Tag: ncbe

  • NCBE Conference: final session

    Final session I attended was a discussion session for 0-2 years Bar members and staff, in order to hear the basic issues being raised.  Key points: Administration issues.  Training of proctors — what we’d call exam invigilators (teachers noted as excellent proctors), and monitoring of proctor performance. Grading Bar exams — variability in marking.  One…

  • Plenary: Candour in Disclosing Character and Fitness Issues

    The full title of the first speaker’s session is ‘Trends in Character and Fitness from the perspective of a Seasoned Law School Administrator’ — Ann Lukingbeal, from Cornell — Asst Dean, Admin.  She pointed out that students are sanitizing their applications to law school, ie concealing negative information.  eg at Cornell the ‘Have you ever…

  • Plenary: Significant Developments Affecting the Regulation of Lawyers

    Important plenary, with Catherine Carpenter, Gerald VandeWalle and Hulett (Bucky) Askew. First up, Catherine Carpenter.  Standards Review Committee’s Comprehensive Review  has been ongoing for over three years now.  She started with learning outcomes — something new to American law schools, she said.  The focus on outputs, not inputs, was essential.  And the Bar Exam as…

  • Breakout session 1: Testing for Law School Admission & Licensing

    I attended ‘Testing for Law School Admission & Licensing’ — Michael Kane & Peter Pashley.  The session concerned how measurement affects the ‘pipeline’ into the profession. Peter introduced the Law School Admissions Council — he’s principal research scientist.  LSAC started in 1947, and the first real LSAT administered in 1948 (though as I point out…

  • Plenary: Introducing the NCBE Content Validity Study

    Next up was the session on the Content Validity Study (CSV).  David Boyd introduced the subject by focusing on validity — assembling evidence that justifies the decisions made on the basis of test scores; and evidence that the test actually measures what it intends to measure.  Bar exams are licensing tests, he pointed out; and…

  • NCBE Annual Bar Admissions Conference

    The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is a not-for-profit body that exists to work with other institutions to develop, maintain, and apply reasonable and uniform standards of education and character for eligibility for admission to the practice of law; and to assist bar admission authorities in various ways. I was invited to speak at a session…