The New York Times reports: “Many law school deans, bristling from criticism that they are replenishing their ranks with less academically qualified students as the number of law school applicants has fallen sharply, began to openly question the mechanics of the bar exam.”
I suspect that on average, smarter people are turning away from law as a profession and less smart people are charging into it.
According to the July 2014 test results of the California State Bar, 69% of whites passed, 38% of blacks, 52% of hispanics and 58% of asians.
Blog post: Bar Passage: California, the state that administers the most bar exams, reports pass rates by race. For July 2011, the pass rates for first-time test-takers were:
White test-takers: 75.4%
Asian test-takers: 67.3%
Hispanic test-takers: 55.3%
Black test-takers: 45.7%
Other minority test-takers: 59.0%
California allows graduates of unaccredited law schools, as well as apprentices who “read the law,” to take the bar exam, but those differences do not account for the racial disparities. The same California report breaks down bar results by educational preparation–with the same racial patterns in each group.
New York, the nation’s second-largest administrator of bar exams, reports similar racial disparities in bar passage. A study reviewing New York’s July 2005 exam reported the following pass rates for first-time takers:
Caucasian/White test-takers: 86.8%
Asian/Pacific Islander test-takers: 80.1%
Hispanic/Latino test-takers: 69.6%
Black/African American test-takers: 54.0%
