Investigating the Presence of Racial Disparity in Licensure Exams: Implications for Social Work Education

Overview: This interactive workshop will provide context around the growing concerns of potential disparities within the social work licensing exams. Attendees will be invited to contemplate the role educators have in co-creating an equitable regulatory framework.Proposal text: For decades, debates have ensued around the validity and importance of licensure within the field of social work. Licensing is perceived as a mechanism to promote public protection by establishing a system of accountability and assuring minimum competency (Apgar, 2019; Garcia, 1990; Marson, DeAngelis, & Mittal, 2010) while promoting professional legitimacy (Bibus & Boutte-Queen, 2011; Thyer, 2010). However, transparency around licensure outcomes is lacking (DeCarlo, 2021; Woodcock, 2016).

Social work has long claimed a foundation of social justice but the structures we operate within and are in conjunction with, have not been adequately investigated for the presence of disparity. Academics, practitioners, and activists have long called for a deeper dive into the social work gatekeeping structures, specifically the licensure exams (Albright & Thyer, 2010; Castex et al., 2018; Donaldson et al., 2014; Garcia, 1990; Senreich & Dale, 2021) The racial justice activism that captivated the global community after the tragic death of George Floyd led to an increased call on social media, to examine existing paradigms. An article published mid-pandemic by Senreich and Dale (2021) seems to support the possibility that a disparity in passage rates on the social work licensure exam does exist. The authors examined the licensure passage status of 5000 MSW graduates, by race, from City of New York programs. Comparing the passage rates of white graduates with those in the sample who self-identified as BIPOC, the authors found that the former has significantly higher passage rates than the latter. As with all research, the impact of factors and variables on passage rates, especially those unrelated to race, must be considered.

As the conversation on licensure passage rates has progressed, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) has agreed to release passage data by specific demographic factors (ASWB, 2021). Social workers will need to brace ourselves for the ultimate reckoning: has the licensure apparatus resulted in disproportionate non-passage rates among racial and ethnic minorities? Join us for this interactive workshop and frank discussion about the potential consequences for the profession should it be determined that a racial/ethnic disparity has and does exist with regards to licensure passage rates. We want to brainstorm with educators, researchers, [practitioners, students], and policy makers. The facilitators of the workshop will start with context for this discussion, which will include a brief history of regulation models in social work including the lack of transparency with regards to passage data, and then engage attendees in a discussion on how social work educators can partner, advocate for, and improve upon the current regulatory process to ensure a diverse, capable, and competent social work workforce for the future.