Latest news with #MultistateBarExam
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
California Bar says it has sued vendor over exam meltdown
May 5 (Reuters) - The State Bar of California said on Monday it has sued exam vendor Meazure Learning following the disastrous rollout of its February bar exam, accusing the vendor of failing to live up to its promises that its systems could handle thousands of bar examinees. The state bar, represented by partners from Hueston Hennigan, said it is seeking an unspecified amount of damages from Meazure. The state bar signed a $4.1 million contract with the company in September 2024 to administer the exam. A spokesperson for Meazure did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify a lawsuit was filed. California's February exam was a hybrid, two-day remote and in-person test that did not use any components of the national bar exam, which the state has used for decades. Some test takers were unable to log into the bar exam at all, while many experienced delays, lax exam security, distracting proctors, and a copy-and-paste function that didn't work. The state bar alleged that Meazure disabled its own spell-check feature because it froze the platform. "Test takers reported that copy and paste, highlighting, and annotation functions did not work. Even basic typing exhibited significant lags," according to the lawsuit the state bar said it filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. State Bar Executive Director Leah Wilson on Friday said she was stepping down from that post in July, citing the botched rollout of the new bar exam. Meazure is already facing two proposed federal class actions from two people who took the February test. Both lawsuits are pending in Oakland, California, federal court. Meazure has not answered the allegations in those lawsuits. California was the first state to break away from the national bar exam developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, as part of an effort to cut costs. The California Supreme Court on Monday ordered the state bar to use the Multistate Bar Exam for the upcoming July test. Meazure, based in Birmingham, Alabama, bills itself as the "largest and most experienced remote proctoring operation in the market" with more than 1,500 test centers in 115 countries. Meazure was formed through the 2020 merger of testing companies ProctorU and Yardstick.
Reuters
05-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
California scraps new bar exam for July, adjusts scores on botched February test
May 5 (Reuters) - California will not administer its newly developed bar exam in July, after the state's Supreme Court on Friday ordered a return to the previous test following a disastrous rollout in February. The California Supreme Court directed, opens new tab the State Bar of California to use to the Multistate Bar Exam — the 200-question multiple choice portion of the exam the state had used prior to the February test — for the upcoming July test. The court said that it 'remains concerned over the processes used to draft' the multiple-choice questions that appeared on California's February exam, and it also cited in its decision the 'previously undisclosed' use of artificial intelligence in drafting some of California's February questions. In the same order, the court approved several scoring adjustments requested by the state bar that are intended to address some of the various problems February examinees encountered on the attorney licensing test. The state bar on Friday told examinees that their results, which were originally scheduled to be released on Friday, would be pushed back to Monday as it worked to adjust scores based on the court's order. A state bar spokesperson declined further comment on Friday about the court's decision. California has the second-largest number of annual bar exam takers, behind New York. About 8,000 people typically sit for its July exam. The court-ordered return of the MBE, which is developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, is the latest blow to California's efforts to break away from the national bar exam in a bid to cut costs. The February exam was administered both remotely and in-person and did not use any components of the national bar exam that the state has used for decades. That change was expected to save as much as $3.8 million annually by eliminating the need to rent out large event spaces, but examinees faced unprecedented technical and logistical problems. The California Supreme Court in March ordered the July exam to be given in-person at testing centers, meaning that the upcoming test will have the same format and test components as before the development of California's own exam. The state bar now projects that addressing the problems from February's exam will cost at least $2.3 million more than anticipated for July. State Bar Executive Director Leah Wilson on Friday said she will step down from that post in July, citing the botched rollout of the new bar exam. The court's order sets the raw passing score for the attorney licensing exam at 534 — lower than the 560 score recommended by its standardized testing expert who looked at February's results. Raw pass scores can fluctuate each year and are converted according to a standardized scale. The order also directs the state bar to 'impute' scores for test takers who weren't able to complete significant portions of the two-day exam.
Reuters
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
California considers scrapping revamped bar exam after botched test rollout
April 30 (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court could ditch the state's redesigned bar exam in July amid mounting criticism of the new test's problem-plagued February debut. In a 65-page petition, opens new tab filed on Tuesday to the high court, the State Bar of California introduced the potential return of the Multistate Bar Exam, which is the multiple-choice component of the national bar exam produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The petition also asked the court to approve several scoring adjustments meant to address the various technical issues February bar examinees faced. The state bar administered a new bar exam in February that was given both remotely and in-person and did not use any components of the national bar exam. That change was expected to save as much as $3.8 million annually by eliminating the need to rent out large event spaces, but the exam was marred by various technical and logistical problems. The state bar now projects that addressing those problems in July will cost at least $2.3 million more than anticipated. Test takers and legal academics have also questioned the development and quality of the 200 multiple questions that appeared on the exam. Katie Moran, co-director of the academic and bar exam success program at the University of San Francisco School of Law and a vocal critic of the February test, said on Wednesday that the court should restore the MBE. 'After reading their petition, it is the most prudent thing to do given the number of issues with questions on the exam,' Moran said. The State Bar acknowledged that the California Supreme Court may opt to revert to the MBE 'so that there is not a risk that the process improvements are not effectively implemented before the next administration of bar examination," while also laying out its plans to improve the vetting and oversight of its multiple-choice questions for the upcoming July exam. The California Supreme Court has already ordered the July bar exam to be administered in person at testing centers. A spokesperson for the national conference said it would need a decision by June 10 to make the MBE available to California for the July exam. California produces its own bar exam essay and performance tests, but until February had used the MBE for the multiple-choice section. A California Supreme Court spokesperson said on Wednesday that the court had just received the petition and did not yet have any comment on it. A state bar spokesperson did not immediately provide comment Wednesday on the petition or the potential restoration of the MBE. Legal academics in California have pushed for the return of the MBE. Deans of 14 of California's 17 American Bar Association-accredited law schools requested that the MBE be used in July and that all of February's multiple-choice questions be released to the public for review, in an April 25 letter to California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero. After California bar exam chaos, state poised to nix remote testing
Reuters
28-03-2025
- General
- Reuters
National bar exam score hit record low in February
March 28 (Reuters) - Results for the February bar exam's multiple-choice portion of the national test were the lowest on record and suggest that pass rates for the entire test will be down. The average score on the 200-question Multistate Bar Exam was 130.8, which sank below the previous low of 131.1 in 2023, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The MBE score on last month's test fell short of the February 2024 score of 131.8. This year's MBE average is the lowest since its debut in 1972. Part of this year's decline is due to California's use of its own bar exam for the first time in February and no longer using the MBE, said Bob Schwartz, the National Conference's managing director of psychometrics. California examinees, who number between 3,000 and 4,000 each February, typically have a higher mean MBE score than do examinees elsewhere. When removing California examinees from the 2024 February MBE mean, 2025's year-over-year decline was smaller. The MBE is one of three bar exam sections, along with essays and a performance test. February's score decline is also partially due to the declining performance of repeat test takers, Schwartz said. The bar exam is given twice a year in February and July, with the February administration drawing a higher proportion of takers who have already failed the test once, which generally results in lower overall pass rates than July, since repeat test takers are more likely to fail the exam. This February, 71% of test takers were repeaters. Due to the widespread adoption of the Uniform Bar Exam — which enables examinees to transfer scores between jurisdictions without having to retake the bar — fewer of today's repeat test takers have already taken the bar exam and passed elsewhere, the National Conference said. Today's repeaters are more likely to have failed the exam at least once, pulling down the national average MBE score for February. California is not due to release results from its February bar exam until May 2. The state's hybrid remote and in-person exam was marred by widespread technical and logistical problems.
