The Graduating Student Questionnaire (GSQ) is an external tool that comes to us from ATS that measures MANY elements of the seminary experience. Some of these elements directly align with our mission and stated program goals/outcomes, and other elements are things that are really great to know about, even if they aren't formally embedded in our stated goals. We learn from our graduates how they think their seminary experience with us has helped them learn to pray, preach, care, listen, read and interpret Scripture... Students articulate their comfort with engaging with people different from themselves, ability to deal with conflict, their development of formative spiritual practices... Students disclose how much debt they leave with and how many responsibilities they balanced while a student. We use all of this to both look inward (what are students gaining from us), and we can look outward (comparatively, what are students gaining from similar seminaries). We also use the GSQ to ask our own questions about things that are specific to their experience and learning with us. In the past two years, we've asked evaluative questions about community and faith development and enrichment as well as August residency experiences.
While the GSQ may feel like a distant bit of senior surveying that we isolate itty-bitty pieces of for our annual program assessment charts, from my seat, this is one of the most robust tools we have for evaluation of effectiveness and outcomes achievement. It has nearly a 100% response rate, it requests both quantitative and qualitative responses from students, it is flexible enough to ask internal and important questions, and it returns comparison data from not only all seminaries that use the tool, but the specific comparison seminaries we request. We have used the GSQ to make program changes to August residencies, to shift and improve pastoral and student life offerings, even curricular changes at the micro-level like - SPM documentation for students can be more reflective in nature rather than production-oriented.