In summer, 2007 Dr. Cameron Crandall approached the Law School (University of New Mexico) about collaborating on a joint training program for domestic violence. Since I teach Family Law, I was very interested in new approaches to addressing the issue of Domestic Violence. Professors and staff from the medical school and a legal aid attorney who specializes in domestic violence collaborated with me and my teaching assistant to design four problems using actors posing as individuals with health issues and legal concerns related to domestic violence. These problems involved standardized patients and clients with various types of domestic violence issues. We used the problems in a pre-test and a post-test for our training sessions.
While I agreed to participate in this unique collaboration because of my interest in domestic violence, I received a totally unexpected benefit from the collaboration: I learned a great deal about assessment. Even though I actually participated in the Best Practices Project, had read the Carnegie Report, and had a strong intellectual interest in outcome-based assessment, this experience was extremely enlightening. I feel like I have a much better understanding of what it means to assess student’s performance by developing goals and criteria and evaluating it. Next post I will tell more of the story….
Filed under: Best Practices, Outcomes & Assessment Techniques |
Best Practices for Legal Education 
To Ms. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez.
The horrific impact of a victim of domestic violence, at its worst – attempted murder, when one is also older (over 50), disabled (physically) & unable to work i.e. $ destitute; rendered homeless & critically injured & ill within minutes- is an issue ignored by the two branches of the law; enforcement & prosecution. Thus its failure to protect creates an unimaginable nightmare that seriously adversely impacts our ability to stay alive & complicates any health care needs. Denied our civil, legal rights we become a disdained burden on society esp. in ER situations. 1) I’d like to interact with you to add to your knowledge & perhaps missed issues; esp in rural areas & how to help doctors ID DV victims sooner. 2) the impact of DV PTSD is negligibly understood esp. its interaction with ‘justice denied’ and 3) we are a group ignored in the current national discussion on health care; & are the peak of the iceberg of baby boomers our husbands are trying to kill off or dump us onto society — because we are denied our ‘legal voices’. Respectfully, 5/28/09