College of Law receives grant to study bar exam passage rates

Throughout the pandemic, most Willamette Law graduates prepared in isolation for the bar exam. Even after a return to in-person instruction, and even with a robust BEAST program and strong faculty support, the school’s administration found that students continued preparing for the exam alone.

Collaborative bar exam preparation became difficult to encourage. As bar exam pass rates have declined nationally against this backdrop, faculty and staff began to wonder if bar passage rates would increase for examinees studying with and being accountable to their peers.

An idea began to emerge from the success of 1L students’ cohort structure in their first academic year. What if a similar model was applied to bar prep? Staff began to think about the ideal study environment and how to ensure the highest chance of success on the bar.

Thanks to a generous grant from AccessLex Institute through its Bar Success Intervention Grant Program, this idea is becoming a reality at Willamette Law. The grant is enabling the school to examine how a cohort-based bar study program impacts first-time passage rates. One of the elements of the program will be the Helix Bar Review by AccessLex.

“This grant helps us build off of what we have already been doing with the BEAST program and our faculty support system,” says Melodye Mac Alpine, associate dean for student affairs and administration.

By providing students with the resources they need to study for and pass the bar, the burden and isolation will ease, she says.

Willamette Law will have one cohort each in Summers 2023 and 2024. Each participant will receive a stable place to study at the school, faculty mentors, on-campus housing, physical and mental well-being resources, and a stipend to offset living expenses during the period of study. This support will help bar examinees focus fully on their studies and minimize everyday stresses.

“Until we have a 100% bar pass rate, there is room for improvement and innovation,” Mac Alpine says. “We want to make sure we are doing what we can to support students to become practicing lawyers, and the bar exam is an important hurdle to cross before they can get there.”

Professor Amy Meyers, Willamette Law’s director of bar preparation, will work closely with the students along with Mac Alpine. As the cohorts progress, Professor Courtney Stevens, who teaches psychology at Willamette University, will assist in research design and program evaluation. The data collected will benefit law schools across the country who may eventually want to replicate the program.