NCLEX Pass Rate by School: How to Read the Number

Reviewed June 1, 2026 by the ScrubScope editorial team.

A school's NCLEX pass rate is a real, sourced number you can look up, not a marketing claim, and knowing where it comes from tells you how to read it. State boards of nursing and NCSBN publish pass rates by program, usually as a first-time pass rate over a reporting year. The number is useful for comparing programs, but only if you read the right version, account for cohort size, and avoid being misled by an "overall" figure that counts eventual passers. This guide explains where the data lives, what each version measures, and how to use a school's rate without overreading it.

The short answer

A school's NCLEX pass rate is the percentage of its graduates who passed the NCLEX, and the authoritative versions come from NCSBN and from state boards of nursing, which publish pass rates by program for a given reporting year^[1]. The version that matters most is the first-time pass rate, the share who passed on their first attempt, because it reflects how well the program prepared its graduates rather than how many eventually passed after retakes^[2]. What counts as a good number is covered in the good NCLEX pass rate guide, and the first-time-versus-overall distinction is unpacked in the first-time vs overall guide.

Where the data actually comes from

The pass rate is a regulated, published statistic, and knowing the source keeps you from relying on a school's self-description.

NCSBN compiles NCLEX results nationally and reports pass-rate data, and individual state boards of nursing publish pass rates for the programs they regulate, typically by program and by reporting period^[1]. Because boards license nurses, they have the actual testing results for graduates of programs in their state, which makes the board's published figure the authoritative one for a given school. Accreditors add a third source: CCNE and ACEN require accredited programs to track and report licensure pass rates as part of their outcomes, so an accredited program's rate is also documented through accreditation^[3].

The practical takeaway is that you do not have to take a school's word for its pass rate. You can find it on the state board's reporting and cross-check it against what the school advertises. A school whose advertised number matches the board's reporting is being straight with you.

First-time versus overall: read the right one

The single most important thing about reading a school's rate is knowing which version you are looking at, because the two tell very different stories.

The first-time pass rate counts only candidates who passed on their first NCLEX attempt, as a share of first-time test-takers. The overall, or ultimate, pass rate counts everyone who eventually passed, including those who needed multiple attempts^[2]. The overall rate is always equal to or higher than the first-time rate, sometimes much higher, because it folds in retake successes. That is why a program can advertise a near-perfect "pass rate" that is really the overall figure, while its first-time rate is more modest.

For comparing programs, the first-time rate is the honest metric, because it reflects how prepared graduates were when they first sat the exam, not how persistent they were afterward. When a school quotes a pass rate without specifying which version, that ambiguity is itself a signal to ask. The full breakdown of why first-time is the metric to trust is in the first-time vs overall guide.

Cohort size changes how to read the number

A pass rate is a percentage, and a percentage from a tiny cohort can swing wildly, so the number of test-takers matters as much as the percentage.

A program that graduated a small cohort can post a very high or very low pass rate from just one or two outcomes, because each candidate moves the percentage a lot. A 90 percent rate from 100 test-takers is far more stable evidence than a 90 percent rate from 10. State board reports usually include the number of candidates alongside the rate, which is exactly why that count is published^[1]. When you read a school's rate, read the cohort size next to it and weight a small-cohort number more cautiously.

A single year can also be noisy. A program that normally posts strong rates can have an off year, and a weak program can have a lucky one. Where the data is available, looking at two or three reporting years gives a steadier read than any single year's headline number.

What the pass rate does and does not tell you

The pass rate is a strong signal, but it is one signal, and overreading it is its own mistake.

A consistently strong first-time pass rate over multiple years and a reasonable cohort size is genuine evidence that a program prepares its graduates to pass the licensure exam. That is real and worth weighting. What the pass rate does not capture is cost, schedule fit, clinical placement quality, or whether the program is accredited at all, and none of those is visible in the percentage. A program can post a fine pass rate and still be the wrong choice on cost or accreditation, which is why the pass rate sits inside a larger comparison rather than deciding it alone.

It also does not tell you anything clinical, and we keep it administrative here on purpose: the pass rate is a program-outcome statistic, useful for comparing programs, not a measure of any individual's likelihood of passing. The benchmark question, what number is actually good, is answered in the good NCLEX pass rate guide.

How accreditors use the same number

The pass rate is not only a shopping signal for you; it is an outcome the accreditors themselves track, and that gives the number extra weight when you read it.

CCNE and ACEN both require accredited programs to monitor licensure pass rates as a core outcome and to meet thresholds over time, so a program's NCLEX performance is part of what keeps it accredited^[3]. A program that consistently falls below the expected pass-rate threshold can draw a closer review or a conditional status from its accreditor. This means a steadily strong first-time pass rate is not just a marketing point; it is evidence the program is meeting the standard its accreditor enforces, and a chronically weak one is a signal the program may be under pressure from that accreditor.

This also explains why state boards care about the number independently. Boards approve programs in part on their NCLEX outcomes, and a program whose pass rate drops below the state's threshold can face board action on its approval^[4]. So the pass rate is doing double duty: it is your comparison tool, and it is simultaneously a regulated metric that two different oversight bodies use to police program quality. When you weight a program's first-time rate, you are reading the same number that its accreditor and its state board use to decide whether the program stays in good standing, which is a reason to treat a consistent rate as meaningful rather than incidental.

How to look up and compare schools

Put the pieces together and you have a repeatable way to use pass rates when comparing programs.

Find the rate at the source: the state board of nursing's published program pass rates for the state where the program operates, cross-checked against NCSBN's reporting^[1]. You can see what that looks like assembled on a school page such as Florida Southern College, where the board-reported first-time rate sits next to its source and reporting years. Confirm you are reading the first-time rate, not the overall one. Note the cohort size next to the rate, and prefer programs with stable rates across multiple years over a single strong year. Then set the pass rate alongside accreditation, cost, and schedule rather than letting it decide on its own. A program with a steady, sourced first-time rate, an accredited status, and a cost you can manage is the combination you want.

Bottom line

A school's NCLEX pass rate is a published, sourced statistic from NCSBN and state boards of nursing, not a marketing claim, and the version to trust is the first-time pass rate over a reporting year^[1]. Read it with the cohort size in view, prefer multi-year stability over a single headline year, and do not let an "overall" rate stand in for the first-time number^[2]. The pass rate is a strong signal of how well a program prepares graduates, but it belongs inside a comparison that also weighs accreditation and cost.

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