Path to Licensure Newsletter
December 2020
Pivoting. That's got to be the theme of 2020. It has certainly been a year to remember. Congratulations for finding creative ways to teach and engage your students, to secure alternative field placements, and to prepare students for licensed practice.

This issue of the Path to Licensure newsletter includes resources to help you understand the overlap between education and licensed practice, the purpose of the licensing exam, the exam question development process, and the challenge to teach electronic social work practice.

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy holiday season!

Jan Fitts, MSW, LCSW
Education and Research Senior Manager
Licensing 101: Education and licensing
Educators and regulators look at exams differently; understanding licensing means knowing the different purposes testing has for each.
 
Students and educators typically think of exams as opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned in a unit of study. A test measures the effectiveness of the learning activities students and educators have undertaken together and may be used to assess the quality of the educational program. The many tests and exams a student takes over the course of an education attest to the comprehensive knowledge needed throughout a social work career. 
 
But regulators use licensing exams for a different purpose. The focus of the social work licensing exams is on public protection, and content areas come from a survey of practicing social workers rather than a set of learning objectives or a textbook. A licensing exam is designed to answer the question, “Does the prospective social worker have a minimum level of competence to avoid harming clients?” Requiring passage of a licensing exam is one way that regulatory boards ensure an applicant is fit to practice; applicants also need a degree from an accredited education program and, in some cases, a specified number of hours of supervised experience. 
 
Learn more about how regulators use examinations in What do licensing exams measure? We’ve also prepared a graphic illustration, Education and exam are both required for licensure, showing the distinct purposes of the exam and an educational program.

The Curricular Guide for Licensing and Regulation, a CSWE/ASWB/NASW collaboration, is another resource for social work educators. It contains easy-to-use assignments, media resources, field activities, and references to help you teach about these distinctions.  
About the ASWB licensing exams: DEI in the spotlight

In a time of racial reckoning, regulators are working to make sure their processes do not inadvertently allow bias, and educators are continuing to be concerned with fairness. ASWB has long worked to prevent bias in the social work licensing exams. Watch a video about the steps taken to ensure fairness as the exams are developed.
Hot topic: Electronic social work practice

Practicing social work using technology has become the new normal. A recent article in Social Work Today, Telebehavioral Health: Now a Social Work Imperative, examines the sudden exponential growth of this treatment modality, including the role of regulation in easing the shift while prioritizing public protection and examples of social work education programs that have adjusted to the change.

ASWB | Path to Licensure | Email us |Website
©2020, Association of Social Work Boards