Institutions of higher education are under increasing demand for accountability from parents, taxpayers, state legislatures, accreditation bodies, and donors. Outcomes assessment is a method frequently used to provide this accountability. It is a process of identifying intended learning outcomes, designing courses and educational experiences to meet the outcomes, assessing student’s achievement of the outcomes, and implementing curricular and educational improvements based on assessment results. Many university academic programs struggle with how to implement outcomes assessment because it is frequently viewed as a burdensome add-on to other activities. Because outcomes assessment focuses on the key knowledge, abilities/skills, and perspectives students need to acquire, results of the American Society of Agronomy's Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) exams can serve as an effective component of an outcomes assessment program for crop and soil science curriculums. The CCA program is a voluntary program providing a base level of standard for practicing crop advisers. Each CCA has to pass international and local exams covering four major competency areas: nutrient management, soil and water management, integrated pest management and crop management. Sets of international and local performance objectives developed and maintained by the CCA program outline the knowledge and skill areas crop advisers themselves have indicated they need in order to effectively carry out their profession. All the questions on the international exam are based directly on these performance objectives. Direct connections between performance objectives identified by practicing crop advisers and learning outcomes in higher education make CCA exams a beneficial tool for assessing and improving agronomy, crop science, and soil science curriculums.