Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Accreditation Standards

• 4.0.2 The program provides summary data and outcomes for the assessment of each of its competencies, identifying the percentage of students achieving the benchmark.
• 4.0.4 The program uses Form AS 4 (B) and/or AS 4 (M) to report assessment outcomes to its constituents and the public on its website and routinely up-dates (minimally every 2 years) these postings.

Description

All Council on Social Work Education programs measure and report student learning outcomes. Students are assessed on their mastery of the competencies that comprise the accreditation standards of the Council on Social Work Education. These competencies are dimensions of social work practice that all social workers are expected to master during their professional training. A measurement benchmark is set by the social work programs for each competency. An assessment score at or above that benchmark is considered by the program to represent mastery of that particular competency.

Competencies are measured by assessing each graduate’s self-assessment of required practice behaviors for each competency when completing the program. Further, each student’s competency on the required practice behaviors is assessed by their agency field instructor and their faculty liaison. The practice behaviors are assessed on a 1–5 scale where:

• 1 (Minimal Achievement): The intern has not met the expectations in this area.
• 2 (Partial Achievement): The intern is functioning below expectations for an undergraduate social work intern in this area.
• 3 (Achievement): The intern is functioning at expectations for an undergraduate social work intern in this area.
• 4 (Substantial Achievement): The intern is functioning above expectations for an undergraduate social work intern in this area.
• 5 (Exceptional Achievement): The intern is functioning far above expectations for an undergraduate social work intern in this area.

Mastery of each competency is assessed by averaging the field instructor’s and the faculty liaison’s evaluation of practice behaviors for each competency and then comparing each of those competency averages to the benchmark. The benchmark set by the program is at 4.0 for each competency which is defined as “The intern is functioning at or slightly above expectations for interns in this area.” We report the student learning outcomes for our generalist curriculum.

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

The assessment of student learning outcomes was last completed in July 2024 for the 2023–24 academic year.

Download the 2023–24 Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes Form AS 4 (B)