From the Introduction to the 2025 Abridged Version of the (3rd rev. 2007 ed.) PASSING Ratings Manual

In the English-speaking PASSING experience, there has always been some controversy about some of the examples, and these have sometimes proven to be distractions in training sessions and in the application of the ratings in assessment activities. This should not be surprising, as what is valued or devalued in societies evolves over time, and human service practices are continuously changing. Thus, examples have a shelf-life and need to be adapted, replaced, or, as we have done here, edited out. However, examples can be useful teaching tools, and thus some examples that are determined to have global relevance remain. (About 34,000 words or 17% of the text have been edited out of the preceding edition of the Ratings Manual.) Ultimately, what matters is the universal that underlies or is embodied in each rating and its criteria, not examples that attempt to concretize the universal concept. Senior PASSING trainers and assessment team leaders will likely continue to use relevant examples accumulated from their service and assessment experiences, and will illustrate SRV concepts by relating them to the real-time practices of human services that are being assessed.

This Abridged version of the 3rd edition 2007 PASSING Ratings Manual is being published to guide both PASSING workshop participants and PASSING evaluators. Some may want to label this version as « experimental, » acknowledging that the removal of examples may introduce its own difficulties, even if it resolves certain others. Each of the 42 ratings include:

      i.   General Statement of the Issues

    ii.   SRV Requirement (the columns Selected Generic Examples; Clearly Positive Service Examples; and Examples of Violations, all of which appeared in previous editions, are removed)

    iii.   Differentiation from Other Ratings

    iv.   Suggested Guidelines for Collecting and Using Evidence

     v.   Criteria for Level Assignments (most examples removed)

About Wolf Wolfensberger (1934-2011)

World renowned human service reformer, Professor Wolfensberger (Syracuse University) was involved in the development and dissemination of the principle of normalization, and originated the program evaluation tools PASS and PASSING, and a number of service approaches that include SRV and Citizen Advocacy.

About the book

• Softcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Valor Press (Plantagenet ON – Canada)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 978-1-989991-08-4
• Copyright ©: 2025, Valor Press
• Product Dimensions: 28 x 21.5 x 2.5 cm
• Shipping Weight: 1.03 Kg
• Available: April 2025