Howard University School of Law had a problem, and school officials knew it. Over a 20-year period, 40 percent of its graduates who took the Maryland bar exam failed it on their first try. During the next 24 months--the time frame required to determine its "eventual pass rate"--almost 90 percent of the students did pass. What they did not know was what was causing the embarrassing bar results, which threatened the law school's accreditation status. A study commissioned by Dean Kurt Schmoke revealed that one-third of the students at the historically Black Washington, D.C. school declined to take bar exam prep courses due to the average cost of between $2,000 and $3,000. The postgraduation courses, offered by a variety of private companies, are widely viewed as vital to ensuring a positive result on the exam. To make sure that first-time pass rate is the same as eventual pass rate, Howard joined the Alliance for Legal Education, which is lobbying to reverse a rule barring use of federal tuition grants to cover postgraduation exam prep courses. Other campuses are also taking action to reverse high bar failure rates by graduates unprepared for the rigors of the exam, which many consider the toughest professional licensing test in America.