The National League for Nursing recognizes the pressure faced by nursing schools to maintain high
NCLEXTM pass rates: stakeholders are concerned with issues of public safety, reputation,
recruitment of qualified students, competition, and accreditation; faculty and students have a mutual
obligation to ensure readiness to pass the NCLEX. There is no debate about the need to protect the
public through standardized evaluation measures of nursing competence and there is a clear
understanding that licensure exams are themselves high-stakes for students, faculty, and schools of
nursing. It is the prevalent use of standardized tests to block graduation or in some other way deny eligibility to take
the licensing exam that is most concerning to the NLN. Using a test to predict individual student NCLEX
outcomes and as the principle means for faculty and schools to make decisions about individuals can
have serious ramifications for student progression and graduation, hence the term “high stakes.”