I love March. Not only do I get to indulge in delicious Shamrock Shakes almost daily, but it's also the month that celebrates my profession. 

In support of social workers everywhere, please take a minute to ask your Representative to co-sponsor the Social Work Reinvestment Initiative to establish the Social Work Reinvestment Commission to provide independent counsel to Congress on policy issues associated with the recruitment, retention, research, and reinvestment in the profession of social work.

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I received this letter today:
"We are very pleased to inform you that you have been selected out of a large and highly qualified group of applicants to pursue graduate education at the University of Minnesota. We congratulate you on your fine academic record and hope we will see you in our graduate school here at Minnesota.  Your admission has been approved to pursue the Social Work Ph D."

I'm so freakin' excited!

An interesting development in D.C..  Of course as a social worker, I have a particular interest in cases such as this. I have a hard time defending the actions of the child protection workers, but I also understand the barriers they faced as investigators. Social workers are mandated to make reports if any abuse is suspected.  I have made my share of reports. There are times when the report is taken, investigated, substantiated and corrective action is take. There are times when a report is taken and minimally investigated. I haven’t work in child protective services (CPS) so I am not sure why action is taken on some and not on others. Then there is the other side, when social workers and CPS investigators are looked at unfavorably because they attempt to protect children by making reports and investigating potential abuse.  People get upset that social workers are involved in their business or think people over-react when making a report. It’s a typical Catch-22.

Child protection is a tricky business. It is often the mistakes that get noticed rather than the many positive outcomes. However, I think it is important to understand that CPS is a reactive service, so there is a lot of room for hindsight. Should the D.C. child protection workers have investigated more thoroughly, sure, but was there evidence to warrant an investigation? The article details a July 2006 report that indicates that the family is homeless and the parents are struggling with substance abuse issues. There was no address given so the investigators didn’t follow up. The report made last April by the school social worker, prompted CPS to investigate, but they were never able to make contact with the family. The reporter states the social workers “wrongly assumed the family moved to Maryland” and closed the case.  In hindsight, the workers did assume incorrectly, but I wonder what other assumption they could have made?  What other recourse did the investigators have? Of course, we (the national media audience) will likely never get the details of the full investigation, so we may never know what barriers existed (overloaded case loads, legal restraints, etc.) or if the CPS workers were truly incompetent in their work. Instead, we’ll be left with another example of how the system has failed the children without any look into how to fix it.

I currently have a causal social work position which means I fill in when people go on vacation or are sick plus I work weekends if I want. So, I've remained busy over the summer, but with school starting, the daycare options are not so readily available so I cut my hours to just weekends.  I've been actively searching for a full-time position for about a month, but seriously looking for about a week. I've been feeling disappointed because there aren't many jobs out there that interest me. I want to do some kind of program planning or policy work, but those types of jobs aren't advertised in the newspaper, so for the most part I have to rely on networking. Yesterday, I was explaining all of this to Ben, Pepper Blue, and Atombomb. I was feeling a little panicked because for as much as I love being at home, I feel kind of worthless when the kids are in school and Ben's at work. Sure Guitar Here is fun, but not without an audience. And then there is cleaning. That's okay, but really who wants to clean all day. I have a few lunch dates planned too, but really this is not what I went to school for AND those student loan payments are starting up soon. Then this morning, my current employer calls me. They would love for me to pick up some weekdays and they are okay with me coming in after I drop the kids off at school, so I don't have to worry about daycare. I'm so freakin' happy. I managed to pick up about 10 days for September and 13 in October. So, now the pressure is off. I can relax and wait for my perfect job without feeling completely useless.

I am happy to report that I have submitted my thesis draft to my adviser. I'm hoping it won't need much work and that I will have it finalized by the end of next week! I'm relieved that I have completed the bulk of the work.

This weekend I finished my winter term of classes. I'm so excited because I actually got an A from one of my favorite and toughest professors. AND--she recommended I submit my book review for publication. I expect to do well in my remaining classes, but it was my goal to get an A from Dr. Erickson, so I'm very happy to have met that goal. My thesis is coming together. My data isn't exactly what I wanted, but I'll be able to piece something together. The final draft is due May 5th and I will do my oral presentation on May 23rd. So, it's all downhill from here. Spring term starts Saturday. I'm taking my two final courses plus completing my thesis for credit, so my course load will be a little lighter than the 3-4 classes I've been taking. Oh and I picked up my cap and gown on Friday. Only 90 days until graduation!

Book: Show us the latest book you bought, borrowed or received.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Don Tapscott

Troubles Grow for a University Built on Profits

Here’s an interesting article from the New York Times. It’s about the rise in for-profit private colleges and the problems students are having.  This is another subject that I am quite passionate about. As lower-skill jobs are being eliminated and dislocated workers need retraining, we are seeing a rise in these for-profit colleges that cater to adult learners. I think some of the recruiting tactics are borderline predatory because they mislead low-income individuals into believing they will obtain their degree and high paying job. But the problem is that many of these “schools” are accredited to qualify students for financial aid and giving out degrees, but they are not accredited by a professional association. For example, my college is accredited by the U.S. Department of Education and/or some regional variation and  the social work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. This means that my degree is social work meets the quality standards set out by the CSWE. It also means that my degree is valid and accepted by employers and other colleges nationwide (and worldwide). Now, let’s take the the University of Phoenix (the subject of the Times article). They are accredited by the U.S. Dept. of Education and/or some regional variation, but not with Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business which is the accrediting agency for business schools. So, when a student leaves U of Phoenix with a bachelor’s degree that person may have a difficult time getting a job in business because their degree is not valid with the AACSB. They may also have difficulty in getting any of those credits transfered to a traditional college. So, then they are left with thousands of dollars in students loans and no high paying job. It’s sad. It's worse when I know someone is enrolled in such a program and there isn't anything I can do to help them. It goes back to the old adage that if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.