How might the changes that are coming with the NextGen bar exam help shape changes in legal education? In the latest issue of the Bar Examiner, four law school faculty members share their reflections on the relationship between the NextGen exam, their teaching, and their disciplines more broadly. Also in this issue, NCBE’s Marilyn Wellington…
NCBE has published the first sample questions for the NextGen bar exam. The questions provide examples of two new question types that will be featured on the NextGen exam: an “integrated question set” and a type of multiple-choice question not currently used on the bar exam. These new question types will be among those used…
NCBE has published the content scope for the NextGen bar exam, outlining the breadth of material to be covered on the new exam in eight areas of legal knowledge and seven categories of practical skills and abilities. This marks the latest milestone in the development of the new bar exam, which will launch in July…
The Spring 2023 issue of the Bar Examiner features a column by Marilyn J. Wellington, NCBE’s Chief Strategy and Operations Officer, that examines the issue of measurement bias and details the steps that NCBE takes to minimize it for both the current bar exam and the NextGen exam. Read more on the Bar Examiner website.…
The Bar Examiner’s latest quarterly update on the NextGen bar exam takes an in-depth look at the interconnected stages of research testing—pilot, field, and prototype—that will be performed over the next few years as part of the NextGen exam development process. Read the full column on the Bar Examiner website. The first stage of this…
NCBE has published an updated implementation timeline for the NextGen bar exam. The timeline provides a high-level overview of the exam development process that is currently under way, from pilot testing to the first exam administration. The earliest stages of the implementation process, in 2021 and 2022, were focused on publishing and gathering feedback on…
NextGen in the Bar Examiner Marilyn Wellington’s update on the NextGen bar exam is featured in the new issue of the Bar Examiner magazine, now available online. In this column, Wellington dives into NCBE’s history of bar exam development and identifies ways in which the new exam will represent an evolution from the current exam,…
Legal educators are invited to an update on the development of the content scope and exam format of the NextGen bar exam at two live webcasts held on Friday, September 30. University of Oklahoma College of Law Professor Jon Lee, a member of the NextGen Content Scope Committee, and NCBE Senior Assessment Design Specialist Beth Donahue will…
The latest issue of the Bar Examiner magazine features an update on the development of the next generation of the bar exam. We encourage you to click through to read the entire update, which includes: Content Scope Outlines: The preliminary Content Scope Outlines for the new exam were published and opened for public comment from…
NCBE would like to thank everyone who took the time to review our Content Scope Outlines and provide input on whether there are any significant oversights of the topics and lawyering tasks identified for assessment by the Content Scope Committee. Our public comment process closed on April 18, 2022, and we are pleased to share…
The Jurisdiction Advisory Committee (JAC)had its kickoff meeting on February 16, 2022. The JAC was created to ensure that jurisdiction perspectives would be heard regularly as we develop and implement the next generation of the bar exam. JAC members provide their reactions and opinions to help inform the policy decisions necessary to successfully launch the…
NCBE is pleased to announce the members of the newly formed Jurisdiction Advisory Committee (JAC), which will provide input to the Implementation Steering Committee on the many policy issues involved in the transition to the next generation of the bar exam. The JAC will help gather feedback and information to ensure that the views of…
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since NCBE’s Board of Trustees approved the Testing Task Force’s recommendations for the next generation of the bar exam. As we look ahead to the work still to come in 2022, we are also reflecting on everything we’ve accomplished over the past year. Following the Board’s…
The Content Scope Committee (CSC) has been working diligently over the last few months on its charge to make recommendations to the Implementation Steering Committee (ISC) regarding the breadth and depth of content coverage for the next generation of the bar exam, which is no small feat. Put simply, the CSC will make recommendations about…
In our August blog post, we took a closer look at the role of test content specifications in developing the next generation of the bar exam. This month, we’re ready to take the next step and tackle the ins and outs of the test design, which specifies the materials and procedures necessary to develop, administer,…
Our April 19 blog summarized work being done to develop the test content specifications (TCS) for the new bar exam, focusing mostly on how that work will get accomplished and who will do it—the stakeholders and subject-matter experts who make up the Content Scope Committee. This blog takes a closer look at the purpose of TCS,…
NCBE’s Content Scope Committee (CSC) met by video conference on August 6 to begin developing test content specifications for the next generation of the bar exam. The CSC’s inaugural meeting focused on the breadth of the topics to be included in the Foundational Concepts and Principles (subjects) identified for assessment based upon NCBE’s three-year study…
The Implementation Steering Committee is delighted to announce the selection of members for NCBE’s Content Scope Committee, which will assist us in developing test content specifications to delineate the scope of coverage of the Foundational Concepts and Principles (FC&P) and the Foundational Skills that will be measured on the next generation of the bar exam.…
Welcome to NCBE’s blog on all things related to the next generation of the bar exam! We will be using this space to keep stakeholders informed about our work to implement the recommendations of the Testing Task Force for the redesign of the bar exam. Our April blog post described the first task that NCBE…
NCBE is looking for lawyers and legal educators who want to contribute to the profession and shape the bar exam of the future by serving on our Content Scope Committee. These individuals will assist us in developing test content specifications to delineate the scope of coverage of the Foundational Concepts and Principles (FC&P) and the…
The Testing Task Force’s innovative recommendations for the NextGen bar exam were approved by NCBE’s Board of Trustees in January 2021, and we have since been busy mapping out our implementation plan. For starters, we created this website to keep our stakeholders informed of our progress as we develop and launch the new exam—a process…
