{"title":"Linking Social Work Licensure Examination Pass Rates to Accreditation: The Merits, Challenges, and Implications for Social Work Education","authors":"Dawn Apgar","doi":"10.1080/08841233.2022.2112809","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Unlike other disciplines, social work has made accreditation decisions about undergraduate and graduate programs independent of licensure examination pass rates of graduates. While education, regulation, and practice are heralded as the three pillars of social work, there have been few meaningful linkages between them. Despite recognition that licensure impacts employment opportunities and salaries of social workers, the academy has been resistant to bridge the divide between educational assessment and licensure outcomes, resulting in hardship for some graduates. Students choose social work programs without knowing whether their education is adequate to pass “high stakes” licensure exams. In an era of greater accountability, and questions about the value of higher education, making licensure examination pass rates public and linking them to decisions when accrediting programs, seems prudent. However, this policy shift would likely change market demands and the stability of accreditation decisions enjoyed by social work programs to date.","PeriodicalId":51728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching in Social Work","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Teaching in Social Work","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2022.2112809","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
ABSTRACT Unlike other disciplines, social work has made accreditation decisions about undergraduate and graduate programs independent of licensure examination pass rates of graduates. While education, regulation, and practice are heralded as the three pillars of social work, there have been few meaningful linkages between them. Despite recognition that licensure impacts employment opportunities and salaries of social workers, the academy has been resistant to bridge the divide between educational assessment and licensure outcomes, resulting in hardship for some graduates. Students choose social work programs without knowing whether their education is adequate to pass “high stakes” licensure exams. In an era of greater accountability, and questions about the value of higher education, making licensure examination pass rates public and linking them to decisions when accrediting programs, seems prudent. However, this policy shift would likely change market demands and the stability of accreditation decisions enjoyed by social work programs to date.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Teaching in Social Work fills a long-standing gap in the social work literature by providing opportunities for creative and able teachers—in schools, agency-based training programs, and direct practice—to share with their colleagues what experience and systematic study has taught them about successful teaching. Through articles focusing on the teacher, the teaching process, and new contexts of teaching, the journal is an essential forum for teaching and learning processes and the factors affecting their quality. The journal recognizes that all social work practitioners who wish to teach (whatever their specialty) should know the philosophies of teaching and learning as well as educational methods and techniques.