September 2025: Competency 9

EPAS Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

The CSWE Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice is proud to announce a new initiative that will highlight one key 2022 Educational Policies and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) competency each month. This ongoing commitment aims to foster a deeper understanding and application of social work competencies in a way that supports social justice and equity across all areas of social work practice. We are especially pleased that the 2022 EPAS articulate a clear commitment of social work education to principles of anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.  

The month of September 2025 we highlight EPAS Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

Within Competency 9, social workers select and use culturally responsive methods for evaluations; and critically analyze outcomes and apply evaluation findings to improve practice effectiveness with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Developing competence in evaluating one’s practice is both a practice skill and an ethical obligation. Among the goals of social work education is to train students to pursue continuous improvement in all aspects of social work practice, and at all levels of practice, including with individuals, families, groups, and communities. While evaluation is the final stage or step of the problem-solving process, it is also the first step because a mechanism for evaluation must be developed in parallel with setting the goals, objectives, and milestones of a particular intervention. 

Evaluation is so integral to our professional commitment to ensure that our clients and constituents are receiving services which meet their needs, that the mode of service delivery is culturally responsive and of the highest quality, and that there is a clearly defined mechanism/pathway to adjust the goals, objectives, and milestones as needed. It should be treated as a matter of professional pride that social workers put aside our egos and admit to incorrect assumptions or to the need to adjust a course of action because it is not responding to the needs of the clients and constituents, it is not culturally sensitive, or the course of action appears to be ineffective or to have minimal impact on the clients and constituents. 

While a thorough evaluation should occur at the end of the service delivery period or intervention, ongoing evaluation must be embedded into our practice. Ongoing evaluation is connected directly to our ethical obligation beyond just ensuring that the services or interventions are effective. Social workers must also evaluate to ensure that the services or interventions are not causing harm. This motivation to monitor potential harm reinforces the importance of not waiting until the end of the service delivery period or intervention to evaluate our practice. 

As you reflect on this competency, what best practices have guided your approach to practice evaluation? 

How have you made course corrections to intervention plans or service delivery modalities based on the outcome of your evaluation? 

Each month we highlight literature, blogs, or other resource related to EPAS competencies. This month we highlight the following Journal of Social Work Education articles related to Competency 9: 

Literature Resources

Skills for Collaboration: Training Graduate Students in Using Evidence to Evaluate Homelessness Program

This article describes a training model that equipped MSW and PhD social welfare students with practical skills to address complex challenges in child welfare. Through a partnership between UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Human Services Agency, students were placed in a real-world supportive housing project for homeless families. They gained hands-on experience in continuous quality improvement, navigating implementation challenges, using evidence for decision-making, and fostering cross-system collaboration. This model also allowed students to practice evaluation within the different stages of their work with families as well as evaluate their own practice throughout their service delivery. 

Full citation: Lery, B., Haight, J. M., & Roscoe, J. N. (2020). Skills for Collaboration: Training Graduate Students in Using Evidence to Evaluate a Homelessness Program. Journal of Social Work Education, 56(sup1), S111–S118. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2020.1742260

The Client in Intrinsic Agency-Based Evaluation: Implications for Social Work Pedagogy

David P. Moxley

This article discusses the importance of evaluation when working with individual clients and how often evaluation from the client perspective is left out of research. Evaluation is an important part of the service delivery process when working with clients whether they are individuals, families, or communities. The article highlights the importance of aligning evaluation efforts with client needs and emphasizes how evaluation is important when trying to foster understanding or improvement of specific practices or programs. Considering racism, intersectionality, and different cultures during evaluation is important not only for the effectiveness of services but also for improvement as a social worker.  

Full Citation: Moxley, D. P. (2025). The Client in Intrinsic Agency-Based Evaluation: Implications for Social Work Pedagogy. Journal of Social Work Education, 61(3), 456–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2024.2412158