Keeping Pace with Current Practice

A quantitative study funded by the U.S. Children's Bureau as part of a national Child Welfare Faculty Development Program evolved over three years into a revealing qualitative narrative, with a secondary quantitative component. Most salient were the unintended effects of both managed care and privatization of state government on the feasibility of implementing a carefully designed project. These rapidly changing practice trends were incorporated in teaching a MSW research methods class through the use of a poignant case example, which facilitated clear integration of research, practice, policy, and child welfare.