Dear IU School of Social Work Students:

As you may know by now, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), the organization currently responsible for creating, implementing, and monitoring Social Work’s National Licensing Examination, recently released a report documenting exam passage rates across the profession. The data was released quite publicly reporting aggregate data across the profession nationally, along with individual State and program level data.  The egregious disparities reflected in the ASWB reports help us to better understand the disparities in the diversity of Social Work’s workforce nationally, as data clearly evidence extreme racial and age biases in the exam.  The report reflects poorly on the ASWB, an organization that perpetuated use of an exam that has substantively contributed to the documented shortage of diverse licensed social workers.  

Suspecting disparities in exam passage rates, Social Work’s National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD) had requested these data from ASWB for many years to identify the extent of the issue across the profession.  With increasing concerns mounting, NADD established a National Licensing Exam Task Force a year ago to elevate the issue and explore alternatives to the existing exam. I serve as co-chair of this Task Force, along with Dean Sheryl Kubiak of Wayne State University.  NADD’s primary concern is to ensure an unbiased assessment process such that achieving status as a professional social worker is accessible to all graduates of our accredited programs.  

It is important to understand the complexity of the issue for us to know how to move forward.  There is no simple solution because there are many intersecting layers, beginning with the current linkage of the ASWB exam to licensure.  States vary greatly in how licensure works, so solutions will involve complicated work within each state as well as nationally.  The National Association of Deans and Directors is taking the lead in working with Social Work’s national and state organizations, along with accredited programs, to coordinate urgent action to immediately address the current exam and assessment process.  

We must also look at our own programs and determine how we can better support all of our students for successful attainment of licensure.  Be assured that leaders and faculty at the IUSSW are working together to closely review the report and the results for our programs.  We will examine our own academic programs for potential areas of needed revision to rid our own programs of any biases where they may exist. IUSSW will offer sessions for students to engage in dialogue with School leadership around these reports and how we can contribute to creating solutions within our own community. Our graduates are the future of Social Work, and it is imperative that our workforce include greater diversity and better reflects the people we serve.

Together we can create the changes needed as we strengthen and diversify the workforce of the Social Work profession! 

Dean Tamara Davis

IU School of Social Work