Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

COUNCIL ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION - FORM AS 4(B)

Auburn University Bachelor of Arts in Social Work Program

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES 

Form AS 4(B): A form required for Reaffirmation, Candidacy, and ongoing compliance per AS 4.0.3.  

Submitting Form AS 4 for Reaffirmation Self-Study & Candidacy Benchmarks

This form is used to assist the COA in the evaluation of the program’s compliance with the accreditation standard below:

4.0.3: The program uses Form AS 4(B) and/or Form AS 4(M) to report its most recent assessment outcomes for each program option to constituents and the public on its website and routinely up-dates (minimally every 2 years) its findings.

All programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation (COA) are required to measure and report student learning outcomes. All students are assessed using a minimum of two measures on their mastery of the nine competencies that comprise the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) and any additional competencies programs may choose to add. These holistic competencies reflect the dimensions (knowledge, values, skills and cognitive & affective processes) of social work practice that all social workers are expected to master during their professional training.  

Programs determine a percentage-based benchmark for each competency and determine an outcome-measure benchmark (minimum score) for each measure. The competency benchmark (which can differ for each competency) represents the minimum percent of students the program expects to have achieved the outcome measure benchmarks in both/all measures for each of the nine competencies. The program then determines the percentage of students that attained each outcome measure (e.g., minimum score or higher), and aggregates the percentages for both/all measures together to obtain the percentage of students demonstrating competence inclusive of two (2) or more measures. The result of aggregating both/all outcome measure percentages provides the percentage of students achieving the competency benchmark. An aggregated percentage at or above the competency benchmark is considered achievement of that competency. If the program has more than one program option, the program must report data for each program option, and also an aggregate of all program options combined to determine an overall percentage of students across all program options achieving the competency benchmark.

Posting Form AS 4 for Ongoing Compliance with AS 4.0.3

Per the requirement of CSWE COA’s recognizing body, the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), and accreditation standard 4.0.3, programs must post this form publicly on its website and routinely update (minimally every 2 years) its findings. Upon request, programs must provide CSWE with the weblink to the published form on the program’s website where it is accessible to the public. Data presented on the form must be collected within 2 years of today’s date at all times.

Summary of the Program’s Assessment Plan | Generalist Practice

All students are assessed using a minimum of two measures on their mastery of the nine competencies that comprise the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards of the Council on Social Work Education. The AU BASW assessment model described here focuses on the explicit curriculum using quantitative measurement of student competency. The following describes the AU BASW assessment plan for generalist practice. The faculty developed and implemented a plan for assessing student competencies in two distinct ways:

1. Real or simulated practice evaluation: Through measurable behaviors during the internship.
2. Student performance measures: Through purposeful measurement in achievement of identified questions on the Comprehensive Exam.

The assessment plan for the generalist practice curricula involves three sets of stakeholders: the field instructors, the faculty and the students. Although the students are considered stakeholders, their involvement in the assessment is through measurement by faculty and field instructors/liaisons of student knowledge, skills, values, and cognitive/affective processes, not based on self-assessment.

Assessment Data Collected during the Academic Year (2023-2024)