INBDE Pass Rates by Dental School 2026: What the Data Actually Shows and Why School Numbers Vary

1. Why There Is No Single “INBDE Pass Rate by School” List

The question candidates ask most when evaluating dental schools — “what's their INBDE pass rate?” — has no single authoritative answer. The JCNDE, which administers and scores the INBDE, does not release institution-level pass rate data. The agency publishes aggregate failure rates in its annual report to the ADA House of Delegates, broken down by candidate type but not by school.

This is a deliberate policy. The JCNDE treats examination results as candidate-specific data, not institutional performance metrics. The agency's role is to support state boards in licensure decisions — not to rank dental schools. Any school-level comparison must therefore be built from voluntary disclosures by the schools themselves.

Those disclosures exist — but they are patchy, inconsistently timed, and not standardized. Some schools publish cohort-level INBDE pass rates on their admissions pages. Others report them in CODA site visit self-studies. A few do not publish them publicly at all. The result is that any school-by-school comparison requires methodological caution: different schools report different cohort years, use different denominators, and may define first-time pass rate differently.

This article aggregates what is publicly verifiable from .edu admissions pages and official JCNDE annual reports as of April 2026. No pass rate is cited here without a traceable public source.

2. The National Baseline: What the JCNDE Data Actually Shows

The most reliable INBDE performance data comes from the JCNDE Annual Report. The 2025 report, covering 2024 examination performance, contains the most current full-year data.

For first-time candidates from CODA-accredited programs, the failure rate by year was 1.0% in 2020, 1.3% in 2021, 0.8% in 2022, 0.4% in 2023, and 4.8% in 2024. Total candidate volume has grown dramatically — from 2,018 first-time CODA candidates in 2021 to 6,636 in 2024 — driven by the full discontinuation of NBDE Part II at the end of 2022.

For retake candidates from CODA-accredited programs, the failure rate was 32.1% in 2024, up sharply from 14.0% in 2023. The 2024 standard change hit retake candidates harder in proportional terms because they were already operating at marginal performance levels.

Source: JCNDE Annual Report 2025, Table 1. The 2024 figures carry an asterisk in the official report noting a new standard was introduced that year.

3. What Individual Schools Have Publicly Disclosed

Where schools do publish INBDE pass rates voluntarily, the pattern is clear: top CODA-accredited programs cluster in the 94–100% first-time pass range. The data below is sourced directly from school admissions or outcomes pages.

The University of Florida College of Dentistry publicly reports its INBDE pass rate by cohort year. The Class of 2023 achieved 100%, the Class of 2024 achieved 100%, and the Class of 2025 also achieved 100%. UF attributes this consistency to curriculum-level preparation: dedicated clinical preparatory courses, mock INBDE exams, and curricular restructuring aligned to the INBDE’s integrated format.

Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine-Illinois reported a 100% first-time INBDE pass rate for its Class of 2024. Midwestern University CDM-Arizona reported 100% for Class of 2023, 99% for Class of 2022, 99% for Class of 2024, and 94% for Class of 2025 — one of the few publicly reported post-standard-change cohort data points.

NYU College of Dentistry reported 100% for its Class of 2023. Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine reported 100% for its Class of 2023 — its first cohort to sit the INBDE, which the school noted was the first 100% pass rate in its 50-year history of national board examinations. The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine reported a 99% first-time INBDE pass rate for the Class of 2023.

4. What Happened After June 2024 — The Standard Change Effect on School Numbers

The June 2024 performance standard increase was the dominant event reshaping school-level INBDE data. Before June 2024, the passing threshold was set at a level that resulted in a sub-1% first-time failure rate for CODA candidates. After June 2024, first-time CODA failures rose to 4.8% nationally — meaning roughly 1 in every 21 first-time CODA candidates failed an exam they would likely have passed the year before.

The practical impact varied by school. Programs with the most integrated curricula — where faculty had deliberately aligned teaching and assessment to the INBDE’s clinical-reasoning format rather than subject-siloed instruction — weathered the standard increase better. Schools with dedicated board preparation courses, regular mock INBDE sessions, and strong institutional emphasis on integration reported less disruption.

