Racial and Age Disparities in Licensing Rates among a Sample of Urban MSW Graduates

Forty-five U.S. states require social workers to pass an examination for entry-level MSW licensure, with all 50 states requiring it for clinical practice. All states use examinations created by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) for this purpose. There has been concern that these exams may contribute to racial bias in social work licensing, as ASWB has historically not reported passing rates by demographic groups. In the present study, New York State licensing rates of over 5,000 graduates of three MSW programs of the City University of New York were analyzed according to race, gender, and age. Although passing rates on ASWB exams were not specifically examined, this study analyzed demographic disparities in licensure. In bivariate and multivariate analyses, White graduates had significantly higher rates of licensure than those who identified as Black, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, mixed, or other. Furthermore, older Black and Latinx graduates had far lower rates of licensure than their younger counterparts. As a core value of social work is social justice, the results indicate the need for far more investigation into racial and age disparities in social work licensure.