At the end of the 2012 LSAT testing year (LSAC defines a testing year as beginning with the October administration of the LSAT and ending with the June test in the next calendar year). LSAC released a report providing information on LSAT performance based on a number of factors. Today we will look at the findings of performance based on race/ethnicity only. As the report points out, test takers were self–selected and voluntarily reported race/ethnicity. Results with respect to race/ethnicity are based solely on test takers within the United States (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).
Caucasians make up the largest percentage of LSAT test takers, though the percentage has dropped over the past 7 years; in the 2005-2006 testing year, Caucasians were 66% of test takers, while in 2011-2012, they comprise 60.9% of test takers. The next largest group is African Americans, and that percentage has increased over the past years. In 2005-2006, African Americans were 10.3% of test takers; the percentage has grown steadily and in 2011-2012, African Americans were 12% of LSAT test takers. Asian/Pacific Island test takers are the third largest group, holding steady at roughly 8% of test takers, though a slight bump occurred in 2009-2010 when about 9% of test takers were Asian/Pacific Islanders
In addition to the numbers of test takers by race and ethnicity, LSAC looked at scores within each ethnic group. Average LSAT scores were highest for Caucasian and Asian/Pacific Island test takers. Lowest mean LSAT scores were seen among African American and Puerto Rican test takers. The average LSAT score for Caucasian and Asian/Pacific Islander test takers was 152, while scores among African Americans were 142 and scores for Puerto Rican test takers was 138. Test takers who did not indicate their race/ethnicity had the highest LSAT score at 155.
The percentage of test takers who did not indicate race/ethnicity varied over the time period of 2005-2006 to 2011-2012. In the testing years 2005-2006 through 2008-2009, 1% of test takers did not disclosed their ethnic identity; this increased to 2.7% in the 2009-2010 testing year but then dropped off to about 1.5% for the 2011-2012 testing year.
The report in its entirety can be seen here: http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/research/tr/pdf/tr-12-03.pdf
