The 2009 July Florida Bar Pass Rates are out. In order to illustrate my point that Bar Pass Rates are Over-Rated As A Measure of Law School Quality, I thought I’d not only sort the results, but calculate the number failing (the bar reports test-takers and test-passers). The numbers are in most cases reasonably small…
| # failing | Pass Rate | |
| FSU | 15 | 91.4 |
| U. Florida | 45 | 86.3 |
| Nova | 29 | 86.1 |
| U.Miami | 36 | 83.9 |
| Florida Coastal | 39 | 83.0 |
| Stetson | 38 | 81.8 |
| FIU | 17 | 80.9 |
| Non-FL schools | 178 | 75.2 |
| St. Thomas U. | 29 | 75.0 |
| Barry U. | 29 | 73.6 |
| FL A&M | 45 | 52.6 |
As I said before, “there certainly comes a point where a substantially lower bar pass rate than other schools in the state is a sign of a problem that a law school should work to fix.” FAMU’s score seems to suggest that, despite recent improvements, there’s still work to be done there.
Wow, I can remember when I worked at Stetson in the late ’90s and they were consistently #1 or #2 in pass rate. No longer.
On the other hand, I passed, so I guess that’s a good thing. 🙂 (I didn’t go to Stetson or anywhere else in Florida, for that matter … graduated from law school in 1994 and contemplating a mid-career change back into law; just wanted to stay in Florida.) Now I just need to be authorized to be sworn in …
Congrats Fl Progressive! Good to get that out of the way.
Only 47 more states to go…
so what happened to FIU – big drop? Yeah once you have more than 10 people take it look what happened…
The question in my mind is why were the numbers massaged (or were they)? If you downloaded the raw data from SCOFLA, you’d come up with both more test takers, and a considerably lower overall pass rate (mid 60’s). Clearly, these numbers were not used in their entirety by the FL bar, and based upon the numbers in this chart, must have been largely comprised of failing grades…
So the question becomes: Why the mismatch?
Not alleging anything bad – maybe there is a perfectly good explanation – I just wonder what it is?
My understanding is that the chart is based upon first time test takers only. The lower overall bar passage rate is attributed to previous test takers repeating the failing performance.
My understanding is the same as “Just Me”: people think repeat failures don’t tell you as much as the first time test-takers (which more compares like with like). And who knows how long ago they went to law school….