Quote: "...the real scandal in social work education [is]: low standards, paltry scholarship, and organizational incompetence bordering on corruption."
Questions:
1. Does this characterization of social work education bear any weight? Across the profession? Some places?
2. Are the profession's standards comparatively low?
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Yes, I think using the metrics we have available - GRE scores and GPAs, it's hard to escape the idea that we have comparatively low standards. First, I think it's a supply/demand issue as Paul pointed out. We admit many more MSWs than Schools of Government admit MPAs, for example. Second, I think we simply suffer from tools that arguably have low predictive validity for professional practice. GPAs and GRE perhaps have predictive utility for whether a student can successfully navigate a graduate program, yet perhaps they say little about actual post-MSW practice. Conversely, I think we need to recognize that with an EBP framework, we do want to develop critical thinking so our conceptualization of "who would make a good social worker" has intellectual dimensions. I think too often we speak in terms of "practice skills" within a dichtomous framework of "doing" vs. "thinking". We want smart doers, don't we?
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