The Dynamics of NASPAA Accreditation: A Challenge for Organizational Expansion?

Abstract

For many years, graduate programs have sought to improve the standards within their departments. In many cases, national and regional organizations have been set up to regulate and ensure that these standards are met. In the case of graduate education in public affairs and administration, the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) is the regulatory body. This study uses NASPAA data and a mail survey to examine what factors determine whether institutional members of NASPAA are accredited. NASPAA grew rapidly in the 1970s and moved quite smoothly to a formal accreditation process during the 1980s.Yet the growth of institutional members has been fairly slow since 1980; and, at present, more than 40 percent of the institutional members are not accredited. Our data indicate that faculty size, institutional autonomy, and program emphasis all exert significant influences on the likelihood that a program is accredited.This suggests targets of opportunity for efforts to increase the accreditation rate of NASPAA’s institutional members.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Breaux

David A.

Clynch

Edward J.

Morris

John C.

. 2003. “The Core Curriculum Content of NASPAA-Accredited Programs: Fundamentally Alike or Different?” Journal of Public Affairs Education, 9:261–273.

Carnegie Foundation . 2000. Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Menlo Park: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Available at www.carnegiefoundation.org.

Cleary

Robert E.

1990. “What Do Public Administration Master’s Programs Look Like? Do They Do What Is Needed?” Public Administration Review, 50:663–673.

Henry

Laurin L.

1995. “Report from the NASPAA Historical Project.” Washington D.C.: NASPAA. Available at www.naspaa.org.

Johnson

Janet Buttolph

Joslyn

Richard A.

Reynolds

H. T.

. 2001. Political Science Research Methods, 4th Ed. Washington, D.C.:CQ Press.

NASPAA . 1997. The 1997 Guide to Graduate Education in Public Affairs and Public Administration: NASPAA Directory of Programs. Washington, D.C.: NASPAA.

NASPAA . 1998. 1998 Roster of Accredited Programs. Washington, D.C.: NASPAA.

NASPAA . 2003. “Accreditation.” Washington D.C.:NASPAA. Available at www.naspaa.org.

Roeder

Phillip W.

Whitaker

Gordon

. 1993. “Education in the Public Service: Policy Analysis and Administration in the MPA Core Curriculum.” Administration and Society, 24:512–540.