Debate Begins on Reason for Drop in National Bar Passage Rates
Graduate Competence or Design and Scoring Problems? On Monday, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reported the onset of a debate about the surprising drop in bar passage rates on a national basis. It said: A steep decline in bar exam scores on the most recent test has led to an outbreak of finger-pointing over who’s to blame for the downward swing. In a sharply worded letter , the dean of Brooklyn Law School on Monday reproached the head of a national bar exam group for suggesting to law school leaders that their graduates who took the July exam were less prepared than students who sat for the test in previous years. The dean’s letter came in response to an October memo by Erica Moeser, the president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners , addressed to law school deans across the country in which she defended the integrity of the group’s exam and raised concerns about the ability of the would-be lawyers who took it. .....
