To meet the new AACSB International standards regarding retention assessment and adequately determine "if and what students are learning," this research presents a framework within which expected learning outcomes and specific learning are assessed. This paper presents the framework and describes how the process can be implemented with an application to retention assessment for the core operations management (OM) topics. Assessing core OM topics partially fulfills the AACSB International mandate of topical coverage and outcome assessment in the area of analytical decision making, which includes business statistics, financial analysis, and operations management. The study is of value to those who desire to better understand and implement assurance of learning or assessment in their programs.