David N. Yellen
David N. Yellen
Harold J. Krent
Harold J. Krent

Starting in July, those who take the Illinois bar exam will need four more points to pass.

Come July 2016, they will need another four points.

That eight-point increase is the result of the latest — and, it seems, final — discussion between Illinois law school deans and members of the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar.

“Obviously, the deans are disappointed,” said Harold J. Krent, dean of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, adding later, “but the decision’s been made, and the Supreme Court’s in line with it.”

The score Illinois test-takers must reach to pass the bar — known as a cut score or passing score — will rise from 264 to 268 in July and to 272 in 2016.

The cut score was originally set to increase four points in July 2013 and another four points two years later. In May 2013, however, the bar admissions board decided to skip the first step and institute an eight-point increase in 2015.

When deans from six of Illinois’ nine law schools voiced disagreement, the board said it would review its decision. It confirmed Wednesday that the cut score will still increase to 272, though spaced out over two years.

“If you’re against an increase in the passing score, you’d rather see it phased in than go in all at once,” said David N. Yellen, dean of Loyola University Chicago School of Law. “But if you’re against an increase in the passing score, a two-year phase-in is not exactly a victory.”

According to Regina Kwan Peterson, the board’s director of administration, the cut score is being raised in order to improve performance on the writing portion of the test.

The bar exam is comprised of a multiple choice section — the Multistate Bar Examination, or MBE — and a writing section. Illinois weighs both portions equally.

There is no required score for either portion. To pass, students must simply reach a combined score of 264.

In July, the average MBE score for Illinois test-takers was 147. That meant test-takers who reached that average could score as low as 117 on the written portion and still pass the bar.

In November, Peterson called a 117 “an unacceptably low writing score.”

By raising the overall score without implementing a required score on either portion, test-takers who scored the 147 MBE average would need 125 on the writing test to reach 272.

That’s eight points higher than 117 but still 11 points lower than the 136 score test-takers would need if the state mandated equal cut scores for each section.

With the national MBE score down 2.8 points from 2013 to 2014 — a drop that’s considered significant — law school deans and representatives of the National Conference of Bar Examiners have debated the cause of the decline.

In a letter to deans on Oct. 23, NCBE President Erica Moeser defended the test results, stating that the NCBE reviewed all potential causes for the decline.

“All (result indicators) point to the fact that the group that sat in July 2014 was less able than the group that sat in July 2013,” Moeser wrote.

Many deans across the country disagree with that assessment.

“It’s intuitive that when scores on a standardized test drop nationwide, there was a problem with the test, not the test-takers,” Yellen said in November.

In July, Illinois test-takers passed at an 80.9 percent rate, down 4.3 percentage points from a year ago.

Based on past performance and assuming conditions don’t change, Peterson said, she anticipates a 4 percent decline in the pass rate in July 2015 for first-time test-takers and another 3 percent decline in July 2016.

To test the potential impact in Illinois, the bar admissions board sent each law school its hypothetical July results for the past five years based on the 272 score, along with hypothetical statewide results.

From 2010 to 2014, the state had 11,688 July test-takers, with 10,361 people passing, an 88.6 percent pass rate.

With the cut score at 272 instead of 264, 9,525 people would have passed, a rate of 81.5 percent.

At Wednesday’s meeting at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Peterson justified the board’s decision by pointing to the Ohio bar exam and the impact of its raised cut score in the mid-1990s.

Passing rates declined swiftly at first, from 89.5 percent in 1995 for first-time July test-takers to 70.6 percent in 1998, with the rate dipping below 70 percent in 2002.

By 2009, though, the July passing rate for first-time test-takers was up to 81.3 percent. From 2009 to 2013, before the national drop this year, Ohio’s first-time test-takers in July passed at a rate of 81.8 percent.

The six deans anticipate releasing a statement on the decision sometime in the next few weeks.

Joining Krent and Yellen at Wednesday’s meeting was Dean John E. Corkery of The John Marshall Law School, Dean Jennifer L. Rosato Perea of Northern Illinois University College of Law, interim Dean Bruce L. Ottley of DePaul University College of Law and John Marshall’s associate dean for public affairs, Ralph Ruebner.

Dean Cynthia Fountaine of Southern Illinois University School of Law joined the meeting via conference call.

Joining Peterson were fellow bar admission board members John Carroll, Lawrence N. Hill, Randy K. Johnson and Brian J. Towne.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke also attended as the Supreme Court liaison.

