Building on successes in 2019—which included training 25 new item writers and facilitating committee approval of 43 percent more items than the previous year—the department has new initiatives for ensuring item quality. To accomplish these tasks and help with ongoing work, ASWB recently hired three social workers with long experience in exam development. Item bank […]

ASWB CEO Dwight Hymans has kept the ASWB Board of Directors up to date on staff activity during the pandemic, noting: “It certainly has been a time of uncertainty and disturbance. But the resilience of ASWB staff and their dedication to the organization have been key to meeting the challenges and making the adjustments. I […]

ASWB’s signature program, the development and maintenance of the social work licensing examinations, remains strong in the face of challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most significant of the challenges has been Pearson VUE’s suspension of testing at its test centers in the United States and Canada beginning on March 17. Cancellation of the March […]

Typically, this license is issued to social workers with an MSW who are in the process of acquiring experience and supervision hours toward earning their Clinical license. The law goes into effect January 2021. According to ASWB Policy 2.1, “The Clinical exam has been developed for use as a licensure requirement by member boards that […]

  In 2016, ASWB drew a line. To protect the validity and reliability of the licensing examinations, the Board of Directors established a five-year time frame for member boards to bring their use of the ASWB licensing exams into compliance with ASWB examination policy 2.1, Procedures. “We are past the halfway point for compliance review,” […]

  Social work is called a “helping profession.” This attribute was at the forefront during the first meeting of the 2019 Examination Committee in Charleston, South Carolina, March 27–31. Eight new members joined the Bachelors, Masters, and Clinical exam committees that review questions (called items) before they debut as unscored pretest questions on the licensing […]