Educational Policy And Accreditation Standards Research Articles

The Intersection of Religion and Sexual Orientation: Pedagogy and Challenges

The Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) included the goal of competency in the ability to “engage diversity and difference in practice.” This goal continued efforts to raise awareness of diversity issues for clients articulated in earlier EPAS. Social work education has included cultural competence in areas of difference including sexual orientation and religion and spirituality. Undergraduate social work students should understand the complexity of this intersection to provide culturally competent services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer clients, and to understand religious backgrounds that may not include affirmative messages on sexual orientation. This article presents an overview of the intersection of religion/spirituality and sexual orientation, and recommends audiovisual materials that can highlight salient issues for BSW students in pedagogy on this intersection.

Social Work Competencies and Multidimensional Assessment

The authors review the Council on Social Work Education's 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) related to the assessment of social work competencies. The 2015 EPAS focuses on the multidimensional assessment of holistic competencies (Drisko, 2015). This is a significant change from the assessment of practice behaviors approach of the 2008 EPAS. This article aims to clarify the intention and language related to assessment in the 2015 EPAS and to provide programs with an overview of possible ways of developing assessment plans that are in compliance with Accreditation Standard 4.0–Assessment.

From the Guest Editor for the December 2014 Issue of Sexuality and Disability: The Emerging Intersection of Sexuality and Disability in the Profession of Social Work

Welcome to this special theme issue on The Intersection of Sexuality and Disability: Implications for the Social Work Profession! I am proud, excited, and grateful to introduce scholars, practitioners, and intellectuals to emerging ideas, conceptions, research, and directions centered on a typically marginalized and overlooked topic in social work— sexuality and disability. Let me begin by providing the context to which this special theme issue originated, what you will encounter in intellectual and practical knowledge from the articles herein, and the potential roadmap of this area of inquiry. I am a councilor on the Council on Disability and Persons with Disabilities (CDPD) of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). I have been part of CDPD for the past 2 years and during that time have recommended topics to address in presentations, trainings, and curriculum within the social work profession. One such topic that I felt strongly about is how social workers are taught and trained in the area of intersectionality research, with a focus on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) individuals with disabilities. Intersectionality is a concept that I encountered as part of doctoral research, but never once heard in graduate classes in social work, nor in the field. As social workers, who attend schools accredited by the CSWE, it is mandatory that we attend the traditional diversity survey course in which learning is focused on identities, but they are conceptualized and understood as separate rather than as intersecting. This situation creates a place where and how social workers begin to make sense of the lived experiences of people’s identity categories, while accounting for power, privilege, and oppression at the institutional level. The CSWE [1] has emphasized in its Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) that accredited schools are required to teach students about the dimensions, variability, and intersectionality of identities and the application of social justice. However, when one looks for research in this area, a gap

The Power of Organizational Readiness to Boost Success With the 2008 EPAS in Social Work Education

Social work education is engaged in a significant evolutionary phase of its development, spearheaded by the Council on Social Work Education and the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). This article suggests that an organizational change–anchored focus is a little discussed but ultimately important set of theories and frameworks that have potential to greatly affect successful EPAS implementation. Attention to the organizational change literature with specific focus on theories and models of organizational readiness for change, organizational resistance to change, and, finally, implementation science might enhance the effectiveness and, ultimately, the effect of the positive opportunities associated with the new EPAS while simultaneously protecting and preserving the most important knowledge, ethics, values, and traditions of social work education.

Norming or Transforming

The past decade has seen growth in the international and interdisciplinary literature about competency-based education (CBE). With the passage of the Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) in 2008, the U.S. social work education enterprise joined other professional groups in embracing CBE. This article analyzes the positions of both proponents and critics of CBE. It reviews the core competencies for social work identified in the EPAS and explores challenges and opportunities that CBE and the competencies present to feminist pedagogy. It concludes with a classroom exercise that is used to integrate feminist pedagogy and the core competencies.

