Bar passage rates are used by the ABA Accreditation Committee to measure a law school’s compliance with two ABA Standards, 301 (educational program) and 501 (quality of admitted students).
Standard 501(a) requires a law school to “maintain sound admission policies and practices.” Standard 501(b) goes further, and prohibits law schools from admitting “applicants who do not appear capable of satisfactorily completing its educational program and being admitted to the bar.” Under Interpretation 501-3
Among the factors to consider in assessing compliance with Standard 501(b) are the academic and admission test credentials of the law school’s entering students, the academic attrition rate of the law school’s students, the bar passage rate of its graduates, and the effectiveness of the law school’s academic support program (emphasis added).
The Standards Review Committee proposes no changes to Standard 501, and only one change to Interpretation 501-3. The Committee proposes to add this caution to the end of 501-3: “Successful bar passage alone does not demonstrate compliance with Standard 501(b)” (emphasis added).
Among other things, Standard 301(a) requires a law school to have “an educational program that prepares its students for admission to the bar” (emphasis added). Interpretation 301-3 indicates that
[a]mong the factors to be considered in assessing the extent to which a law school complies with this Standard are the rigor of its academic program, including its assessment of student performance, and the bar passage rates of its graduates. (emphasis added).
Interpretation 301-6 indicates that a school’s bar passage rate is “sufficient, for purposes of Standard 301(a)” based on either its first-time, or its cumulative, Bar passage rates. A fully-approved school’s first-time Bar passage rate is sufficient if, in at least three out of the last five calendar years, its combined annual first-time Bar passage rate
in the jurisdictions reported by the school is no more than 15 points below the average first-time bar passage rates for graduates of ABA-approved law schools taking the bar examination in these same jurisdictions.
Interpretation 301-6, A.2 (emphasis added).
A fully-approved school’s cumulative Bar passage rate (over multiple attempts) is sufficient if at least 75% its graduates pass the Bar in some jurisdiction. The“look-back” window is the five most recent calendar years. A school can meet the 75% cumulative Bar passage rate either overall (for all graduates in the look-back window) or by year (for graduates in three out of the last five years). Interpretation 301-6, A.1.
The Subcommittee on Bar Passage proposes that the first-time Bar passage benchmark be raised to 10% below, and the cumulative Bar passage rate benchmark be raised to 80%. The Subcommittee believes that the five-year look-back window is necessary to mitigate the effects of differences among the states in minimum Bar passing scores.
For provisionally approved schools seeking full approval, the look-back window for both cumulative Bar passage is the period from the granting of provisional approval through consideration by the Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. Proposed Interpretation 301-6, B. For such schools, the first-time Bar passage rate must at least 15% below in at least two of calendar years. The cumulative Bar passage rate must be at least 75%, either overall or for at least two calendar years. Interpretation 301-6, B. Presumably, for the first periodic review, three years later, the school would have to meet the higher benchmarks for fully approved law schools (10% below first-time Bar passage rates) or 80% cumulative Bar passage rates.
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