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California’s state law announced Friday that the leader, who faces increased pressure to step down from the February rollout, when a new bar exam failed, will step down in July.
Leah T. Wilson, the agency’s executive director, has notified councillors who have not requested another term in their positions where she remains on and off since 2017.
“Accountability is a bedrock principle for all leaders,” Wilson said in a statement.
“At the end of the day, I am responsible for everything that happens within the organization. Despite our best intentions, the experience of applicants for the February bar exam was simply unacceptable. I have no words to attack this experience, but I apologise in sincerity.”
Wilson’s last day is July 7th.
Many February examiners urged Wilson to step down after the exam. Critics say they are quickly unfolding to save money and are ultimately plagued by technical glitches. More controversy broke out last week when it became clear that state bars weren’t transparent about using artificial intelligence to develop multiple choice questions.
News of Wilson’s departure came on the day that thousands of test takers in February were scheduled to get their exam results.
However, the results appear to be delayed after the state bars were late and filed a petition to the California Supreme Court for scoring adjustments for the exam. This also answered court questions about how and why AI was used to develop multiple choice questions.
State bars filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Tuesday – and test takers are not sure when they are sure if they have passed or failed.
Since the blunder, Sen. Tom Umberg, chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, and many legal experts, have been urging state bars to drop new questions and return to traditional testing formats in July, at least until new questions and methods are properly tested.
On April 25, a law school recognised by more than 12 American associations in California wrote to the Supreme Court of California, Patricia Guerrero, “serious concerns about the fairness and validity of the examination.” The dean urged the court to release all 200 multiple choice questions from the February exam, returning to using NCBE’s multi-state monitoring exam for the multi-selection portion of the next exam.
But Wilson signaled on Friday that California should finally go through its own bar exam.
“As the fourth largest economy in the world, California is right to develop its own bar exams, and ultimately the exam reflects the principles of innovation, excellence, equity and accessibility that are central to who we are as Californians,” she said in a statement. “We’re not going back and getting there.”
Wilson first took on the role of executive director in 2017, but left briefly to work for a consulting company before returning to 2021. She faced further scrutiny about her income.
“Revenue stagnation and labor costs increase,” the California auditor said in a recent report that “we have led the General Fund to the deficit over four of the last five years.”
Still, Wilson said he is proud of his time at the helm of state bars, citing his efforts to make it a “exceptional workplace” that brings “strong staff engagement, positive union relationships and historically low turnover.”
“For nearly a decade, I had the privilege of leading the state bars throughout a period of transformational change,” Wilson said in a statement.
“I am particularly proud of my efforts to enhance and provide real solutions to our state’s judicial access crisis, increase occupational equity and inclusion, and make our commitment to financially stable state bars,” Wilson added.
Brandon Stirlings, chairman of the state bar’s board of trustees, praised Wilson’s leadership and said he played a key role in moving forward many of the organization’s key initiatives.
“The board recognizes the important contributions Leah Wilson has made during his tenure, particularly in his collaborative efforts to recognize and address racial disparities in the discipline system,” Starlings said. “We understand and respect her decisions and appreciate her service.”
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