Perfect Opportunity Perfect Storm? Raising the Standards of Social Work Education in England

Government plans to reform social work in England, led by the Social Work Reform Board, have resulted in far-reaching changes to social work education. These include establishment of The College of Social Work and adoption of its Professional Capability Framework, and transfer of regulation to the Health and Care Professions Council whose Standards of Proficiency competences gate-keep the threshold to practice. A critical scrutiny of the literature on competence and capability used by the architects of change provides a lens with which to explore findings from a content analysis of the new standards. Comparisons are made with the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) competences approved by the American Council on Social Work Education. Fault lines are identified that might seriously jeopardise the future of social work education in England and ways forward are explored to address these. First, given the importance of making what's important assessable, the choice is presented between opting for ‘wicked competences’ or investing in the design of complex assessment models and their operation. Second, the priority of building robust partnerships to contain different stakeholder objectives is underlined. Both are essential to prevent fault lines developing into a perfect storm.

Accountability in Higher Education and the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, 2008

In recent decades, an accountability movement has swept through higher education with hundreds of colleges and universities subscribing to instruments that assess academic performance, among them the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). Meanwhile, social work education has proceeded on a tangent, relying on a subjective framework, the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), to determine the efficacy of professional education. In 2011, the inferiority of CSWE’s strategy came into sharp relief when higher education researchers found that undergraduate majors in social work and education scored far below engineering/computer science, communications, health, humanities/social sciences, and science/math on the CLA; only business majors fared worse (Arum & Roksa, 2011). Disturbingly, the researchers ‘‘observe[d] no statistically significant gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills for at least 45 percent of the students in our study. An astounding proportion of students are progressing through higher education today without measurable gains in general skills as assessed by the CLA’’ (p. 36). Defensively, the President of the National Association of Social Workers editorialized that ‘‘increasing student skills in critical thinking, reading comprehension, and writing [are] essential to career success’’ (Anastas, 2012, p. 3), but failed to note the pernicious influence of EPAS. If social work education is to burnish its academic image, it should institute a validated instrument to assess professional training. Since its promulgation in 2008, EPAS has been referenced primarily as a backdrop for articles about pedagogy (Grady, Powers, Despard, & Naylor, 2011; Heidemann, Fertig, Jansson, & Kim, 2011; Holosko, Skinner, MacCaughelty, & Stahl, 2010; Morrow, 2011; Regehr, Bogo, Donovan, & Anstice, 2012). Prior to its 2008 iteration, EPAS required social work programs to document learning outcomes of students. Adhering to that format, faculty at California State University, Long Beach determined to evaluate student outcomes through a combination of self-efficacy instruments (the Multicultural Counseling Inventory, the SelfAppraisal Inventory, the Knowledge Inventory, and the Comprehensive Skills Evaluation), complemented by student focus groups, assessments by field instructors, and an alumni survey. This effort to alter educational programming vis-a-vis student performance was interrupted with the introduction of the 2008 EPAS. ‘‘The consensus of the Assessment Team members now is that it is as if the team is back at the starting point as we begin to tackle the new standards,’’ noted the Long Beach academics with regret (Meyer-Adams, Potts, Koob, Dorsey, & Rosales, 2011, p. 504). The 2008 EPAS modified accreditation standards by replacing learning outcomes with student competencies, the achievement of which was to be determined by educational programs as they saw fit. The most recent version of EPAS, thus, imposed two quite different requirements on social work programs: ‘‘measurable educational outcomes, which [have] traditionally been interpreted through a positivist lens’’ and ‘‘a desire to respond to changing practice and educational approaches to diversity and difference, rooted in a postmodern perspective’’ (Jani, Pierce, Ortiz, &Sowbel, 2011, p. 297). It is noteworthy that postmodernists continue to misconstrue empiricism, applying dated criteria from the humanities that were in vogue during the 1970s and 1980s, a position refuted by Thyer (2008). Karl Popper contended that empirical falsification is logically superior to positivist verification, a position widely adopted by the scientific community (Calhoun, 2002, p. 372). Thus, postmodernists, in disputing positivism, erect the equivalent to a conceptual straw man. Regardless, postmodernism became formalized in social work accreditation, a repudiation of the profession’s adherence to the logic of science as the optimal method for determining efficacy. Using diversity as a pretext, postmodernism effectively sabotaged the possibility of empirical analysis of social work education:

Issues and Challenges in Gatekeeping: A Framework for Implementation

Social work educators' role in gatekeeping within BSW and MSW academic programs continues to be a concern and challenge for the profession. Social work programs are the entry point in which students develop the required competencies to practice within the field. The social work literature on gatekeeping is extensive and expansive. The literature reviews and addresses the importance and need for gatekeeping as well as challenges in implementing gatekeeping within social work programs. This paper reviews the literature on gatekeeping in social work programs, discusses the legal issues pertinent to gatekeeping, and identifies the challenges faced by social work programs in implementing gatekeeping procedures. The paper suggests an integrated conceptual framework using the Council on Social Work Education's Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) for competencies in gatekeeping in social work programs.

