In Pursuit of the Status Quo

The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Examination Program is used in all 50 states to regulate the practice of clinical social work and in the majority of states to regulate the practice of masters and bachelors-level social work. After releasing descriptive data demonstrating biases in exam pass rates by race, age, and dominant language, ASWB engaged in research and regulatory actions that violate social work ethics and psychometric best practices. This article will critique the research, grantmaking, and regulatory practices that support the ASWB Examination Program using extensive citations to psychometric standards, ASWB’s publications and exam documentation, and the researchers’ experiences engaging with ASWB to study the cause of exam score disparities. The analysis will reveal how, after their 2022 release of data demonstrating exam bias with respect to race, age, and language, ASWB funded researchers already affiliated with ASWB to support what it already tells test-takers in its exam guidebook–only structural factors bias exam scores, not psychometric flaws internal to the examination. Moreover, ASWB implemented solutions to exam bias without proper investigation and psychometric support. Because of ASWB’s position as the sole publisher and purchaser of licensing examinations, individual state boards are unable to make incremental changes to prevent biased ASWB examinations from closing the profession of social work to groups for whom the exam is invalid, unreliable, and unfair

Closing (real estate · Descriptive statistics · Position (finance · Status quo · Status quo bias · Work (physics · Counseling Practices and Supervision · Education Discipline and Inequality · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work