Journal of Nursing Measurement,Volume 13, Number 2, Fall 2005 © 2005 Springer Publishing Company 147 Re-Evaluating the NCLEX-RN ® Passing Standard Thomas R. O’Neill, PhD Casey M. Marks, PhD Michelle Reynolds, MS National Council of State Boards of Nursing Chicago, IL Setting passing standards is a critical component of the NCLEX ® examination process. This research was conducted to provide sufficient information to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s (NCSBN) Board of Directors to make a decision regarding the passing standard of the NCLEX-RN. This article illustrates the standard setting process that NCSBN uses. Surveys of educators and employers, a modified Angoff procedure, the Beuk compromise, and global assessments by content experts were methods used. The Rasch model and a presumed ability distribution were used as the framework to integrate these diverse perspectives regarding minimal competence. The revised passing standard was -0.28 logits. For many of the minimal competence estimates, the author did not have authorization to release the information. In those instances, estimates and results were fab- ricated to be similar to the actual results, yet different enough as to not disclose confiden- tial information. The fabricated results are clearly marked. In conclusion, a variety of approaches, sources, and perspectives are necessary for the establishment of fair and appropriate standards on the NCLEX-RN. Keywords: NCLEX; standard setting; passing standard; Angoff; NCSBN; licensure; Rasch Model T he National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. (NCSBN) is a not-for-profit organization that is composed of the jurisdictional boards of nursing in the United States and U.S. territories. NCSBN’s mission is to provide leadership to advance regulatory excellence for public protection. One of the many ways that NCSBN fulfills this mission is by providing its members (boards of nursing) with a defensible method of assessing a candidate’s competence. Specifically, NCSBN creates and administers two minimal competency examinations, the National Council Licensure Examination for Reg- istered Nurses ® (NCLEX-RN) and the National Council Licensure Examination for Prac- tical Nurses ® (NCLEX-PN). All boards of nursing that are members of NCSBN use the NCLEX as part of their licensing process. This article is intended to illustrate NCSBN’s standard setting procedures and the conceptual framework behind the procedures using the April 2004 revision of the NCLEX-RN passing standard. By virtue of being a licensing examination, the NCLEX-RN is a high-stakes examina- tion. In a typical year, 120,000 NCLEX-RN examinations are administered. Therefore, when setting the passing standard, it is important to set it high enough to protect the public by being a barrier to incompetent nurses, yet also be low enough that competent nurses are not denied a license. This article discusses issues related to standard setting for a 09 JNM 13(2) 147-168.qxd 11/18/05 2:49 PM Page 147