Teaching Note—Incorporating Journal Clubs Into Social Work Education: An Exploratory Model

This article outlines the implementation of a journal club for master's and doctoral social work students interested in mental health practice. It defines educational journal clubs and discusses the history of journal clubs in medical education and the applicability of the model to social work education. The feasibility of implementing journal clubs in a school of social welfare is highlighted. The journal club received high ratings on student evaluations indicating participants thought it was a valuable addition to their education. Journal clubs align with the program mission and goals of the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) set forth by the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), and they can be an affordable, easily implemented, and sustainable supplement to traditional research curricula.

COMPETENCIES FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: A MODEL FOR INFORMING SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Social work profession pro­motes human and community well-being through its quest for economic and social justice and prevention of violation of human rights. Social work education is basis and key factor for shaping the profession’s future and com­petent professionals. The Co­uncil on Social Work Education (CSWE) uses the Educational Po­licy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) to […]

Relevance of Competency-based Education to Work with Individuals with Serious Mental Illness

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) experience impairment in personal, social, and occupational domains of functioning. They interact with several systems to fulfill their day-to-day functioning. This paper reviews literature to identify systems with which the SMI population interacts with and highlights the ways those systems help or deter their functioning in society. The new Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) requires competency-based curriculum to educate social workers on how best to serve hard-to-reach populations. This article includes four competencies essential in educating social workers to work with the SMI population. Finally, there is a discussion of the ways that the CSWE's new accreditation standards for social work can be incorporated in a curriculum that focuses on understanding the experiences and needs of individuals with SMI.

A Capstone Assignment to Measure Student Competencies as a Program Assessment Tool

The requirement of multiple measures for program assessment set out in the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) may be challenging for social work programs as the evaluation shifts to student competencies and practice behaviors. This article offers a thorough description of a competency- based capstone project as one program assessment tool for the measurement of all 10 core competencies and 41 practice behaviors. The capstone, using a simulated case necessitating many of the skills required in practice, is second only to field instruction as a competency measure. Appendix A includes an actual capstone assignment as a relevant evaluation tool. Identifying student strengths and weaknesses is an essential component of the capstone assessment. Students begin the capstone after the completion of two field experiences and the majority of the social work curriculum.

Promoting Cultural Competencies Through Use of Growth Groups in Predominantly White Classrooms

The Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) set forth several core competencies describing student abilities and practice behaviors related to cultural competence. This article discusses a growth-group approach to developing these abilities and behaviors, particularly in reference to EPAS 2.1.1, 2.1.2, and 2.1.4. Growth groups of students were formed in a group work course at a predominantly White university to develop competencies related to self-awareness, prejudice reduction, and the ability to discuss and confront prejudice in others. Findings from a presurvey and postsurvey showed significant change in student outcomes in these areas. A description of the growth-group method and recommendations on the use of growth groups, particularly in predominantly White classrooms, are provided.

Reinventing Baccalaureate Social Work Program Assessment and Curriculum Mapping Under the 2008 EPAS: A Conceptual and Quantitative Model

The Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) significantly changed how social work programs should assess student competencies and practice behaviors across the curriculum. Responding to these changes, a new assessment logic and practice model was created to assess baccalaureate social work student competencies using an information feedback model that included curricular mapping horizontally and vertically. Through this model, the program can effectively and efficiently assess student competencies, identify areas of strength and weakness, seek improvements in competency-based learning over time, and pinpoint areas of concern deep within the curriculum at both the syllabus and course content levels. Initial data suggest that as students are more exposed to a competency-based curriculum, mastery of competencies increases.

Responding to the 2008 EPAS: Baccalaureate Education Assessment Direct and Indirect Measurement

To meet accreditation requirements, many programs have used indirect measurements focused on student perceptions, which are sufficient to meet current Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) requirements. This article assists programs with measurement of the ten 2008 EPAS competencies by presenting two new instruments that measure implicit and explicit curriculum and compliment the already-existing Baccalaureate Educational Assessment Package (BEAP) instrument set. The Foundation Curriculum Assessment Instrument provides a direct pre–post measurement of how well a program's curriculum prepares students for practice. The Field/Practicum Placement Assessment Instrument focuses on the measurement of field education competencies. As demonstrated in a matrix, the BEAP instruments provide measures of all 41 competencies and the knowledge, values, and skills that help define them.

