About Us

Mission

The Accreditation and Assessment department's mission is to provide support to faculty and staff around accreditation, program compliance, curriculum change, catalog, and assessment activities.

We aim to do this through:

1. Supporting collecting and reviewing indirect/direct assessment data
2. Reporting on the results
3. Making minor or major curriculum or process improvements
4. Reassessing the data to close the loop

Accreditation

The Graziadio School is accredited by the prestigious AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Fewer than 5% of business schools worldwide have earned this distinguished hallmark of excellence in management education. AACSB International is the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges—Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), is the regional accreditation agency for Pepperdine University, and the Graziadio School actively supports the WSCUC accreditation efforts of the University. Through its work of peer review, based on standards agreed to by the membership, the Commission encourages continuous institutional improvement and assures the membership and its constituencies, including the public, that accredited institutions are fulfilling their missions in service to their students and the public good.

Assessment

In order to support educational effectiveness and to help institutions demonstrate accountability to students, alumni, families, the public, and other constituencies of higher education, accrediting agencies develop standards and requirements for assessing student learning.

Graziadio employs an integrated assessment process that is aligned with the AACSB standards and WSCUC standards. Both organizations require that institutions engage in a comprehensive and consistent process of assessing students on program learning outcomes for each program offered by the school.

The Graziadio School goes through an accreditation review by AACSB every five years and each program learning outcome must be assessed at least twice within the 5-year period. Pepperdine University as a whole is routinely reviewed by WSCUC, and evidence of student learning and an effective assessment process is an essential component for successful reviews.

Curriculum Change Support

The Accreditation and Assessment team supports curriculum change development by providing guidance on compliance, navigating curriculum change proposals through the various internal approval processes, and finally uploading the documents for the University Academic Council to review. The Accreditation and Assessment team also makes these updates in the catalog and manages the catalog-updating process each year. There are three basic tracks for curriculum changes: minor, accelerated, and major. To understand the difference between each of these and the processes involved, refer to our Curriculum Change Process Sheet.

According to the AACSB Interpretive Guidance for Business Accreditation Standards, "Curriculum review and revision should occur routinely and systematically and be informed by the AoL process. Because curriculum changes emanate from a multitude of sources (e.g., external stakeholder input, university or school strategic choices, financial or competitive drivers, etc.), Standard 5 does require schools to identify the specific curriculum changes that were made directly as a result of their AoL process and how student learning was improved as a result of AoL."

Therefore, during PGBS's Continuous Improvement Review, the Peer Review Team will ask to identify areas where PGBS "closed the loop" and implemented changes as a direct result of Assurance of Learning (assessment) processes. Given this, it is exceedingly important for program committees to deeply consider the reason for and impact of curriculum changes.

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