Washington State Bar Association beefs up tech support for NextGen UBE retake
Following the scrapped administration of the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination in Washington in July, the Washington State Bar Association has doubled down on backup technology support for the makeup exam happening Tuesday and Wednesday, using adjusted tech requirements from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
The retake follows an order from the Washington Supreme Court that allows candidates who could not complete the aborted administration because of connectivity issues to retake the exam in September for a portable UBE score.
According to the state bar, 173 candidates opted to retake the exam. Examinees also were given the option to accept a waiver to practice only in-state, which 447 chose, while 23 shifted to taking the February exam and two withdrew and received a full refund, according to the state bar.
The University of Washington at Tacoma will host the retake this week of the new skills-based exam, a shift from the legacy bar exam’s pencil-and-paper administration to candidates’ personal computers. The July administration’s venue was the Yakima Convention & Event Center, about two hours southeast of Seattle.
There will be additional ground support on-site for the duration of the test, including Kara Smith, the NCBE’s chief product officer. She will oversee and assist with exam administration, along with two IT employees from the Washington State Bar Association to support the University of Washington at Tacoma’s IT team and deploy the Washington State Bar Association’s operational contingency plan if needed, wrote Sara Niegowski, the Washington State Bar Association’s chief communications and outreach officer, to the ABA Journal.
“The WSBA has verified directly with University of Washington Tacoma and NCBE that the venue meets NCBE’s newly published technology requirements, which were updated based on the July exam failure,” Niegowski says.
The NCBE expanded its network-readiness requirements and recommendations based on what was learned in July, wrote Faye McCray, the NCBE’s chief communications officer, to the Journal. While tech requirements for candidates taking the test are published online, the requirements for venues are not.
“The changes include stronger backup connectivity that does not depend on the venue’s primary network, multiple testing rooms and staggered start times. These measures are intended to reduce the strain on any single network and provide alternatives if a connection fails,” McCray says.
The NCBE did not directly evaluate the University of Washington at Tacoma’s network or verify that the venue meets the requirements, according to McCray.
“We know the July administration was deeply disruptive for affected Washington applicants, and we have remained focused on supporting a successful makeup exam,” she adds, referring questions about details regarding the venues assessment and how the NCBE recommendations were implemented to the Washington State Bar Association.
After the July debacle, the deans of Washington’s three ABA-accredited law schools led the protests to the state supreme court that diploma privilege be granted.
“WSBA appears to have responded thoughtfully to the problems that occurred in July,” says Linda D. Jellum, the interim dean of the Gonzaga University School of Law. “I know that both the WSBA and the Washington law deans have been very concerned about the candidates affected by the July administration and focused on ensuring that the makeup exam is administered fairly and successfully.”
The July administration was the first for the new test and was conducted in 10 jurisdictions. Two other states, Missouri and Maryland, reported delays because of connectivity issues.
The NCBE has been working on the delivery elements for the NextGen UBE since 2020, and it started user testing in 2021, the NCBE officials previously told the Journal.
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