Definitions and Observations regarding GGBTS' Student Success Statistics


The retention and graduation data provided on this web site spans cohorts for all accredited degree programs offered by Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. The average GGBTS student completes 14 credit hours per year, meaning that the typical student is half-time. As a result GGBTS tracks retention over a time frame of 200% of the stated degree length (6 years for a 3-year MDIV and 4 years for all 2-year programs). All students (part-time and full-time) are tracked from the beginning of their enrollment.

Definitions:

  1. Cohort: The group of students entering into a degree program in a specific academic year. Included in this cohort are those who have changed degree programs (cease to be counted in original program and begin to be counted in the year in which they begin the new program) and transfer students who enter in that academic year.
  2. Number of students accepted into the (degree): Number of students accepted into the program.
  3. Number of accepted (degree) students who began program: Number of accepted students who enrolled in classes for that academic year.
  4. Number of students still enrolled in (degree): Students still making progress towards degree completion. As noted above, the typical GGBTS student is half-time and therefore 200% of the stated degree completion time is evaluated rather than 150%.
  5. Number is students withdrawn from (degree): Students who have chosen to withdraw from the program or who are terminated from their degree program.
  6. Number of (degree) graduates: Those students who have completed all degree requirements and earned the degree.
  7. Number of students moved into another degree: Students who have chosen to stop pursuing one degree program and have been admitted to a different degree program within GGBTS. These students have not transferred out of the institution as a whole. They are removed from their original cohort once they change degree programs and are counted in the cohort for the new degree program.
  8. Religion: GGBTS tracks information for 8 denominational affiliations as well as an Unknown and an Other category.
  9. Ethnicity: GGBTS tracks information for 6 ethnic designations as well as an Unknown and an Other category.
  10. Marital Status: GGBTS reports two categories of marital status – married and single. Single encompasses any status outside of married.
  11. Year to Graduation: In addition to tracking which students complete their degree GGBTS also tracks how long degree completion takes.

The following is an excerpt from the recent Interim Report provided to WASC and summarizes the current state of GGBTS' efforts to track student success:

The status of efforts to strengthen student success indicators, including a narrative that interprets the meanings of data on graduation rates and time to degree.

 

GGBTS has never received Title IV funds and as a result has never participated in IPEDS reporting. GGBTS has reported annually to WASC, ATS and to its denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. Until relatively recently, none of these reports requested retention and graduation statistics. Over the last few years, however, this situation has changed, and GGBTS, recognizing the value of this information, has made efforts to track retention and graduation data, including mining information from years past.

 

Over the last few years, especially since the 2011 EER, the Seminary has worked to refine its process of collecting, reviewing and utilizing retention and graduation data. An example of the result, 1T-Grad_Retention_Rates_2-12-14.xls, is attached. At present the report is made available to faculty departments responsible for specific degrees and is utilized by the Degree Review Task Force which conducts the periodic (5-year) review of each degree.

 

While our current process tracks students in a fairly predictable manner (cohort year, degree, gender, ethnicity, etc.), we determined early in the process that the traditional retention statistics of 1) retention of full-time students from first to second year of study, and 2) graduation rate at 150% of time to degree completion for a full-time student, were not particularly helpful in our situation. Our review of student statistics demonstrates that the average GGBTS student completes 14 credit hours per year, meaning that our typical student is a half-time student. As a result accurate and meaningful data would have to extend at least to 200% of time to degree for a full-time student. Given the ATS-mandated length of a seminary MA (2 years) and a seminary MDiv (3 years). GGBTS has determined it must engage in a process of tracking retention and graduation per cohort for a period of 6 years before it has realistic indications of student persistence and degree completions.

 

During the development phase of the Seminary's efforts to design a helpful reporting process, it has also been observed that identifying the students to be tracked is not as simple as it first appears. Golden Gate prepares numerous individuals whose intended vocation does not require a completed degree. For example, the International Mission Board (IMB) of the SBC (which maintains about 5000 missionaries under appointment) requires its appointees to have completed a minimum of 20 credit hours of theological education. Students preparing for IMB appointment often enroll in a degree program which they (intentionally) do not complete. While this appears in our graduation statistics as a failure to persist, it is in fact a pre-determined "completion" short of degree completion. To date, GGBTS has not discovered an accurate way to remove such students from its statistics and as a result expects to have retention/graduation numbers that are slightly, artificially low.

 

"Completion" short of degree is particularly evident in the fact that the graduation rate of female students in the MDiv program since 2005-2006 is approximately 15% lower than the completion rate for male students. The IMB currently requires the spouse (normally the wife) of its appointees to complete 12 to 20 hours of seminary education. GGBTS encourages these spouses to register for a degree program in the hope that they will chose to complete an entire degree. While some do, many do not. In contrast, graduation rates since 2005-2006 for the Master of Arts in Educational Leadership shows a higher graduation rate for females compared to males (70% and 59% respectively). This particular degree typically prepares individuals for non-IMB ministry vocations which are commonly occupied by both males and females in SBC churches.

 

GGBTS has also observed that meaningful evaluation of retention/graduation data is hampered by the lack of comparable data from peer schools. The attached spreadsheet reveals for the 2005-2006 cohort an MDiv graduation rate of 54.68% with another 9% of students still retained and making progress toward degree completion. The MAEL has a 64.86% graduation rate; the MTS a 57.14%. The MMiss and MAIM are too new to have meaningful data yet. The challenge for GGBTS is to determine if a 60% graduation rate is "normal" for graduate seminary education. Peer data would help with this process. The best place to look for this peer data would be to other ATS-accredited seminaries. Unfortunately, at the present time, while ATS requires the reporting of the number of graduates annually, it does not require the reporting of retention and graduation percentages, thus peer data is lacking.

 

However, as a next step in improving its ability to evaluate retention and graduation data, Golden Gate, is determined to address the lack of peer data. We are actively urging ATS to begin requiring the reporting of this data. Since we cannot be sure of the ATS response, GGBTS also has entered into discussions with the 24 seminaries participating in the Evangelical Seminary Deans Council (ESDC) regarding providing such information to one another. Response is positive and several schools are discussion the need and characteristics of a common accounting and reporting process at the present time.

 

Another next step  for the Seminary will be automating the data collection and report writing to allow for real-time examination of the data. At the present time the data is compiled from individual reports by our registrar's office. As soon as the Seminary is satisfied with the structure of the reports it will contract with Jenzabar (our educational management software provider) to automate the report making for quicker and easier compilation of the data.

 

To date, the Seminary efforts to compile data regarding student success has been fruitful. It has informed departmental discussions and degree program reviews. We anticipate that it will be even more helpful as we continue to improve and automate the reporting process and as ATS and/or ESDC peer data comes available.