The Association of Social Work Boards’ Licensure Examinations

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this article is to create transparency for the psychometric methods employed for the development of the Association of Social Work Boards’ (ASWB) exams. Results: The article includes an assessment of the macro (political) and micro (statistical) environments of testing social work competence. The seven-step process used to ensure content validity is discussed. The types of reliability and validity methods employed to assess ASWB exams are discussed. Examples are offered to illustrate the statistical methods employed for selecting good items (questions, some of which are not in question form) and eliminating poor ones. A discussion of the finances of reliability and validity research is included. Conclusion: Readers will have a deeper understanding of how exams are constructed. The information housed within this article may facilitate preparing students for the exams.