Programs that had coasted on the low pre-2024 bar without structural INBDE prep saw their first meaningful failure numbers. For schools where a 98% pass rate was historically automatic, falling to 90–93% represents a significant institutional shock even if it still looks strong in absolute terms.

The Class of 2025 data — the first full cohort tested entirely under the new standard — represents the cleanest read on where each program actually stands. As of April 2026, most schools have not yet published Class of 2025 figures publicly. Midwestern CDM-Arizona’s 94% for Class of 2025 is one of the clearest early signals of the downward pressure.

5. Why Pass Rates Vary Between Schools — The Structural Drivers

Even holding the standard constant, INBDE pass rates vary between schools for reasons that are structural — and largely independent of student quality at admission.

Curriculum integration is the strongest predictor. Schools that adopted an integrated preclinical curriculum early — presenting pharmacology alongside periodontology, or teaching pathology through patient cases rather than isolated lecture blocks — produce graduates whose cognitive architecture matches the INBDE’s testing format.

Testing timing relative to clinical exposure matters significantly. Students who sit the INBDE during or immediately after D3 year — while clinical reasoning is being actively exercised — perform differently than students who test after a gap. Programs that require or strongly encourage testing during D3 tend to produce better outcomes than programs where testing happens post-graduation.

Dedicated INBDE preparation infrastructure makes a measurable difference. Schools like UF, NYU, and Case Western built formal mock-exam programs, faculty-led item review, and spaced-repetition systems specifically for the INBDE. Schools without this infrastructure leave preparation entirely to individual students.

Cohort size interacts with variance. A program graduating 25 students will show more year-to-year volatility in its pass rate — a single failure swings the number by 4%. A program graduating 120 students shows more stable aggregate rates. Small cohort sizes make school comparisons misleading without multi-year averaging.

6. The Non-CODA Gap — A Separate and Persistent Story

The CODA vs. non-CODA divide in INBDE pass rates is not a gap — it is a chasm, and it has persisted across every year of the exam’s existence. First-attempt failure rates for non-CODA candidates ranged from 33.1% in 2021 to 25.3% in 2024, compared to a maximum of 4.8% for CODA candidates in the same years.

Retake failure rates for non-CODA candidates are severe: 55.8% in 2021 and 52.8% in 2024. More than half of non-CODA candidates who retake the exam after an initial failure fail again.

The JCNDE notes directly in its annual reporting that these failure rates indicate CODA-accredited dental programs produce candidates who are comparatively better prepared than their non-accredited counterparts. The gap likely reflects a combination of curriculum misalignment, language processing demands, time elapsed since graduation, and the absence of institutional INBDE preparation support.

7. What Comes Next — The 2026–2028 Blueprint Revision Timeline

Pass rates for every candidate group — and by extension for every dental school — are likely to shift again before 2028. The JCNDE has publicly confirmed a structured roadmap that will reshape the exam.

In 2026, the JCNDE is conducting a dental practice analysis — a survey of recently graduated dentists in active practice — to assess how the Domain of Dentistry’s 56 Clinical Content areas and 10 Foundation Knowledge areas map to actual entry-level practice in the current environment.

Based on the 2026 practice analysis results, subject matter expert panels will convene in 2026 and 2027 to recommend updates to the INBDE test specifications. A new performance standard will then be set in 2027, with full implementation of updated specifications and the new standard expected in 2028. The JCNDE is also exploring multi-stage adaptive testing as a future format.

For candidates sitting the INBDE in 2026 and 2027, the current specifications and the current passing standard remain in effect. For candidates and schools looking beyond 2027, the 2024 standard increase was not a one-time recalibration — it is part of a rolling process that will produce further changes.

Related INBDE articles

References

• JCNDE Annual Report 2025 — INBDE Table 1 | Primary source for aggregate INBDE failure rate data by candidate group and year.
• University of Florida College of Dentistry — DMD Program Highlights | Source for UF cohort INBDE first-time pass-rate disclosures.
• Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine-Arizona — Program Outcomes | Source for CDM-Arizona INBDE pass rates by cohort.
• JCNDE Update to Dental Examinations — October 2024 Webinar Slides | Source for the confirmed roadmap: 2026 practice analysis, 2027 standard review, 2028 implementation timeline.
• Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine — INBDE Pass Rates | Source for CWRU Class of 2023 INBDE pass-rate disclosure.