I Have My Social Work Degree—Why Do I Have To Take an Exam To Get a License?

by Lavina G. Harless, MSW, LCSW

(Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles on the social work licensing process. Thank you to the Association of Social Work Boards [ASWB] for collaborating with The New Social Worker on providing this information to our readers.)

     I have my social work degree. Why do I have to take an exam to get a license? The question of “why an exam” has existed as long as licensing exams have, but the current coronavirus pandemic has created challenges that make this question more relevant than ever.

    Why are we hearing this question more these days? I think access has a lot to do with it. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pearson VUE test centers used by ASWB for administration of the social work licensing examinations across the country were forced to close because of emergency stay-at-home orders. Even when restrictions began to be lifted, the requirements for physical distancing kept test center capacity at well below 50 percent in many jurisdictions. As a result, many social workers have been unable to complete this important step in the licensing application process.

    Those delays have led to renewed questioning of why an exam is needed—why isn’t an education and supervised experience enough to prove competence? It’s a good question. This article explains why the regulatory board relies on all three components of exam, education, and experience when deciding to grant a license to practice.

Social Work and Regulation

    As a regulated profession, social work in the United States is not as old as some of its health care counterparts, such as nursing (100+ years) and medicine (300+ years). Social work is a relative youngster by comparison. The first social work regulation was enacted in Puerto Rico in 1934; the first state to regulate social work was California, in 1945. Today, all U.S. states and territories regulate social work, meaning that you have to hold a license to practice the profession. In most U.S. jurisdictions, only licensed social workers are qualified or permitted to call themselves social workers.

    In terms of a profession’s development, we’re a relative newcomer. Our growth, however, has been remarkable. In 2018, according to ASWB membership records, more than half a million social workers were licensed in the United States and Canada.

    The reason for our rapid rise is a testament to the reach of our profession. Consider the settings where social workers practice—hospitals, state and local government, clinics, correctional facilities, schools,  military bases, and private practice, among others. Consider the people social work touches—some of the most vulnerable populations in our communities depend on social work services, including abused and neglected children, individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders, veterans and their families, and survivors of crime and domestic violence. Consider the ways in which social services help communities and how taxpayers depend on the appropriate management of public and private funds underwriting these programs. Social work is regulated because it affects public health, safety, and welfare on both a societal and highly personal scale.

Why Is Regulation Important?

    The primary purpose of regulation is to protect the public. In the United States, protection of public health and safety through state-based regulation is afforded by the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Authority to regulate professions at the state level is delegated to regulatory boards. These regulatory boards establish standards for safe, competent, and ethical practice and provide recourse to consumers if they are harmed by a licensed professional who fails to meet those standards. Social work regulation establishes scope of practice, identifying what services a licensee may legally perform, and in most states protects the title of social worker. Consumers rely on these standards of scope and title to protect them when they engage a licensed professional.

    A secondary purpose of regulation is to validate social work as a profession. A license indicates that the professional has gained the requisite education and experience and demonstrated competence by passing a licensing exam. Employers rely on licensure as proof that the professional is qualified and legally entitled to provide social work services. Insurers such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other third-party payors require providers to be licensed in order to reimburse them for services. The National Association of Social Workers has worked hard to professionalize social work, establishing a code of ethics and advocating for licensure and regulation.

ASWB, NASW, and the Exams

    In the late 1970s, before ASWB was founded, NASW called a meeting with a number of state representatives to explore the idea of developing its ACSW exam into a licensing exam for state use (AASSWB, 1999). The state representatives had concerns about the conflict of interest for a professional association to develop and administer a state licensing exam. These concerns propelled the state representatives to begin formation of an independent organization that would have as its primary objective the development and administration of social work licensing exams. Although NASW was not successful in its bid to develop the exams, it has been supportive of ASWB from the beginning and has found other ways to work collaboratively with state regulatory boards.

    The independent organization that the state representatives founded in 1979 was called the American Association of State Social Work Boards, or AASSWB. In 1999, when Alberta became the first Canadian province to join, AASSWB delegates voted to adopt the more inclusive name, ASWB, or the Association of Social Work Boards, as it is known today. AASSWB administered the first licensing exams in 1983 to 464 social workers in New York, Virginia, and Oklahoma. Today, more than 50,000 license applicants test annually.

