Resource Hub

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Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Researchers (including IR/IE), Field Education / Contextual Ed Supervisors, Other Institutional Administration, Spiritual Directors Tidy Studios Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Researchers (including IR/IE), Field Education / Contextual Ed Supervisors, Other Institutional Administration, Spiritual Directors Tidy Studios

How Would We Know? Assessing Personal and Spiritual Formation in Clergy and Church Leadership

Description: Using a case study drawn from research across theological schools, this workshop explores how to assess pastoral formation. Participants will strengthen the questions guiding their evaluation efforts, consider what evidence of formation they hope to see, and gain resources for advancing assessment conversations in their own contexts.

Keywords: assessment; character formation; clergy formation; educational assessment; formation assessment; Graduating Student Questionnaire; intercultural competence; personal formation; seminarian formation; spiritual formation; spiritual maturity; student development; theological education

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Faculty, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Institutional Senior Leaders, Researchers (including IR/IE), Other Institutional Administration, Field Education / Contextual Ed Supervisors Tidy Studios Faculty, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Institutional Senior Leaders, Researchers (including IR/IE), Other Institutional Administration, Field Education / Contextual Ed Supervisors Tidy Studios

What Graduating Student Questionnaire data can contribute to formation assessment

Formation assessment can be difficult when schools rely on individual survey items or a single overall measure to represent complex student outcomes. Drawing on a peer-reviewed analysis of 5,528 theological school graduates and a follow-up analysis of the class of 2026, this article shows how ATS Graduating Student Questionnaire data can illuminate distinct dimensions and patterns of formation—including spirituality, social justice commitment, intercultural competence, self-identity, interdisciplinary integration, and well-being—and offers practical ways schools can incorporate these findings into locally meaningful assessment strategies.

KEYWORDS: assessment; formation assessment; Graduating Student Questionnaire; GSQ; spiritual formation; social justice; intercultural competence; self-identity; interdisciplinary integration; student well-being; theological education; educational assessment; student outcomes; survey data; institutional effectiveness

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Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Field Education / Contextual Ed Supervisors, Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Researchers (including IR/IE), Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Other Institutional Administration Tidy Studios Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Field Education / Contextual Ed Supervisors, Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Researchers (including IR/IE), Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Other Institutional Administration Tidy Studios

Formation for plural pathways: another story told by ATS alum/workforce data

Theological education has often imagined vocational formation around a single primary role, but ATS alumni data show that nearly three in 10 employed graduates hold multiple positions, with such arrangements often persisting years after graduation. The article argues that theological schools should respond by helping students integrate multiple roles, develop transferable skills, understand adjacent career pathways, and imagine coherent vocations that extend beyond a single job or ministry setting.

KEYWORDS: alumni; bivocational ministry; career pathways; multipositional work; multivocational ministry; portfolio careers; theological education; theological formation; transferable skills; vocation; vocational discernment; vocational formation; workforce; employment; career advising; field education; ATS Alum/Mapping the Workforce Study

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Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Researchers (including IR/IE), Other Institutional Administration, Admissions and Recruitment Tidy Studios Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Formation Directors/Student Life Staff, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers, Researchers (including IR/IE), Other Institutional Administration, Admissions and Recruitment Tidy Studios

Beyond Congregations: New Study Reveals the Value of Theological Education for Diverse Contexts

Drawing on interviews with 10 experts across fields including chaplaincy, education, nonprofits, entrepreneurship, and advocacy, the article identifies formation, religious literacy, critical thinking, interpretation, and the ability to navigate difference as distinctive strengths of theological education. It also highlights areas where graduates may be underprepared—including leadership, organizational fluency, adaptability, communication, financial literacy, and technology—and encourages theological schools to make transferable competencies more explicit in curricula, learning outcomes, institutional partnerships, and recruitment materials.

KEYWORDS: theological education; non-congregational vocations; vocational formation; spiritual formation; religious literacy; transferable skills; leadership; critical thinking; pluralism; communication; financial literacy; technology; curriculum; educational effectiveness; career preparation; chaplaincy; nonprofit leadership; entrepreneurship

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Institutional Senior Leaders, Faculty, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios Institutional Senior Leaders, Faculty, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios

Setting the Frame: Standards of Accreditation and Evaluation

Heather Hartung, then-ATS Director of Accreditation, outlines how the principle-based ATS Standards of Accreditation center student learning and formation as quality theological education.

KEYWORDS: open access / free access; theological education; ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); presentation (transcribed); ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); Commission on Accrediting of ATS (COAATS); ATS Board of Commissioners; quality assurance; planning, evaluation, and educational assessment; slide deck

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Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios Faculty, Institutional Senior Leaders, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios

Student Learning and Formation: Reviewing Standard 3

Stephen R. Graham, ATS Strategic Director of Context and Continuity and Director of Accreditation, examines ATS Standard 3—Student Learning and Formation.

KEYWORDS: open access / free access; ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); Colloquy article; dimensions of formation; student learning and formation; theological education

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Researchers (including IR/IE), Spiritual Directors, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios Researchers (including IR/IE), Spiritual Directors, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios

Ecumenical and Traditioned Measurement: Measuring Christian Maturation across Distinct Traditions of Christian Spirituality

Article exploring the feasibility of an ecumenical measure of Christian maturation by drawing on five distinct traditions (African American, Anglican, Benedictine, Pentecostal, Reformed) and four navigation strategies.

KEYWORDS: ecumenical spirituality; measurement; psychology of religion/spirituality; spiritual assessment; spiritual formation

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Faculty, Researchers (including IR/IE), Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios Faculty, Researchers (including IR/IE), Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios

A Reflective Guide to Effective Evaluation for Theological Schools

ATS Commission on Accrediting guide presenting a principle-based, practice-oriented framework for institutional and educational evaluation in theological schools.

KEYWORDS: open access / free access; ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); Checklist for Effective Assessment; educational effectiveness; evaluation and assessment; institutional planning; student learning; student learning outcomes; theological schools

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Institutional Senior Leaders, Other Institutional Administration, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios Institutional Senior Leaders, Other Institutional Administration, Educational Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officers Tidy Studios

Self-Study Handbook

Handbook approved by the ATS Board of Commissioners in April 2020 and revised in 2023 and 2025 to guide member schools through the comprehensive self-study process for accreditation and reaffirmation.

KEYWORDS: open access / free access; ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); comprehensive visit for accreditation/reaffirmation; educational effectiveness; institutional evaluation; quality assurance; quality improvement; self-study report; theological schools

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