Assessing Progress Toward Accreditation Related Objectives: Evidence Regarding the Use of Self-Efficacy as an Outcome in the Advanced Concentration Research Curriculum

Abstract

Objective: Assessing the achievement of social work educational outcomes is a requirement of the Council on Social Work Education's Educational Policy and Standards (EPAS). The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale (ESE) was created to assess student progress in advanced concentration courses focused on evaluation and thereby provide data regarding attainment of EPAS-related objectives. Method: This social cognitive theory—derived scale was pretested, revised, and then used with a final sample of 85 master's-level students in a single-group, pretest-posttest-retrospective pretest study. Results: Cronbach alphas for the ESE were .94 or greater. Evidence of both content and construct validity was obtained. Conclusion: The results provide evidence that supports the psychometric properties of data obtained using the ESE.