Why Is a Licensing Exam Needed?

    A license to practice social work is a contract with the public that services will be provided in a safe, ethical, and competent manner. Regulatory boards issue licenses to applicants after determining that the applicant meets certain eligibility standards.

    When issuing a license, the regulatory board generally considers four components: education, moral character, an exam that measures entry-level competence, and—in some cases—supervised experience. All components must be evaluated to ensure that the regulatory board makes a well-rounded and informed decision about an applicant’s fitness to practice. Let’s look at these components and the reason that each is needed.

    A social work education provides aspiring social workers with the broad foundational knowledge of the profession. This education is intended to serve social workers throughout their careers. In the United States, a degree from a social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education is generally required.

    Moral character, as determined through background checks, fingerprinting, and other board requirements, demonstrates fitness to practice by providing evidence of personal attributes or the absence of red flags that would give a licensing board pause.

    The licensing exam provides a fair and objective indication that an applicant who passes the exam has the minimum, or entry-level, competence to practice safely and ethically and without harm to the public. Compared to education, which covers the breadth of various subjects, a licensing exam is focused on practice knowledge and skills that social work practitioners say they needed to know the first day on the job.

    Experience, when required, points to training completed in the field or under supervision, providing proof of skills being attained in preparation for licensure.

    This multiple component competency model provides checks and balances and a certain stability for decision-making. By itself, each element is not sufficient to ensure competence. The successful completion of an education is an important component but reflects only an individual’s ability to learn the fundamental knowledge base for the profession. Moral character is not by itself an indicator of competence to practice. Supervised experience can refine practice skills but doesn’t necessarily ensure the broad-based knowledge required for working across the broad range of settings available to licensed social workers. Similarly, passing an exam that tests practice-based knowledge demonstrates that the license applicant recognizes competent and safe practice but does not equate to the deep understanding of the profession gained through education. All components are needed to ensure the regulatory board upholds its mandate to protect the public.

How Does ASWB Know What Practitioners Need To Know the First Day on the Job?

    What needs to be measured by a licensing exam is determined by a practice analysis. This comprehensive survey solicits information from a diverse group of licensed professionals about what they need to know and the tasks they need to be able to perform the first day on the job. The practice analysis is like a snapshot—it captures at a given point in time what licensees are doing and how important those activities are to competent entry-level practice.

    Survey responses shape the blueprints for the exams—the content areas in which questions are asked—and the number of questions in the content areas. A separate blueprint is developed for the Bachelors, Masters, Advanced Generalist, and Clinical examinations. (The Associate exam uses the Bachelors exam blueprint.) These blueprints are the basis for the licensing exams until another practice analysis is done.

    To ensure that the content of the exams is relevant to current professional practice, ASWB conducts this survey every five to seven years. Participation in the 2017 practice analysis survey was the largest in the history of ASWB practice analyses. More than 23,000 licensed social workers responded from every U.S. state and territory (except Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) and all 10 Canadian provinces (ASWB, 2017). The next practice analysis will begin in 2022.

    The practice analysis, like the exams themselves, is based on the guidelines of the American Psychological Association, the Joint Commission on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, the American Education Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education.

When It Comes To Proving Competence, a Degree Is Not Enough.

    To become licensed, social workers must demonstrate to the regulatory board that they have the knowledge (education), skills (experience), and ability (exam) to practice safely, ethically, and competently. A degree alone is not enough. For the regulatory board to fulfill its public protection mandate, all eligibility components must be combined in the board’s decision to grant a license.

References

American Association of State Social Work Boards. (1999). Are we there yet? The first 20 years of an association’s visionary journey. Author.

Association of Social Work Boards. (2017). Analysis of the practice of social work, 2017 [PDF]. Author. https://www.aswb.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Summary-Document-FINAL.pdf

Lavina Harless, MSW, LCSW (she/her), is Senior Director of Examination Services for the Association of Social Work Boards. She has had overall responsibility for the examination development program at ASWB since 2013 and has been involved with the program since 2007. She has written on the topic of ensuring diversity and inclusion in exam development and is a sought-after speaker in the testing industry. Lavina received her BSW and MSW degrees from Radford University. She became a licensed clinical social worker in Virginia in 2002.