Reinventing Social Work Accreditation

Abstract

Accreditation under the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has contributed to the professional decline of social work. The lack of scholarship of the Board of Directors of CSWE compromises its decision making. The quality of the professional literature suffers from the weak scholarship of editors and referees. The caliber of deans and directors of social work educational programs is low with respect to their scholarship as well. Graduate students are ill-prepared to commence studies in social work. The substitution of ideology for academic rigor makes social work education vulnerable to its critics. Proposed revisions in Accreditation Standards indicate that CSWE is unlikely to undertake the necessary steps to reform social work education; therefore, schools of social work should be free to obtain accreditation independent of CSWE.