UMES School of Pharmacy Tops Among HBCUs for First-Time NAPLEX Pass Rates

Pass Rates for First Time Attempts on the NAPLEX. Source: National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (Available at https://nabp.pharmacy/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NAPLEX-Pass-Rates-2020.pdf. Accessed October 27, 2021.)

For the third year in a row, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy (UMES-SOP) has claimed the top spot among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) pharmacy programs for first-time pass rates on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Exam (NAPLEX)!

The NAPLEX is a comprehensive exam designed to evaluate the general practice knowledge of pharmacy graduates. The exam results are used by individual Boards of Pharmacy to determine a graduate’s competency to become licensed as a Registered Pharmacist. The percentage of graduates who achieve a passing NAPLEX score on the first attempt is an objective and standardized metric that provides an “apples-to-apples” comparison of the quality of the education among different pharmacy schools. As a testament to its importance, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) requires every US pharmacy school to post its most recent year’s NAPLEX results for first-time test takers on its website as one of three quality measures that must be disclosed publicly for accreditation purposes.

This ranking is a remarkable achievement considering the challenges our Class of 2020 graduates faced while completing their education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once again, this demonstrates the dedication by all of the UMES SOP faculty, staff, and students to meeting our mission of “developing exemplary pharmacy professionals and scholars who are committed to patientcentered care, lifelong learning, discovery, and service for diverse communities of the Delmarva Peninsula, the State of Maryland, and around the world.”