongoing funding from the Law School Admissions Council. The website includes sections for ASP'ers and for students. Student pages are available without registration. To see the additional ASP pages, you need to be employed currently at a law school in ASP/bar-related work and register. After you register on the site, please update the staff information for your law school to reflect current staff. The website is www.lawschoolasp.org.
Websites and listservs for ASP:
- American Bar Association: The Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will be of interest. The website for the Section is http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education.html.
- Institute for Law Teaching and Learning: This consortium of law schools provides resources and conferences focused on best practices for legal education. The website is www.lawteaching.org.
- Law School Admissions Council (LSAC): LSAC has long been a champion of the academic support profession and diversity in the legal profession. For many years, LSAC sponsored workshops and conferences for ASP'ers. The website is www.lsac.org.
- National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE): The organization that brings us the non-state portions of the bar exam. The website is www.ncbex.org.
