CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2013 ® Volume 159, No. 225 Almost perfect U. of C. hits 99 percent on bar exam pass rate, all ILL. schools finish above average BY JAMIE LOO Law Bulletin staff writer It wasn’t even close this year. Perfection was the only way to beat the University of Chicago Law School. The school posted a 99 percent pass rate on the July 2013 bar exam — the highest among the nine Illinois law schools. “I’m very happy that our students have collectively done so well on this year’s bar exam,” said Michael H. Schill, dean of the law school. The university’s bar pass rate for first-time test-takers is a 4.4 percentage point increase over last year’s 94.6 percent result. Of the 73 students who sat for the July exam, 72 passed. When it comes to getting so close to that perfect score, Schill said, “every dean has the same desire — to have every new graduate pass the bar exam the first time around. The closer we get to that, the happier I am.” Schill also noted that year-toyear pass-rate fluctuations are the result of shifts in just a few students. In other words, with such a relatively small number of students taking the exam in Illinois, the pass percentage drops even if just one or two more students fail. In addition, the law school has many graduates who take the bar exam all over the country, “so the school does not have a huge number of people taking any one state’s exam in any given year,” he said. The overall pass rate for all test-takers of the Illinois bar exam in July was 85 percent, said Regina Kwan Peterson, director of administration for the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar. Out of the 2,592 total testtakers, 2,208 passed and 384 failed. Among the 2,388 first-time test-takers, 2,123 passed and 265 failed, an 89 percent pass rate. All nine Illinois law schools posted pass rates above the national average. The University of Illinois College of Law came in second this year, at 96.03 percent. Of its 151 first-time test-takers, 145 passed and six failed. “We are extraordinarily proud of our recent graduates, who, again this year, performed outstandingly on the Illinois bar,” said Illinois law school Dean Bruce P. Smith. “These results testify to the intelligence, dedication, judgment, and professionalism for which Illinois graduates are known, as well as to the rigorous professional training that our faculty and staff provide at the University of Illinois College of Law.” Following in third is Northwestern University School of Law, with a bar pass rate of 95.69 percent for its 116 first-time Michael H. Schill test-takers. Of those, 111 passed and five failed. “As it is every year, it’s a good deal higher than the overall average for first-time test-takers. I’m quite pleased with that,” said Daniel B. Rodriguez, dean of Northwestern’s law school. IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law had 225 graduates take the bar for the first time in July — 210 passed and 15 failed, a pass rate of 93 percent. “I’m pleased that the overwhelming percentage of our students passed the bar on their first try,” said Chicago-Kent law school dean Harold J. Krent. “It lets them focus on obtaining the best jobs as quickly as they can.” Southern Illinois University School of Law jumped the highest in the state rankings, moving from last to fifth place this year with a 91 percent pass rate. Of the 80 first-time testtakers from SIU, 73 passed and 7 failed. “I am extremely proud of our students’ success on the Illinois bar exam. I know the hard work and perseverance that went into these fantastic results,” said SIU law school dean Cynthia Fountaine. “I believe that SIU Law’s success on the bar examination is a reflection of the outstanding training our students receive in law school.” DePaul University College of Law had 228 first-time test takers, with 203 graduates passing and 25 failing, an 89.04 percent rate. Loyola University Chicago School of Law had a 88.84 pass rate for first-time test-takers. A total of 215 graduates took the test; 191 passed and 24 failed. From Northern Illinois University College of Law, 95 graduates took the exam with an overall pass rate of 86 percent. Of this group, 82 passed and 13 failed. The John Marshall Law School had 258 first-time testtakers with a pass rate of 85 percent. Of those, 220 passed and 38 failed. All nine Illinois law schools finished above the 81 percent 2012 national average for firsttime test-takers at American Bar Association-accredited schools, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Although the ABA collects bar pass rates from individual schools, it does not track or rank the schools based on that information. The ABA approved bar pass rate rules in 2008, amidst pressure from the U.S. Department of Education to adopt consistent standards for accreditation and as part of its ongoing comprehensive review of the ABA Standards and Rules for Accreditation of Law Schools. The current rules were part of an interpretation of Standard 301 (a), a general requirement that law schools provide a quality education to students that prepares them for admission to the bar, said Barry Currier, ABA managing director of accreditation and legal education. He said the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Standards Review Committee would like to formally adopt standards for bar pass rates. The 2008 interpretation provides three different bar-pass rate options for law schools to meet accreditation requirements. The first is that 75 percent of graduates who took the bar in the five most recent calendar years pass the exam. Another test requires 75 percent of a law school’s test-takers to pass in at least three out of the five most Copyright © 2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company. Bruce P. Smith Daniel B. Rodriguez Harold J. Krent Cynthia Fountaine recent years. Both of these standards allow a law school to count all of its graduates who pass in that five-year time span, including graduates who take the exam up to nine times. The third option is based on first-time test-takers, in which a law school’s bar passage rate for that group can be no more than 15 points below the average of the first-time bar passage rate at ABA-approved law schools in that same jurisdiction, in three out of the five most recent years. The standards review committee is considering a few different changes to the rules, such as requiring an 80 percent bar pass rate for all of a law school’s graduates within two years of graduation. The firsttime test-taker rule would be eliminated. The proposal would also include requiring law schools to report on all of its graduates who took the bar exam, including those who fail and choose not to take it again. The current ABA rules only require schools to report results for 70 percent of its graduates because of difficulties in tracking all class members, who may take the bar in states other than a school’s jurisdiction. The ABA committee recognizes the issues involved in asking schools to report on 100 percent of its students, Currier said, and that addressing some of these would likely preclude adoption of such a rule. He said the ABA is looking for ways to make it easier for schools to get results from bar examiners. Some state bar offices have small staffs and limited resources. “It’s not so much about cooperation, but communication flow,” he said. Bar examiners in each state handle distribution of the results differently. Some state bar examiners automatically provide law schools in their jurisdictions with the results of all of their graduates, while others leave it up to schools to compile their own lists or track down graduates individually. In Illinois, the state bar admissions board does not track pass rates for individual law schools. Test-taker privacy is another issue, Currier said, and one suggestion the committee is exploring is a universal release form that graduates can sign, releasing their bar results to their schools. The bar-pass rate is just one of many standards that the legal education and admissions standards review committee has been reviewing for the past few years. Although the bar pass rate issue is still in committee discussion and a formal proposal and notice for comment has not been issued, the committee is already receiving letters from law schools, bar groups and others concerned about the proposal. Currier said there is no specific timeline for when the overall standards review will be completed. “We would like to get it done promptly,” he said. Copyright © 2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company.
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