NCBE Creates Task Force to Undertake Three-Year Study to Examine Bar Exam
The organization that tests bar examinees is now examining itself.
On April 23, 2018, the NCBE announced that it had appointed a Testing Task Force charged with undertaking a three-year study to ensure that the bar examination continues to test the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for competent entry-level legal practice in the 21st century.
According the Testing Task Force’s website at www.testingtaskforce.org:
This comprehensive, future-focused study will identify core competencies for newly licensed lawyers and explore when and how those competencies should be assessed, helping to ensure that the assessment of core legal competencies keeps pace with a rapidly evolving legal profession. The study will be supported by research conducted by independent professionals with relevant technical expertise, and the Task Force will solicit input from state bar admitting authorities, legal educators, and legal professionals, recognizing a shared objective of ensuring the protection of the public and the readiness of new lawyers to join the profession.
The Task Force plans to complete its work and submit its report to the NCBE Board of Trustees by the end of 2020.
Kudos to the National Conference of Bar Examiners for this much-overdue endeavor. It’s much needed at a time when bar passage rates are declining.
The NCBE has attempted to put together a task force that brings together a variety of individuals on the bench, in private practice, and on state boards of bar examiners, as bar administrators, as legal employers, and as legal educators.
But, in my opinion, it seems odd that the entity specifically convened to look at the current bar exam has no members that have recently taken the bar exam—and some members who have never taken the bar exam at all.
An examination of the nine members identified on the Task Force’s website reveal that the members have at least a total of 83 years of experience with the NCBE, each averaging at least nine years of experience.
Of the eight members who graduated from law school, the average year of graduation is 1981, meaning that the members have an average of 37 years of post-law school experience. Looking at the seven members who took the bar exam (Judith A. Gundersen, President of the NCBE, graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School and, thus, did not sit for the bar exam before the state’s “diploma privilege”), they took the bar exam as far back as 1967 and most recently in 1994. In other words, none of the Task Force members took the bar exam in any state as the bar exam now exists in that state.
Also, five of the eight law schools from where the nine Task Force members graduated (one member does not have a J.D.) are ranked in the Top 30 among all law schools, based on the current U.S. News rankings. The average ranking of the represented law schools puts it in the top third of all law schools.
While the Task Force indicates that it will soon retain an independent research consultant to outline a research plan for the study and solicit feedback and input from other stakeholder groups that are also currently studying the bar exam—like various state boards of bar examiners and AccessLex Institute—the current Task Force’s membership might be a bit out of touch with the 70,000 examinees who take the bar exam each year.
As someone who has worked with thousands of students and assisted them with law school and the bar exam, I applaud the NCBE’s creation of the Testing Task Force. However, I hope its members do not forget to solicit input from the hundreds of academic success and bar preparation professionals at law schools who work “in the trenches” and directly with the examinees who have taken and will be taking the very exam that the Task Force is studying.
For an entity that has generally been criticized for its lack of transparency, the NCBE promises that the Task Force will share updates on its website as the study progresses. Stay tuned.
