Law Deans call for investigation of California Bar Exam passing score

In a letter they have asked the court to support the appointment of a law school representative to the current five-member oversight working group that is coordinating the Court-directed investigation into California bar pass rates and bar exam scoring. The deans have argued that having a law school representative on the oversight committee for the investigation will help ensure a transparent, valid, and unbiased process.

Emergency action

California law school deans previously asked the California Supreme Court to take emergency action to lower the passing score to 135 from the current 144 to bring California in line with the national median passing score. The deans point to the passing score range of 133 to 136 for New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and Illinois – the next five largest bar testing states – in support of their argument that California’s current 144 passing score is an arbitrary outlier. The Court did not take the requested action, but it did order the current investigation into bar pass rates and minimum passing score and direct the State Bar to report back by December 2017.

'No good reason'

At public hearings this past February conducted before the California State Assembly Judiciary Committee, Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker,  Executive Director of the State Bar, testified:  ‘I’m embarrassed to tell you there’s no good answer’ to the question of why California maintains such a high minimum passing score on the bar exam.

Outperforming other states

According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, California bar exam takers in July 2016 actually outperformed test-takers in other states but still failed because of the high ‘cut score’ imposed. They scored higher on average (142.3) than the national average (140.3) on the multi-state portion of the bar exam - but California test-takers failed the exam by double-digit rates higher than virtually every other major state.

Reasonable

Barry Currier, the ABA’s Managing Director of Accreditation and Legal Education, testified at the Assembly hearing that, ‘it seems reasonable to suggest that California should align its passing threshold with other states, particularly other large states’.