NCBE Announces Update to NextGen Exam Content, Extends Availability of Current Bar Exam
NCBE has announced that family law will be added to the list of foundational concepts and principles to be tested on the NextGen exam, beginning with the July 2028 administration. The decision was made in response to feedback from jurisdiction high courts, and after careful consideration by the NCBE Board of Trustees. NCBE has begun…
Faculty Perspectives on NextGen, Exam Structure and Duration, and More
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 Publishes First Sample Questions for NextGen Bar Exam
Note: In October 2023, NCBE announced that Family Law would be added to the list of foundational concepts and principles starting with the July 2028 NextGen bar exam. 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…
NCBE Publishes Content Scope for NextGen Bar Exam
Note: In October 2023, NCBE announced that Family Law would be added to the list of foundational concepts and principles starting with the July 2028 NextGen bar exam. 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…
Measurement Bias and the NextGen Bar Exam
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.…
Pilot Testing, Field Testing, and Prototype Testing
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 Publishes Updated Implementation Timeline
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: The Next Evolution of the Bar Exam
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,…
Content Scope and Item Prototypes Featured in the Bar Examiner
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…
Thanks for commenting on the Content Scope Outlines
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…
Jurisdiction Advisory Committee Holds Kickoff Meeting
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 Announces Members of the Jurisdiction Advisory Committee
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…
2021 in Review
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…
A Window into the Work of the Content Scope Committee
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…
The Ins and Outs of Test Design
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,…
The What and Why of Test Content Specifications
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,…
Content Scope Committee Begins Developing Test Content Specifications
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…
Announcing NCBE’s Content Scope Committee
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.…
Mapping the Road Ahead to the New 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…
Join NCBE in developing the next generation of the bar exam
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 Work Begins! Developing Content Specifications for the NextGen Bar Exam
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…
