HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Kentucky Bar Passage Rates Crater: UK, Louisville Down 15%, 20% Since 2011. “While not every state has released final bar exam results from this summer, most that have released their results saw a similar decline in pass rates in 2016, continuing a downward trend in recent years.” So people who follow these things tell me that this is mostly because the bar examiners are getting more restrictive to hold down competition in a troubled legal market. Kind of unfair to do this at the back end, after people have spent 3 years in law school. But there’s this:
These declining pass rates around the country have been accompanied by a drop in the mean Bar Exam Score, which is derived from a standard multiple choice section from exams in each state. The mean score of July exams slightly increased nationally to 140.3 in 2016, but is still the second-lowest recorded since 1988 and is over five points lower than what it was in 2008. …
Some commentators have blamed the falling bar exam pass rates and scores around the country on law schools increasingly lowering their admissions standards, arguing that this is the inevitable outcome of pushing unprepared students into the field.
Hmm. Plus, from the comments: “These results are disgraceful. Isn’t Louisville the law school that passed a social justice resolution and required the faculty and students to take diversity training? Dean Duncan should concentrate on turning out lawyers not social justice warriors.”