In separate e-mails to the Daily Law Bulletin, Daniel B. Rodriguez of Northwestern University School of Law and Michael H. Schill of the University of Chicago Law School declined to comment.

Interim Dean John D. Colombo of the University of Illinois College of Law wrote in an e-mail that he is “not convinced that the action (of raising the cut score) matches the stated goals” and believes the topic requires “additional serious thought.”

The deans who attended the meeting agreed that they appreciated the time the board has taken with them, despite no obligation to do so.

Peterson said though the meeting was “heated,” the difference in opinion stems from differing responsibilities between the two sides, adding that “they are all, ultimately, very reasonable people.”

2014 JULY ILLINOIS BAR EXAMINATION STATISTICS
School Total Pass Pass % Fail Fail % 1st-Time
Test Takers
Pass Pass % Fail Fail % Test
Retakers
Pass Pass % Fail
U. of Chicago 75 72 96.00 3 4.00 75 72 96.00 3 4.00 0 0 N/A 0
Northwestern 140 131 93.57 9 6.43 138 129 93.48 9 6.52 2 2 100.00 0
IIT Chicago-Kent 223 192 86.10 31 13.90 214 190 88.79 24 11.21 9 2 22.22 7
DePaul 236 202 85.59 34 14.41 226 197 87.17 29 12.83 10 5 50.00 5
Southern Illinois 83 69 83.13 14 16.87 75 65 86.67 10 13.33 8 4 50.00 4
U. of Illinois 119 99 83.19 20 16.81 115 98 85.22 17 14.78 4 1 25.00 3
John Marshall 300 228 76.00 72 24.00 260 220 84.62 40 15.38 40 8 20.00 32
Loyola 223 177 79.37 46 20.63 206 172 83.50 34 16.50 17 5 29.41 12
Northern Illinois 80 64 80.00 16 20.00 76 63 82.89 13 17.11 4 1 25.00 3
Illinois Students 1,479 1,234 83.43 245 16.57 1385 1206 87.08 179 12.92 94 28 29.79 66
Non-Illinois Students 919 706 76.82 213 23.18 818 675 82.52 143 17.48 101 31 30.69 70
Combined, Statewide 2,398 1,940 80.90 458 19.10 2,203 1,881 85.38 322 14.62 195 59 30.26 136

PASSING PERCENTAGE OF FIRST-TIME TEST-TAKERS, JULY TEST, 2005-2014
School 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 10YRS
FULL STATE 87.08 88.90 88.61 90.32 90.00 92.00 92.00 90.00 88.00 86.12 90.59
DePaul 87.17 89.04 88.21 93.90 90.09 92.96 92.27 90.65 88.50 84.28 89.65
IIT Chicago-Kent 88.79 93.33 95.43 96.90 94.66 96.05 96.34 93.97 90.39 86.77 93.27
Loyola 83.50 88.84 91.54 89.12 89.05 93.20 94.86 90.65 91.88 90.87 90.28
Northern Illinois 82.89 86.32 85.33 86.84 84.15 80.28 94.90 83.12 83.33 84.44 85.42
Northwestern 93.48 95.69 96.12 93.97 96.15 95.54 98.21 94.74 95.59 94.57 95.36
Southern Illinois 86.67 91.25 77.63 87.50 84.15 92.06 94.29 91.55 88.37 86.76 87.89
John Marshall 84.62 85.27 84.31 85.38 89.07 91.70 89.81 90.04 85.60 74.49 86.03
U. of Chicago 96.00 98.63 94.68 96.34 97.40 98.67 94.74 97.59 98.70 97.40 96.96
U. of Illinois 85.22 96.03 97.73 92.04 93.24 96.77 92.05 93.63 89.80 91.82 92.91

OVERALL PASSING PERCENTAGE, USA VS. ILLINOIS
Year TOTAL PASS FAIL PASS % ILLINOIS
2013 59,590 42,958 16,632 72.09 85.19
2012 59,405 42,408 16,997 71.39 84.86
2011 57,074 41,489 15,585 72.69 86.55
2010 57,017 41,531 15,486 72.84 87.00
2009 57,305 42,565 14,740 74.28 89.00
2008 56,596 43,204 13,392 76.34 88.00
2007 56,449 41,167 15,282 72.93 86.00
2006 57,671 40,955 16,716 71.01 82.10
2005 56,478 38,210 18,268 67.65 80.84

ABOUT THE DATA
2014 statistics reported by schools
2005-2013 Illinois statistics pulled from CDLB records via schools
National stats from National Conference of Bar Examiners