Suggestions for Utilizing the 2008 EPAS in CSWE-Accredited Baccalaureate and Masters Curriculums—Reflections from the Field, Part 2: The Implicit Curriculum

This article is Part 2 in a 2-part series discussing the new guidelines for Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) issued in April 2008 by the Council on Social Work Education. The 2008 EPAS shifted the focus of assessment for accreditation or reaffirmation from the evaluation of program objectives to assessment of educational outcomes and student achievement of practice competencies. Because major accreditation challenges for social work programs derive from the 2008 EPAS, this article continues the discussion of a model for sequencing accreditation tasks that began in Volume 30, Issue 2 of this journal. In this article, Part 2, the authors discuss the program's implicit curriculum and its assessment under the 2008 EPAS. The articles in this 2-part series are intended to be companion pieces.

Evaluation Development and Use in Social Work Practice

Background: Social workers entering the profession typically receive little, if any, content or training on evaluation practice. This is, in part, due to limited course offerings outside of the typical courses in most schools of social work. In addition, practicing social workers who often serve in the role as field instructors have not fully embraced the use of research in practice, and tend to employ less rigorous evaluative methods. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the development and use of evaluation knowledge among social work practitioners who supervise social work students. Setting: Not applicable. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: A mixed method, sequential research design within the context of an exploratory study was used to determine factors that facilitate evaluation, identify and prioritize evaluation competencies, and determine the extent to which evaluation constructs contribute to self efficacy, evaluation competency, evaluation influence, and leadership behaviors. Data Collection and Analysis: A web-based survey was used followed by a participatory method that included the use of a web-based software to identify and prioritize activities that contribute to the development of evaluation knowledge and skill. Findings: Results suggest social work education has a critical role in promoting evaluation practice, establishing evaluation practice competencies, and using evaluation results to inform policy and practice. Keywords: social work practice, field education, evaluation practice, Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), Educational Policy, and Accreditation Standards (EPAS)

Suggestions for Utilizing the 2008 EPAS in CSWE-Accredited Baccalaureate and Masters Curriculums—Reflections from the Field, Part 1: The Explicit Curriculum

In April 2008, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) issued new guidelines for Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). The 2008 EPAS shift the focus of assessment from the evaluation of program objectives to assessment of educational outcomes and student achievement of practice competencies. Major accreditation challenges for social work programs derive from the 2008 EPAS involving sequencing the assessment tasks, and developing accurate and useful instruments. This article is Part 1 of a 2-part series presenting a model for sequencing curriculum accreditation and reaffirmation tasks. In this Part 1, the explicit curriculum is explored including multiple measures to assess the extent to which students are achieving practice behaviors (as indicators of core social work competencies). Part 2 of this discussion, focused on the implicit curriculum, will appear in the next issue of the Journal of Teaching in Social Work (Vol. 30, Issue 3).

Analysis of Social Work Theory Progression Published in 2004

The authors reviewed 67 articles that discussed and/or tested human behavior theories from social work journals published in 2004 in order to assess the level and quality of theory progression. The articles were further sorted into Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) Foundation Curriculum content areas of HBSE, practice, policy, field education, values & ethics, diversity, populations-at-risk/social and economic justice, and research for purposes of categorization. Results indicated that HBSE and practice were by far the largest group of articles reviewed.Also found was that social work has a limited amount of theory discussion in the content areas of field, values and ethics, diversity, and populations-at-risk/social and economic justice. Thirty-three articles were found to demonstrate theory progression, eight articles presented new/emerging theories, and 26 articles discussed or critiqued theories without presenting evidence of theory progression.

The 2001 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards: Issues and Opportunities for BSW Education

The Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) combines social work educational policies and accreditation standards within a single document. The EPAS establishes guidelines for baccalaureate and masters’ level social work education throughout the United States. In this article, the authors discuss the implications of the EPAS for Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programs. They focus especially upon those aspects of the EPAS that relate to foundation-level program objectives and curriculum content.