The Accounting Education Change Assessment Process: A Research Report

Abstract

This paper reports on the assessment of educational outcomes at one of the original twelve schools to receive an Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) grant. The funded proposal, by the accounting area at the Rutgers Graduate School of Management, called for curriculum and teaching revisions. The changes included modularization of the curriculum, creation of an intensive learning atmosphere to encourage socialization to professional values, and intensive efforts to promote the use of the computer, communication assignments, and research work throughout the curriculum. These were intended to foster higher student technical skills (e.g., computer, research, and writing skills) and values (ethics, commitment to life-long learning, and a positive view of business). A pre- and post- experimental design was used. Exit data alone were collected from the last, pre-curriculum revision class. Both entry and exit data were collected from the four classes that entered the Rutgers Professional Accounting MBA program (PAMBA) after the curriculum and teaching changes began to be phased in during the Summer of 1992. The survey instrument consisted of some previously published instruments and some created for use in this study. With respect to the four change classes, the results showed that self-reported thinking, financial, communication, and computer skills improved significantly among the classes that benefited from the curriculum and teaching revisions. Scores on the value measures either did not change, or declined. Overall satisfaction with the Rutgers PAMBA program was significantly higher among the classes that benefited from the AECC-funded project than among the students from the last class before the AECC-funded curriculum and teaching changes were implemented. Two of the exit value measures and two of the exit skill measures were also higher for the four change classes collectively than for the last nonchange class. On balance, it seems that the Rutgers change effort succeeded.