The dean of the UND Law School says she’s concerned about the number of law school graduates who passed the most recent state bar exam.
Only 56 percent of the UND graduates passed the bar on their first try this summer.
"This is a pass rate that we're disappointed in," said Dean Kathryn Rand. "We want to make sure our graduates are seeing success on the bar exam."
Rand says the school is working with data from the students – to try and find out why this is happening. She says as of 2013, the law school is allowed to mine that data.
"That's something that we've been using to make sure we're aligning things like our curricular efforts, our academic support efforts, and how we advise students regarding the bar exam," said Rand. "But we have only had that data since 2013. As we're analyzing it, I'm not sure we see a single factor standing out."
Rand says UND will be talking to those students who did not pass the bar exam – and to offer them help to prepare for another attempt to pass the bar. And she says the law school will be offering a new bar preparation course beginning in the spring semester.
"That's one of the reasons the data from the state is so important, so that we can insure that what we're doing is responsive to what our graduates are actually experiencing on the bar exam," said Rand. She says her top priority is to help make sure students who get a law degree from UND can become licensed lawyers.
