5 Reasons the ASWB Social Work Licensing Exam Updates Aren’t as Scary as You May Think

by Susan Mankita, LCSW

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     By now, you’ve probably heard that the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) licensing exams are changing again in January 2018. Talk of change in these high stakes exams can send a chill through the social work stratosphere for those with test-taking plans in their near future. I hope what follows will help you worry just a little less.

1. You will be tested on how to be a good social worker (still).

     This is first and foremost a test that assesses your ability to think and act like a social worker. This will never change. It is a test of both what you know and how you apply it.  If you are a clear social work thinker, you will do just as well on the new exams as you would have on the old ones. There is a very special process that ASWB uses to write the items that appear on the test. It is 7 layers deep (each question goes through that many levels of review to get on a test) and follows a set of rules for question writing that are widely accepted as the gold standard for producing multiple choice questions. The questions will still be written the exact same way. In other words, they will not be harder, or easier, than previous ones.

2. Changes in how the profession was surveyed should make the test a more accurate reflection of what early career social workers do.

     Every 5-7 years, ASWB surveys the profession and asks social workers to rate how important certain social work knowledge or skills are (to their current practice) and how often each task is performed. Before that even happens, a committee of social workers across the spectrum of practice gets together and decides what questions will be on the survey. At first glance, that survey, disseminated last year, looks somewhat similar in design and content to the one disseminated 7 years ago, but ASWB actually did three things to make it a more accurate assessment.  First, instead of just asking about social work job tasks and duties, they divided the survey into these tasks AND questions about the knowledge, theories, and procedures needed to perform those job tasks.

     Second, in the past, ASWB surveyed far fewer social workers. In fact, they sent a survey to every social worker who’d passed their exams in the last 10 years. There were fewer than 5,500 usable responses during the previous survey, but this survey had more than 23,000 usable responses.  

     Finally, this time, the survey was actually given to two groups of social workers. They asked entry-level social workers how frequently they performed the listed tasks and how important they were. They asked more advanced social workers to consider which knowledge was required of these entry-level clinicians. 

3. The KSAs themselves haven’t changed much, even if their organization is slightly different.

     The new KSAs are strikingly similar to the old ones, with a few minor adjustments. The KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Statements) are ASWB’s way of telling us EXACTLY what they want to make sure you know. It’s that list of things that ASWB tells us are on each test. They have made some slight adjustments in the organization of content in three most common test levels (though there is a more significant reorganization for the advanced generalist exam).  ASWB tells us that content weights shifted only slightly this time around.  “Content weights” basically refers to the number of items from each of four broad categories that appear on each test. This tells us whether there will be more ethics or more human behavior, for example.

• If you’re taking the Bachelor’s exam, you can expect 2%* fewer human behavior questions. 1% of that was shifted into ethics and the other 1% into assessment.
• If you’re taking the Master’s exam, you can expect just 1% fewer human behavior questions and 2% less on professional relationships, values, and ethics. That 3% is added into direct and indirect practice, which by the way, is now called interventions with clients/client systems.
• Clinical exam takers will actually see 7% fewer human development/behavior/diversity in the environment items. Those seven percentage points will be distributed to the other three sections, with 2% going to interventions, 4% going to assessment and diagnosis, and the remaining 1% going to ethics.
• The Advanced Generalist exam is the only one that looks structurally different, because they took their five categories and narrowed them to four. With that restructuring, much of the same content was reassigned into categories. It is safe to say that despite these changes, there are clearly 3% less ethics and 5% more human behavior. Micro and macro assessment and practice sections were folded from three to two sections, so they are harder to evaluate.

*What does a percentage point mean? Think about this. If there are 150 questions on the ASWB exam that count, then 1% would mean 1.5 questions, 2% would be 3 questions, 4% means 6 questions.  7% is actually a whopping 10.5 questions (so clinical folks, instead of 40-something, you will now have only 30-something HDDBE questions).

4. The new KSAs are more clearly written and better organized.

     The new KSAs are more specific than the old ones. In fact, in their discussion of the changes, ASWB states, “Of primary importance was ensuring that the statements are easy for candidates to understand and meaningful for individuals involved in exam development activities.” I say, Thank you, ASWB. It worked. In addition, the new KSAs group similar knowledge areas together, making the entire set of KSAs more coherent.

     To give readers a few examples, I picked up a set of current KSAs for the clinical exam and compared them to the new ones.   

Old KSAs:  “Professional values and ethics”

New KSAs: “Professional values and principles (e.g., competence, social justice, integrity, and dignity and worth of the person). As you can see, they expand upon the values piece of it.

Old KSAs:  Three very specific KSAs on legal and ethical issues:

“Legal and ethical issues regarding confidentiality, including electronic information” (IVB)

“Ethical and legal issues regarding mandatory reporting of abuse” (IVB)

“Legal and ethical issues in documentation”

and one extremely broad one -  (IVA) “Ethical and legal issues” - leaving one to wonder WHICH other legal and ethical issues to focus on. 

     The new KSAs do two things in this example (and generally) to help

• add in clarifying information – For example, “Legal and ethical issues regarding confidentiality, including electronic information security” and Ethical and legal issues regarding mandatory reporting of abuse (e.g., abuse, threat of harm, impaired professionals, etc.).

(The underlined material is from the newer KSAs)

• add in new, more specific KSAs – For example, they also specify two new legal and ethical issues. “Legal and ethical issues regarding termination” and “Legal and ethical issues regarding death and dying.”

     It’s not that you didn’t need to know them before.  They would have been covered under the broad “legal and ethical issues” section.  It’s just that, now, they are spelling more of them out for you.

5. Finally, the new KSAs are more reflective of what social workers are doing NOW.

     Most of you are practicing social work now and you WANT the exam to reflect what you are currently doing in social work. If this means a little less Freud and a little more trauma-informed, or a little less confrontation and a little more motivational interviewing, that is a plus for us all. Several new categories – particularly more interest in social worker self-care and safety, are consistent with what is currently on our collective professional minds.  Isn’t this good news?

     There is plenty to worry about when preparing for your ASWB exam - these exams are clearly quite difficult, but perhaps you can now worry less about the impending changes. Of course, you don’t have to take my word for any of this.  I encourage you to do the comparisons for yourself – all the material is available to you at ASWB’s website at www.aswb.org

Yours in test-success solidarity,

Susan

Susan Mankita LCSW

Susan Mankita, LCSW

Susan Mankita is a licensed clinical social worker living in Miami, Florida. For the past 10 years, she has provided tutoring, with a focus on helping ASWB exam re-takers from around North America pass their licensure exams. She can be reached at SusanLCSW2@gmail.com.