The CPA Exam as a Postcurriculum Accreditation Assessment

Business schools often attain accreditation to demonstrate program efficacy. J. A. Marts, J. D. Baker, and J. M. Garris (1988) hypothesized that candidates from Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB)-accredited accounting programs perform better on the CPA exam than do candidates from non-AACSB-accredited programs. However, relatively few business schools (only 168 at the time of the present study) had separate accounting accreditation. The authors compared CPA exam performance of candidates from AACSB-accredited business-only programs with that of candidates from nonaccredited programs. The authors also compared candidate performance from programs accredited by 2 alternative business-school-accrediting organizations with nonaccredited programs. Last, the authors explored whether the 1994 CPA exam's change in format represents a regime change in pass-rate data.